Ctrip’s Global Push Starts to Pay Off in Diversified Revenue Streams
Photo Credit: Ctrip’s CEO Jane Sun delivered the keynote speech at the ITB China banquet on May 15, 2019. ITB China
Skift Take
The more Ctrip internationalizes its sources of revenue, the more it will cross swords with global players like Booking Holdings, which owns a small stake, and Expedia Group. It already claims to process more transaction volume than both of them, and a third of its revenue comes from outside mainland China.
Ctrip serves the world's biggest e-commerce market, China. Its next targets are outbound Chinese travelers in Southeast Asia, plus customers in India and Europe. Already more than half of its 300 million monthly customers for its brands, which include Skyscanner and Trip.com, are based outside of mainland China.
Quarter by quarter, Ctrip's international ambitions — which it has touted since 2016 — have begun to drive its numbers. In the first three months of 2019, Ctrip generated 35 percent of the group's total revenue from its international business, mostly outbound Chinese travel.
One big caveat: Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan may account for roughly half of the international outbound visits of Chinese mainlanders. Ctrip hasn't publicly ranked the popularity of its foreign markets.
It will take "five to ten years" for Ctrip to get that global share of r
