Online travel giant Priceline Group said on Wednesday that it has changed its name to Booking Holdings to better reflect its businesses as well as acknowledge the significance of its Booking.com service, its biggest unit.
But while the Priceline brand is well-known in the U.S. (and will live on as Priceline.com), it’s not the case around the world, explained Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel. Outside the U.S. in cities like Shanghai or Tokyo, people are generally unaware of Priceline.com and instead are more familiar with the Booking.com brand, Fogel said.
Although Fogel and his company still face plenty of competition from online giants like Expedia, the newly named Booking Holdings also faces new players like the fast-rising Airbnb and even Google, which has been debuting its own online travel services.
One way Booking Holdings is innovating, he said, is by targeting China, which he said is “by far the locomotive of the travel industry.”
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