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Trip.Biz Launches Agent ONE, an AI Suite Transforming Business Travel — Cutting Booking Time by 90% for Travellers and Simplifying Oversight for Travel Managers

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–     Trip.Biz launches Agent ONE, at Transform 2026
–     Agent ONE is four connected, specialised agents supporting the end-to-end business travel lifecycle
–     Improves OBT adoption and reduces travel program leakage worldwide

SINGAPORE, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trip.Biz, the business travel brand of Trip.com Group, welcomed 200 senior leaders from travel, procurement, finance, and HR to Transform 2026, held at the Mandarin Oriental, Singapore.

The half-day summit set out to challenge one of the most persistent assumptions in global travel management – that Asia Pacific is intrinsically too complex to manage consistently – while unveiling its new Agent ONE AI tool.

Transform 2026 opened with an address from Trip.Biz CEO Tao Song, titled “A New Day One for Business Travel”. Song set the tone for the afternoon by framing Trip.Biz’s next chapter around simplicity and trust, describing a company built on local depth across Asia Pacific and continuing to grow in Europe and around the world.

“Trip.Biz aims to become a leading global AI-powered travel management company (TMC) rooted in APAC and built for the complexity of global business travel”, said Tao Song. “We are building for the new world, in which digital adoption pushes the boundaries of what’s possible, and gives way to innovative tech solutions that help fix real-world challenges”, he added.

Complexity Isn’t the Region, It’s the Model

For multinational travel, procurement and finance teams, APAC has long been treated as the exception that breaks the global travel program – a patchwork of markets with different regulations, payment standards, languages and supplier ecosystems.

Trip.Biz’s position, delivered in the event’s keynote by General Manager, Southeast Asia Eugene Tan, is that this diagnosis is wrong. “The complexity isn’t the APAC region, it’s the model”, Tan explained during his “Rethinking APAC as ONE” keynote. “Every model on the market today breaks somewhere, because none of them delivers consistency and depth at the same time.”

The company points to three structural gaps that persist:

Legacy TMCs offer deep local expertise, but execution depends on the local office involved, resulting in different standards in every market.Digital-only platforms are fast and familiar for routine bookings, but go silent the moment something isn’t routine.In-house, self-managed programs offer full policy control, but no system to catch it when that control breaks down.

Each model delivers one piece of the puzzle, but gaps remain, costing global travel programs time, money, and control.

Trip.Biz’s answer is a single, digital-first, full-service platform, designed to give global programs consistency across markets while absorbing the complexities of APAC – from contracting and settlement to entities and supplier ecosystems – rather than passing them on to the traveller or the program owner.

In practice, this means a single enforced service standard across every market, one consolidated view spanning booking, approvals, and reporting, and a consistent end-to-end experience. This consistency has delivered a 90% SLA compliance rate and an 80%+ satisfaction score across the region Trip.Biz serves.

Product Director Terence Eng built on this during his “Closing Leakage with One Platform” keynote, stating that the model alone doesn’t fully solve the problem, a challenge that extends across global travel programs. “Even with one platform, leakage doesn’t disappear automatically,” Eng said. “To actually reduce it, that platform needs the right content and genuinely good usability. Without both, travellers will still book off platform, even with the right model in place.” Getting this right, Eng noted, is what ultimately increases adoption.

Launching Agent One: Built to Improve OBT Adoption and Fix Leakage

Trip.Biz CEO Tao Song took the stage to launch Agent ONE during his “Building Trust through Simplicity with Agent ONE” keynote, positioning it as the next step in closing the leakage gap. “A platform with the right content and usability gets you most of the way there”, Song said. “AI is how we go further; by continuing to improve the user experience itself, we can drive an even higher adoption rate.”

Agent ONE is a team of four connected, specialised agents supporting the end-to-end business travel lifecycle:

Planning Agent: ends the multi-site search struggle. Drawing on a broader, multi-source range of content, it converts natural-language requests into personalised, policy-compliant recommendations, understanding traveller preferences, trip purpose, and itinerary logic to simplify search and boost online adoption.Booking Agent: replaces friction-heavy TMC booking flows with guided, conversational booking, keeping more trips inside the OBT. Early performance targets show average booking time dropping from around 45 minutes to 2 minutes, a +90% efficiency improvement, while keeping bookings natively connected to Trip.Biz inventory, pricing, approval, and payment.Approval Agent: auto-approves low-risk requests and routes only exceptions to human review, cutting approval wait times from over an hour to under 3 seconds.Insight Agent: goes beyond static dashboards to proactively surface hidden data patterns and actionable cost-saving opportunities, often missed due to rigid, fixed-view reporting. Insight Agent generates a full travel analysis report, complete with leakage patterns and savings opportunities, in under 7 minutes, a process that previously took analysts up to a week using legacy tools.

