Alibaba Invests in Travel App "On the Way" to Boost Taobao Travel via Mobile Entry
Published: 2026-09-25
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Last updated 2026-09-25 — Shortly after loudly announcing its investment in Sina Weibo and then swiftly moving to invest in Amap, while the industry was still buzzing about Alibaba's major moves, the company had already quietly laid out its plans in the mobile travel internet space by investing several million US dollars in the travel app "On the Way." On May 26, the "On the Way Travel Style Launch Event Press Conference"...
Shortly after loudly announcing its investment in Sina Weibo and then swiftly moving to invest in Amap, while the industry was still buzzing about Alibaba's major moves, the company had already quietly laid out its plans in the mobile travel internet space by investing several million US dollars in the travel app "On the Way." On May 26, the "On the Way Travel Style Launch Event Press Conference" was held at the United Art Center in Beijing’s 798 Creative Plaza. Attendees included Zhong Yu, head of Alibaba’s Airline & Travel Business Unit (Taobao Travel), Chen Wei, CEO of "On the Way," and the On the Way team. Together, they officially announced that the user base of "On the Way" had exceeded 5 million and that the app had completed a Series A+ funding round of several million US dollars with Alibaba Capital.![]()
According to further disclosures from the On the Way team, they may become a strategic resource for Alipay and Alibaba’s Airline & Travel Business Unit in the future, helping to boost Taobao Travel. On the Way could potentially serve as a major mobile entry point for Taobao Travel. However, it remains unclear how On the Way and Alibaba’s businesses will integrate their resources going forward, though a travel O2O platform is one of their potential directions. Prior to this, Alibaba executive Xing Zhan had stated that Alibaba hopes to leverage data to develop some O2O-oriented products.
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