What's Behind Alibaba's $486 Million Investment in Hotel Tech Giant Shiji
Skift Take
Shiji is a Beijing-based company that provides hotels and restaurants with operational software and hardware. It was already on an overseas acquisition spree before this new funding. Global leader Oracle Hospitality should be on guard.
Will an Alibaba investment get Shiji closer to meeting its global ambitions?
Shiji, a Beijing-based maker of software for hotels, retailers, and food service providers, is much better at raising funding than it is at explaining to Western vendors and media its global strategy.
E-commerce giant Alibaba is investing $486 million in Shiji, a Beijing-based maker of software for hotels, retailers, and food service providers. The company is officially known as Beijing Shiji Information Technology.
Already a past investor, having taken a 15 percent stake in 2014 with a $457 million investment, Alibaba will now have a 13.07 percent stake percent stake, the largest of any external investor, in the 3,000-employee conglomerate.
Some industry professionals speculate Alibaba may want to leverage its investment to enhance its Taobao Travel agency. Since 2014, Shiji's subsidiaries have aimed to encourage hotel chains to join the Alitrip platform.
But other analysts consider the investment is a financial play — an attempt to enjoy fast-growing and steadily recurring income in a software-as-a-service business.
Analysts following the company estimate Shiji generated