The real opportunity for AI is to remove the complexity travellers experience. When AI can understand what a traveller needs, find the right content, and automatically apply company policy, the managed program becomes simpler and more trusted. This helps drive greater adoption and reduce leakage, removing the complexity that has stood in the way of managed travel’s original promise: one place for every trip. “Unlike generic AI assistants, Trip.Biz positions Agent ONE as a purpose-built AI solution”, Song said. “We drive greater business efficiency across each stage of the business travel lifecycle, and help solve the practical challenge faced by our industry.”

Trip.Biz positions the Agent ONE launch not as an incremental product update, but as a marker of how it intends to compete globally: combining the local depth required in complex markets with the consistency, simplicity and intelligence multinational travel programs increasingly expect worldwide. Agent ONE is now available globally across all Trip.Biz-supported markets.

END

About Trip.Biz

Trip.Biz, a digital-first full-service travel management company (TMC) powered by Trip.com Group, provides an all-in-one solution that streamlines business travel with human-centric technology and a people-first approach, offering extensive global content, exceptional service, and ESG solutions. As the fastest-growing TMC in the last few years, we have been trusted by over 15,000 multinational corporations and more than 1,000,000 small to medium-sized enterprises globally.

At Trip.Biz, we are dedicated to providing cost-effective and time-efficient travel solutions, empowering businesses to focus on what truly matters – growth and success. By saving on travel costs and time, our clients can invest more in their core operations and achieve their business outcomes.

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Wild Reaches 900,000+ Verified Members Across 57 Countries, Challenging What Dating Apps Are Supposed to Be

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September 18, 2026

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NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Wild, a dating app built around casual connections, has reached more than 900,000 verified members across 57 countries, marking a new milestone for a platform built around a simple idea: not every connection needs to become a relationship.

Dating apps have always come with their own set of expectations.

Who should message first.
What to say.
How long to wait.
When to meet.
And, eventually, what the connection is supposed to become.

But people do not always open a dating app looking for the same thing.

Sometimes, you want a relationship.

Sometimes, you want a date.

Sometimes, you want to flirt, explore the chemistry, or find a hookup.

And sometimes, you just want someone.

That is the space Wild was built for.

Not Every Connection Needs a Destination

Dating is often presented as a progression: match, date, relationship.

But not every connection follows that path.

You can be attracted to someone without wanting a future with them. You can want intimacy without wanting a partner. You can want to meet someone for one night, a few weeks, or simply for as long as the chemistry lasts.

That does not necessarily make the connection less meaningful. It simply means the connection has a different purpose.

Wild puts that idea at the center of its experience.

The platform is designed for people looking for different kinds of connections, including casual dating, flirting, hookups, friends-with-benefits relationships, or simply meeting someone who wants the same thing.

Rather than assuming every match is the beginning of a relationship, Wild gives people room to decide what they actually want from the connection.

Casual Doesn’t Mean Careless

Casual dating is often treated as the opposite of serious dating.

But wanting something casual does not mean wanting something careless.

Attraction still matters. Chemistry still matters. Privacy still matters. And knowing who you are actually meeting matters.

That is why verification is built into the Wild experience.

Wild uses 100% forced verification, requiring members to complete the platform’s verification process rather than leaving verification as an optional feature. The approach puts real-person verification at the center of how members connect.

Wild is also LGBTQ+ inclusive, with a community spanning 57 countries, bringing together people with different identities, preferences, and reasons for connecting.

A Different Reason to Open a Dating App

The growth of Wild to more than 900,000 verified members points to the variety of reasons people use dating apps.

Not everyone is searching for “the one.”

Some people are looking for chemistry.

Some are looking for intimacy.

Some want something casual.

Some want a hookup.

And some simply want someone.

There does not have to be one correct reason to connect.

