China-based Didi Chuxing, the world’s leading one-stop mobile transportation platform, and Booking Holdings, a global leader in online accommodations and travel e-commerce, have entered into a strategic partnership. Booking Holdings has invested US$500 million in DiDi, recognizing DiDi as a leader in the mobile transportation industry.

Under the partnership, DiDi and Booking Holdings will leverage their technology capabilities and local operating expertise to offer more comprehensive and personalized quality travel experiences across the world. With the partnership, Booking Holdings brands will have the ability to offer on-demand car service through their apps, powered by DiDi, and DiDi customers will have the option to book hotels through Booking.com or Agoda.

Booking Holdings serves users and partners in more than 220 countries and territories through its major brands including Booking.com, agoda.com, KAYAK, Priceline.com, Rentacars.com and OpenTable. DiDi offers a full range of app-based transportation services for over 550 million users, and continues to innovate in shared mobility and smart transportation across China, South America, Australia and Japan markets.

Partnership with Continental. Didi also recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Continental. The two parties will leverage on their IoT and intelligent mobility capacities to further promote intelligent transportation services and enhance user experience in China.

New energy, ride-sharing and intelligent driving set the direction for the development of the automobile and mobility industries. Ride-sharing offers new use scenarios for consumers to experience automotive products. DiDi will bring to the partnership with Continental our data capabilities and transportation AI expertise, to advance technology innovations throughout the automotive industry chain, including hardware, software and services.

—Jun Yang, Vice President of Didi Chuxing

Together with 31 of its auto industry partners including FAW, GAC and BAIC, DiDi recently launched the DiDi Auto Alliance to bring together resources and strengths in design, business operations and after-sales services across the automotive industry chain, with the aim of developing an open platform designed to facilitate the integration of the automobile and Internet industries.

The new partnership with Continental will further advance the mobility-automotive industry integration, and leverage both upstream and downstream industry resources to create network and capacity synergies.

Under the partnership, Continental will provide an intelligent connected head unit for DiDi’s first-generation customized shared vehicles. This model will be equipped with built-in telematics solutions to meet the expectation of end users. This is the first time Continental provides connected head units to a rideshare business, marking a milestone for Continental’s expansion into the future mobility industry.