Exclusive: Ctrip CEO on How It Moved In to Buy Skyscanner
Skift Take
Ctrip didn't acquire the largest metasearch engine in Skyscanner but one that is very strong in Europe. Ctrip will now turn Skyscanner into a flight-booking site and will also focus Ctrip on growing domestically, in greater China and Southeast Asia first.
Chinese online travel agency Ctrip plans to focus on building soon-to-be acquired Skyscanner's airline ticket-booking business on a global scale, taking it beyond merely flight search, Ctrip CEO Jane Jie Sun told Skift.
Sun, who became the first female CEO of a publicly traded online travel agency a couple of weeks ago, also provided some detail on how the $1.74 billion Skyscanner acquisition came together.
Asked whether Ctrip looked beyond Skyscanner for acquisitions to companies such as metasearch players Hipmunk, before Concur acquired it, and Momondo, or even flight-booking business CheapOair in the U.S., Sun said acquisition targets can't be too local, need to have scale, and must be available to buy.
Sun added that one reason Skyscanner was for sale was because the term of one of its shareh