A connection can be romantic, physical, casual, temporary, or something that evolves naturally. What matters is that the people involved are looking for something compatible.

Wild was created around that idea: different connections can have different purposes, and people should be free to choose their own.

About Wild

Wild is a dating app focused on casual connections and direct intentions. Launched in 2016, Wild has more than 900,000 verified members across 57 countries and uses 100% forced verification. The platform is LGBTQ+ inclusive and supports different types of connections, including casual dating, flirting, hookups, and friends-with-benefits relationships.

Ready to make your next connection?

Visit Wild through the link: https://wild.onelink.me/X5zz/3jo5iu34, click through to download the app, and start connecting.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wild-reaches-900-000-verified-members-across-57-countries-challenging-what-dating-apps-are-supposed-to-be-302882864.html

SOURCE Wild

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iQIYI Capitalizes on China’s Big-Screen Viewing Trend as Long-Form Video Enters Next Chapter

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September 18, 2026

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BEIJING, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — iQIYI, China’s leading online entertainment platform, is well positioned to capitalize on the growing trend toward big-screen viewing, as the big screen increasingly becomes a key destination for long-form video consumption.

Behind this trend is a rising bar for viewing experience. The big screen’s natural advantages — audio-visual quality, immersion, and shared family viewing — make it a more fitting home for premium long-form content. As big-screen viewing continues to gain momentum, iQIYI’s big-screen business has become an increasingly important driver of user scale, engagement, and monetization.

A Global Trend Toward the Big-Screen

This shift is part of a broader global trend toward big-screen streaming. The worldwide Connected TV (CTV) market is projected to reach USD 260.56 billion in 2026 and expand at a 6.03% CAGR through 2032, with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for approximately 45% of total demand, according to MarkNtel Advisors. In the United States, streaming accounted for 48.6% of total TV watch time in May 2026, with YouTube representing 13.8% and Netflix at 8.0%, according to Nielsen’s monthly “The Gauge” report.

The shift is also visible across other markets. In Poland, for example, Nielsen found that Netflix’s share of viewing on TV screens rose from 83% in May to 86% in June 2026, reflecting what Nielsen described as a broader trend of digital platforms strengthening their presence on the household’s largest screen. Together, these developments point to the growing role of the big screen as a key destination for streaming, particularly for premium and long-form content.

A Growing Audience

According to China’s leading big data intelligence services provider QuestMobile, active smart TV devices reached 302 million in June 2026, up 12.04 million year-over-year, with OTT monthly active devices continuing to grow. iQIYI’s smart TV application, QIYIGuo TV, led the market with 141 million monthly active devices.

The scale of big-screen viewership extends well beyond what mobile numbers capture. QIYIGuo TV recorded 50.42 million daily active devices in June, slightly ahead of the 45.14 million daily active users on the iQIYI mobile app. But television is not a single-user device. According to Gozen Data, a leading cross-screen big data provider in China, each smart TV averages 2.6 viewers, implying iQIYI’s big-screen content reaches approximately 130 million individual viewers daily — nearly three times its mobile daily active users (DAU).

Deeper Engagement

Scale only tells part of the story. What sets the big screen apart is how long audiences stay. Gozen Data shows that iQIYI TV users averaged 256 minutes of daily viewing in August, up 13 minutes from the prior month and growing for three consecutive months.

That engagement translates into willingness to pay. According to iiMedia Research, a leading new-economy research and data analytics firm in China, QIYIGuo TV ranked first among consumers’ preferred TV video subscription services in 2026, with a 32.45% share. Paying habits on the big screen are well established, providing a solid foundation for monetization. Television viewing is also behaviorally different from mobile: sessions run longer, consumption is shared across the household, and immersion runs deeper. That makes the big screen a more natural home for long-form content and a more durable platform for subscription retention and advertising.

Stronger Content, Smarter Production

Big-screen engagement is built on content. This year, iQIYI has produced three dramas surpassing its content popularity index of 10,000 — a measure of audience engagement on the platform and a milestone typically associated with nationwide hit titles, including “The Punishment,” “Born with Luck” and “Pursuit of Jade.” Among this summer’s new releases, iQIYI accounted for seven of the 15 dramas rated S+ across all platforms by Enlightent, a leading Chinese entertainment data provider, with all seven exclusively streamed on the platform.

