Promising mobile travel market in China

December 13, 2011 | Online Travel

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According to iResearch, China's mobile Internet market has reached 10.83 billion by Q3 2011, which increased 154.6% year-on-year and 38.9% quarter-on-quarter. The popularity of smart phones also contributes to the tremendous growth.

Chinese leading market research firm Analysys International indicates that smart phones will take up 50% of China's total mobile phone market by 2013, and the number of China's mobile internet users will reach 500 million by 2012, surpassing the number of PC internet users. Given this trend, mobile apps have strong prospects. The download of mobile phone apps in China already reached 863 million in 2010, and it is expected to surpass 20 billion by 2013.

Mobile internet brings travelers a lot of freedom and convenience during their journey, and becomes more and more essential for travelers. iResearch data also stated that the size of China's online travel market reached 100 billion RMB in 2010, with a year-on-year growth of 58.0%. In addition to that, China's mobile internet users reached 318 million by the end of June 2011.

Qunar Mobile named as the top Chinese travel app by Apple China

Qunar Mobile has been named by Apple's App Store as the runner-up of Best Travel App Category and the best Chinese Travel App of 2011 in China. The Chinese version of French travel app Fotopedia was awarded as the winner in the category.

The leading travel service, which launched just last year, recently surpassed 7 million users and has become the most popular travel mobile service in China. "We are honored to see that Apple China's App Store has named our app the runner-up of Best Travel App Category in China," said CEO CC Zhuang. "Travel needs to be mobile. Mobile business is extremely important to the company's overall strategy. Qunar believes in technology innovation and is committed to providing diversified solutions to travelers on the road through its mobile platform. Qunar will continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in our mobile business."

Qunar Mobile is a full-feature app that covers information of flights, hotels, train tickets, packages, and group-buying deals. It supports product search, payment, booking, and LBS services. Search volume via Qunar Mobile has reached 10% of PC search volume, and airline tickets' mobile booking grows over 100% every month.

Qunar has created a number of "first" in China's mobile travel industry - the first to cover all available mobile platforms including iOS, Android, Symbian, WP7, iPad, the first to support mobile payment on iOS and Android, and many others.

"We designed and built Qunar app with the goal of creating a simple, but beautiful user experience for travelers to use on the road. We aim to provide a one-stop shop for travelers." said Larry Chen, Vice President of Qunar Mobile Business.

Related Link: Qunar.com