Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    GLOBAL travel search provider Skyscanner has expanded its business in China by opening offices in Shenzhen and Beijing this week while promising to invest more in the China market to meet growing demands for outbound travel from the country’s expanding middle class.

    Skyscanner, which operates under the name Tianxun in China, has nine offices worldwide, and China is the only country that has two Skyscanner offices, Peng Jiawei, general manager of Skyscanner’s China division, told reporters in Shenzhen on Tuesday.

    “This year about 100 million people are expected to travel outside China, which is a huge market for us,” chief executive and co-founder of Skyscanner Gareth Williams said while visiting the company’s new Shenzhen office Tuesday.

    Williams said he created Skyscanner after trying to solve the problems he met while visiting his brother in France and traveling to more than 50 countries.

    “For the Internet world, the two keywords will be ‘mobile’ and ‘Asia’,” said Williams.

    Skyscanner, which was founded in 2003 as a search engine for flights, said it saw a 42 percent rise in revenue to 93 million pounds (US$136.51 million) for 2014.

    During the year, Skyscanner saw a record numbers of visitors to its websites and apps, with upwards of 35 million unique monthly users. Chinese visitors to Skyscanner’s website rose 50 percent last year while Chinese visitors to Skyscanner’s mobile app increased 238 percent.

    The Edinburgh, Scotland-based technology business acquired Chinese metasearch company Youbibi for an undisclosed sum last year. Founded in 2010, Youbibi specialized in comparing flights, hotels and package holidays in China.