China’s version of Kayak is looking to New York for its IPO

Qunar, China’s largest travel website, could soon join the ranks of fellow travel metasearch site Kayak on the public markets.

Various media reports say Beijing-based Qunar, which is majority owned by China’s dominant search engine, Baidu, could attempt an IPO in New York by the end of 2012 or early next year. Baidu currently trades on Nasdaq.

Qunar is the largest travel site in China in terms of traffic, with 74.6 million monthly visits in December 2011, says Baidu, citing iResearch findings.  Qunar offers flight, hotel, and vacation-package search, as well as group-buying deals, visa and various other travel information services.

Competitors galore

Qunar competes with TripAdvisor’s China brands, daodao.com and kuxun.cn, as well as China online travel agencies Ctrip, and Expedia’s eLong.

Baidu, which has a 62% equity stake in Qunar, doesn’t break out the latter’s financials. In the third quarter, Baidu’s net income rose 59.8% to $478.6 million.

If Qunar debuts as a public company in New York, it would be further affirmation of the attractiveness of the travel-metasearch sector, following Kayak’s July 2012 IPO.

Qunar would presumably use proceeds from an IPO for product and geographic expansion.