Wanda announces 3.58bn yuan investment in online travel company
03.07.2015
The signing ceremony of Wanda Culture Industry Group's strategic investment in LY.com was held at Sofitel Wanda Beijing on July 3. Wanda Culture Industry Group will invest Rmb3.58 billion in LY.com, which is co-invested by Tencent Industrial Capital, CITIC Capital and other institutions. Total investment will exceed Rmb6 billion, the largest investment a domestic online travel company has received thus far.
Established in 2004, LY.com is a leading domestic online travel service provider and enjoys a dominant position in the scenic spot ticket reservation market in China. With business expanding rapidly in China and overseas, LY.com served about 30 million people in 2014, up 100%.
Following the investment, Wanda Culture Industry Group and LY.com will carry out strategic cooperation. With the help of LY.com. Wanda's tourism industry will open up online channels and reach a massive number of customers. Meanwhile, LY.com will have access to huge quantities of travel destination resources to rapidly increase transactions and enhance its industry position and influence.
"LY.com is the first online travel agency invested by Wanda. The latest investment is carried out due to implementation of the 'Internet +' strategy and transformation of Wanda's tourism industry," says Wang Jianlin, Chairman of Wanda Group.
"Wanda is the enterprise with the largest number of travel resources in China. Wanda now has more than 12 mega cultural and tourism projects opening or under construction and plans to invest in another 8 similar projects in 5 years. Park visitors are expected to hit about 200 million by 2020, when Wanda would become the world's largest tourism company. Wanda Travel Agency is already one of the largest travel agencies in China, with annual income growth of more than 50% and advantages in offline channels. By investing in LY.com, Wanda's tourism industry will consist of three major components – online platforms, offline channels and large travel destinations. We aim to build the world's sole O2O model in the tourism industry, accelerate the fulfillment of Wanda's target for its tourism industry, and contribute to the transformation and upgrade of China's tourism industry."
"We are glad to be favored by and receive investment from Wanda and other enterprises," says Wu Zhixiang, CEO and founder of LY.com. "Following Wanda's latest strategic investment, LY.com will give primacy to working with Wanda's travel agencies, Wanda's cultural and tourism cities as well as Wanda's offline commercial resources across the board to jointly build the innovative 'Internet +' model in the tourism industry. Going forward, LY.com will continue to step up investment to improve user experience and ramp up investment in brand, mobile, R&D, big data and market expansion to consolidate our lead in the leisure and tourism industry."