Bang.travel, China's Leading Personalized Outbound Travel Service Provider, to Foster Travel Sharing Economy with Weibo (NASDAQ:WB)

BEIJING, Aug. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Bang.travel and Weibo held a press conference announcing their strategic alliance at the Regent Beijing on August 14. The leading social media platform and China's first online personalized travel service provider officially launched their strategic cooperation with the goal of creating a new model for the travel sharing economy.

Sharing concept boosts new tourism

The relatively recently coined term "sharing economy" refers to sharing or exchanging of spare cash, goods, time, skills and other resources between or among individuals, a model that allows more people to use their spare resources and derive an economic benefit. The essence of the sharing economy is the concept of 'multiple ownership', where every person can participate as a sharing center or resource. Compared to the traditional economy based on individual ownership, the sharing economy is more cost and resource-efficient, while being conducive to more interpersonal relationships. As a result, it has been drawing favorable attention of many entrepreneurs as well as acting as a disruptor across multiple industries.

Bang.travel CEO Dennis Zhang and Weibo CEO Gaofei Wang both agreed that 'sharing adds value to information', as they discussed the sharing economy at the round table forum of the press conference. Both expressed a high level of optimism about the future of the new economic model. Wang said, "The main reason that people will want to join a sharing economy is that they feel they can trust the individual on the other side of the exchange as they have a common interest while enjoying the convenience and sense of engagement. With the rise of mobile technology, these features will become increasingly apparent and the development of the sharing economy will only accelerate. It was our shared opinion on the subject that led to the cooperation."

Zhang further observed, "By relying on what the Chinese government has dubbed as the 'the Internet Plus' wave (the integration of Internet technologies with manufacturing and traditional business), companies are actively adopting all manner of platforms and partnering with others as a mean to achieve innovation and transformation. The sharing economy's essence is to generate profits by making full use of the resources that are not easily accessible through traditional distribution networks. This is the driving force behind which we  form this cooperation, and we are confident that we will realize a win-win outcome."

An alliance between industry leaders gives rise to a new economic paradigm

Founded at the end of 2012, Bang.travel brought together a large number of leading experts in the travel sector who love the sense of exhilaration that is part and parcel of the ultimate travel experience. The company is dedicated to offering value for money, providing high-quality and personalized outbound travel experiences for individuals who wish to travel freely when abroad. As the No.1 mobile social media platform, Weibo has built a massive sharing ecosystem, in which original posts about travel, especially posts about international travel, represent the lion's share of what gets posted. How to best monetize these highly valuable posts by Weibo users had remained unresolved; however, now Bang.travel's crowdsourcing service for frequent travelers has become a vehicle for tapping into it.

Bang.travel has stood out among travel service providers with its key competitive portfolio incorporating both all-Inclusive and customized packages for Chinese outbound travelers. With the reliance on its proprietary content and over 2,000 crowd sourced travel experts across the globe, Bang.travel is able to create a customized travel itinerary for any user, for any travel date, and for any group size at any time, without the restrictions imposed by a typical group tour package, making the concept of traveling freely a reality for Chinese outbound travelers. The all-inclusive package provides a full range of travel-related services, such as visa applications, booking of tickets and hotels, park and show tickets, insurance, Wi-Fi and local sightseeing tours. Arranging one's travel plan abroad is no longer a chore when using Bang.travel's travel planning mobiles application, the 'Bang.travel Travel Master App' which provides accurate point-to-point itinerary planning and round-the-clock customer service by professionals.

At present, there are over 20,000 We Media, or 'citizen journalists,' regularly adding posts on travel, among whom over 300 are active travel writers with more than 1 million followers. Not only has the nmber of domestic travel posts soared, but also many Chinese outbound travelers have created lengthy travel notes and travel guides on many international destinations. Following the establishment of the cooperation between Weibo and Bang.travel, both sides expect the We Media travel segment to have great development potential. The two companies are jointly exploring revenue-generating concepts, such as developing revenue-sharing relationships with name bloggers who have large followings.

"It is understood that this cooperation can provide additional services for hundreds of millions of Weibo users - customized services for fully independent travel - solving myriad issues that can arise when arriving for the first time in an unfamiliar foreign city. It represents a spectrum of services that is certain to go a long way in reinforcing user loyalty. Bang.travel plans to expand its traveler crowdsourcing content to include Weibo's massive resources for travelers, further optimizing its user service," explained Zhang. "This strategic cooperation is a synthesis of the advantages that the two sides bring to the table, creating a new business model and revenue stream, while delivering benefits to users."

At the press conference, both sides expressed great confidence in achieving the cooperation's objective. Bang.travel's recent fundraising attracted tens of millions of dollars in investment from Sina.com last year. Commenting on the cooperation, industry analysts said that the market potential of the travel sharing economy is tremendous and that this model should deliver good economic benefits and inject new vitality into the development of the businesses of both companies.

About Bang.travel

Founded at the end of 2012, Bang.travel brought together a large number of leading experts in the travel sector who love the sense of exhilaration that is part and parcel of the ultimate travel experience. The company is dedicated to offering value for money, providing high-quality and personalized outbound travel experiences for individuals who wish to travel freely when abroad. The company has received investments from several well-known angel investors including Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, Tencent's early-stage investor Wang Shu, as well as other well-known venture capital funds.

Bang.travel Chairman and CEO: Dennis Zhang

Dennis Zhang previously held managerial positions at AT&T, Lucent and other multinational firms, and high-level executive roles including chief executive of Yahoo! China, Chairman at Hong Kong-listed A8 Music Group as well as a operating partner at CDH Investments, China's largest PE/VC firm, prior to founding and acting as CEO of bang.travel at the end of 2012.

SOURCE Bang.travel