Can Ctrip Be One Of The Three Giants In The World?

Hand TripAdvisor is just the latest action of Ctrip's internationalization. Before that, Ctrip has done a series of layout for internationalization.

In November 2016, Ctrip bought 1 billion 400 million British tourist search giant. In November 2017, Ctrip bought Trip.com, a social travel website in the US, transforming it into an international version of Ctrip. In August 2019, Ctrip became the largest shareholder of India's leading Online Travel Corporation MakeMyTrip through investment and merger and acquisition.

Ctrip's international initiatives also bring tangible benefits to its breakthrough development bottleneck. In November 14th, Ctrip announced its third quarter earnings this year. Earnings data show that, benefiting from the expansion of product coverage in the world, Ctrip's booking revenue is 4 billion 100 million yuan, an increase of 21%, and the traffic ticketing revenue is 3 billion 700 million yuan, an increase of 9%. This is mainly due to the increase in demand for international air ticket business and ground traffic business. Benefiting from the flow contribution of offline stores, the tourism holiday business achieved a 1 billion 600 million yuan operating income, an increase of 19% over the same period, an increase of 56% over the same period.

Among them, the rapid growth of Ctrip's international business is particularly dazzling. The international hotel business (except the Greater China destination) grew by 50% over the same period. Ctrip group's overseas brand Trip.com has achieved 12 consecutive quarters of three digit international ticket growth.

In addition, the Sky Patrol maintained a healthy growth momentum in the third quarter of 2019, and further expanded the global user base. In September, Tian Guan realized the breakthrough of "monthly user turnover" and proved its leadership in the global tourism industry. The direct booking function of Sky Patrol continued to improve, accounting for 11% of its total airline ticket revenue in the third quarter.

At present, Ctrip is landing a global strategy on all business lines. Data show that Ctrip has more than 100 million overseas users, and its products cover more than 200 countries and regions worldwide. In terms of supply chain, the hotel platform can search more than 140 hotels worldwide, and there are more than 100 international air ticket suppliers in 46 overseas markets, more than 100 major distribution partners in the world, and 1000 members in the distribution network.

In terms of domestic business, Ctrip has left its rivals behind. "Ctrip's opponents are not in China, but more abroad." A Ctrip executive who did not want to be named said to the twenty-first Century economic report that this is the reason why Ctrip has more international business and firmly follows the global strategy.

However, there is still a gap between Ctrip's two major competitors abroad, Booking and Expedia. Compared with financial performance, it is more intuitive. Just now, three companies released their earnings in recent days.

In November 8th, Booking group announced its third quarter 2019 earnings report. According to the results of the report, the total booking volume of Booking Holdings in the third quarter reached US $25 billion 300 million, an increase of 4% over the same period (by 7% on fixed exchange rate) and 223 million in the booking room, an increase of 11% over the same period last year. The total income was 5 billion US dollars, an increase of 4% over the same period (7% at the fixed exchange rate). Net profit of $2 billion, an increase of 10% over the previous year, adjusted pre tax profit of $2 billion 500 million, an increase of 5% over the same period last year.

The results of Expedia11 7 reported that Expedia's total bookings in the third quarter of this year amounted to $26 billion 900 million, an increase of 9% over the same period last year, with a total revenue of 3 billion 600 million US dollars, an increase of 9% over the same period last year, and a net profit of 409 million US dollars, down 22% from the same period last year. The adjusted pre tax profit is $912 million, unchanged from the same period last year.

Ctrip's November 14th third quarter earnings report showed its net operating income was 10 billion 500 million yuan ($1 billion 500 million), an increase of 12% over the same period last year. Net profit was 793 million yuan (US $112 million).

Therefore, whether from revenue or profit, Ctrip's catch up with the top two giants still needs to be much higher than their rivals' sustained growth rate.