China’s largest mobile travel community Breadtrip raised US$50 million in its round C financing, CEO Tao Peng announced on December 22. Tencent led the investment , joined by Fidelity Growth Partners Asia and China Broadband. Breadtrip’s high quality products, vast body of structured data and the creativity of its management team are named as the key drawcards for Tencent's investment.
Breadtrip is an app-based individualized travel community launched in 2012. It connects Chinese travelers to service providers in destinations via mobile technology. Data show that it is the most recommended app on App Store and in Apple Store’s preinstalled display apps. Breadtrip has already amassed over 30 million active users with 70% of them iOS users, making it the largest mobile travel community in China. It had previously received an angel investment form K2 Ventures, a Series A investment from Vertex Venture Holdings and a Series B investment from China Broadband in 2013.
Mr. Peng said that Breadtrip’s development has three stages. The first stage is to develop trip recording and sharing tools to enable users to record a digital “bread crumb trail” that will serve as trip mementoes. The second stage is to develop information tools to put together individualized destination guides for users according to individual user's “bread crumb trail” as preferences indications. The third stage is to develop a trading platform where users can easily make travel plans and instantly book relevant destination products or services clustered around
Mr. Peng said funds from this round of financing would be used to expand the technical team and open new overseas destinations. He is also optimistic about the future of the mobile travel community. “Breadtrip has become a unique and more social way for users to find travel products besides online search and recommendation,” he said. He thinks Tencent’s investment will spur the company’s development. ChinaTravelNews believes this is yet another card that Tencent holds after its investments in online travel sites eLong, LY.com and Woqu.com.(translation by David)