Beyond content investment, iQIYI is driving efficiency through AI while expanding the possibilities of AI-powered storytelling. In July, iQIYI exclusively premiered “Mystic Tales: The Spider Lady’s Vendetta” on iQIYI and iQIYI International, making it China’s first AIGC internet feature film released under an Internet Drama and Film Distribution License. This was followed by the first two films in “The Ferry Man” AIGC series, “The Ferry Man: Butterfly Dream” and “The Ferry Man: The Dream of the Celestial Maiden,” which generated over RMB 6 million in revenue-sharing box office within their first 10 days following their August 22 debut—an early signal that audiences are receptive to AI-produced premium content.

From a strong content slate to AI-driven efficiency, iQIYI is amplifying user value on the big screen through streamlined production and a more open, diverse content supply. As big-screen viewing continues its resurgence, iQIYI is well-positioned to capture the trend and reinforce its standing as a leading destination for long-form video in China.

Contact:
iQIYI Press, press@qiyi.com 

 

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SOURCE iQIYI Inc.

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Synology® launches ActiveProtect Manager 2.0, bringing expanded platform support and advancing AI-driven security

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September 18, 2026

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SINGAPORE, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Synology today launched ActiveProtect Manager 2.0 (APM 2.0), the latest software update for its ActiveProtect data protection appliances. This release introduces expanded platform coverage, cross-platform recovery, and enhanced security, with future updates bringing AI-driven threat mitigation.

“Managing fragmented backup infrastructure drives up costs and slows recovery. The ActiveProtect appliance unites purpose-built storage with powerful data management software into a single, predictable investment,” said Jia-Yu Liu, Executive Vice President of the Synology Data Protection Group. “APM 2.0 builds on that value, enabling organizations to safeguard their entire hybrid infrastructure through one centralized, scalable solution.”

Expanded platform coverage
APM 2.0 extends protection to Amazon EC2, Azure VM, Proxmox VE, Nutanix AHV, and Google Workspace. Cross-platform recovery allows workloads to be backed up and restored across different environments, supporting both disaster recovery and seamless workload migration.

Backup destinations have also expanded. ActiveProtect Vault now supports a wider range of Synology NAS models, while Azure Blob Storage joins the list of supported copy and tiering targets. Backups stored in Amazon S3 Storage or Azure Blob Storage can be restored directly into either Amazon EC2 and Azure VM as a cloud disaster recovery strategy without routing through on-premises hardware, significantly reducing recovery times.

AI-driven proactive resiliency
ActiveProtect Manager 2.0 adds software-based storage encryption at the volume level to secure data at rest. Backup data and system configurations remain inaccessible in the event of drive theft or hardware loss.

The upcoming APM 2.1 update will add AI/ML anomaly detection, tracking each backup version for shifts in change rate, file modifications, mass deletions, and entropy. Suspicious backup copies will be moved to quarantine for administrators to investigate, limiting the risk of backup contamination. The model learns from those outcomes to improve accuracy and reduce false positives.

APM 2.1 will also scan backups for malware before restoration, using integrated third-party antivirus software such as Microsoft Defender, Bitdefender, and ESET. If malware is detected in the most recent backup, Auto Fallback restores the latest clean version instead.

Availability
ActiveProtect Manager 2.0 is available for all DP-Series appliances at no additional cost. For details, please refer to the product page.

About Synology
Founded in Taiwan in 2000, Synology is a technology company specializing in network-attached storage (NAS), data backup and recovery, video surveillance, and networking solutions for businesses and individuals worldwide. Over the past two decades, Synology has continuously expanded its ecosystem to help users manage, protect, and unlock the value of data more effectively in the era of cloud, AI, and big data.

Synology’s core philosophy is to build a comprehensive hybrid-cloud ecosystem that enables businesses to protect, synchronize, and manage data through a centralized, intuitive, and easy-to-operate platform. From enterprise storage, data backup, file sharing, and collaboration to video surveillance and network infrastructure, Synology’s solutions are designed to simplify IT management and accelerate digital transformation.

Alongside ongoing technology innovation, Synology also focuses strongly on long-term stability, security, and scalability for data infrastructure. More than half of Fortune 500 companies use Synology solutions, reflecting the brand’s credibility and ability to support large-scale data operations worldwide.

Website: https://www.synology.com/en-sg

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