Scottish global travel search provider Skyscanner is acquiring Chinese metasearch company Youbibi.
The acquisition will provide Chinese travellers with one place to search for all their travel needs, bringing together Youbibi's mainland China expertise with Skyscanner's comprehensive coverage of international flights.
Financial details of the deal are not being announced.
Skyscanner, which began in Edinburgh in 2001, now has more than 500 employees spanning 35 nationalities across six offices - Edinburgh, Glasgow, Singapore, Beijing, Miami, and Barcelona. It operates under the brand name Tianxun in mainland China.
Youbibi, which translates as 'travel comparison', is a travel metasearch company based in Shenzhen. It was founded in 2010 by Steven Pang, the current CEO, and has 20 employees.
Gareth Williams, Skyscanner's co-founder and chief executive officer, said: "Since we established our China team in 2012, the number of visitors to our site and apps across the country has grown tenfold, yet we're still only at the start of the growth opportunity we see here.
"This acquisition brings the best of both worlds with Skyscanner's international coverage and Youbibi's domestic travel search and intimate knowledge of the Chinese traveller. The acquisition takes us from being a strong international travel specialist in China to a truly global travel service provider for Chinese nationals, domestically and internationally."
Youbibi's Steven Pang said: "We are proud of the technology that we have developed and, by bringing this together on our platform with Skyscanner's global flight expertise, we believe we can create a really exciting travel search tool for all Chinese travellers. Our team is thrilled to become a part of Skyscanner and join their global travel journey."
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