ByeCity, a travel service for Chinese nationals needing a visa for outbound trips, announced today that it secured US$20 million in a series B funding round led by Alibaba and CBC Capital (hat-tip to TechNode). This is the company’s third funding round, with previous investments of US$10 million in 2008 and an undisclosed amount in 2011. But the company has actually been around since 2000 – the early days of China’s online travel industry. Chinese nationals hoping to travel to most foreign countries are required to either join a tour group or secure a visa in advance, even for countries that offer landing visas. The main thrust of ByeCity’s business focuses on securing these visas for customers, which it claims to do with a 99.8 percent success rate. For those few exceptions that ByeCity fails to obtain visas, it reimburses their fees. (See: Over 20% of bookings on China’s top flight and hotel site come from mobile) Last year alone, ByeCity reports it processed 400,000 visa applications, gaining 471 percent year-on-year and over ten times as many as in 2011. Dozens upon dozens of visa services are available in China, but most only operate on a local level. Traditionally offline business with brick-and-mortar offices, many of them have set up shop on Taobao, the massive C2C marketplace owned by Alibaba, to reach a broader audience. ByeCity is no stranger to this, and already has its own storefront on Alibaba’s Tmall.
Source: TECHINASIA
Source: TECHINASIA
