Trip.com Group Case Study including Trends, Motivations, Marketing Strategies, Opportunities and Challenges

Trip.com Group Case Study including Trends, Motivations, Marketing Strategies, Opportunities and Challenges

Summary

An analysis of Trip.com’s presence in online travel, discussing key markets, domestic and international growth strategies, business structure, strategic investments, opportunities, and challenges.

Key Highlights

• Outside of COVID-19 times, Trip.com Group’s net revenue has achieved strong growth year-on-year (YoY). In 2016, Trip.com Group reported net revenues of $2.8 billion (RMB19.2 billion). From 2016 to 2019 Trip.com Group’s net revenues grew at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.8%, to reach $5.1 billion in 2019 (RMB35.7 billion). Trip.com Group reported its unaudited net revenue to be $3.1 billion (RMB20.0 billion), representing a 11.9% YoY increase from 2020.
• The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected many aspects of Trip.com’s business. Since January 2020, the Company has experienced a significant decline in travel demand. As such, Trip.com Group saw its net revenue decline by 45.2% YoY to $2.8 billion in 2020. For 2021, Trip.com Group reported its unaudited net revenue to be $3.1 billion (RMB20.0 billion), representing a 11.9% YoY increase from 2020.
• Trip.com Group has gone through distinct strategy launches. Beginning in 1999, Trip.com Group, then Ctrip International, launched its first call center in China. In 2013, the company launched the second phase of its journey with an ‘All-In-Mobile' strategy, which saw 80-90% of transactions move to mobile platforms. In 2019 at Trip.com Group’s 20th Anniversary Event, Trip.com Group announced it’s third strategy, with a focus on globalization.
• Prior to COVID-19, Trip.com Group was actively growing its 30,000 strong workforce. According to GlobalData’s Job Analytics, active job postings by the company had risen by 87.2% in the five months from September 2019 to February 2020. The volume of job postings dropped significantly at the start of the pandemic.  GlobalData’s Job Analytics reveals that in the month from February 2020 to March 2020, active job postings by Trip.com Group and its subsidiaries declined by 79.5%.
• A key part of Trip.com’s domestic growth is its ‘content strategy’ imagined to attract and engage users. The content strategy includes a user interface on which users can write authentic, user-generated content. In 2020, Trip.com Group also launched its live streaming program to promote travel destinations across China. Since then, more than 3,000 partners have hosted over 10,000 live streams on the platform.
• Since Trip.com Group’s inception, the company has supported the growth of its online traffic and transactions with technology developments. Its online platform is reportedly empowered by AI, big data analytics, and other proprietary technologies designed to process a huge amount of travel-related data. According to GlobalData’s Patent Analytics Database, AI-related patents grew at a CAGR of 49.5% from 2018 to 2021.

• The case study is an analysis of Trip.com’s presence in online travel, discussing key markets, domestic and international growth strategies, business structure, strategic investments, opportunities, and challenges.

• Gain an understanding of Trip.com Group's business structure and timeline of operations.
• Gain an understanding of Trip.com Group's financial information, including revenue, revenue breakdown and profit.
• Gain an understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on Trip.com Group.
• Gain an understanding of the company's domestic and international growth strategies, the strategic investments and partnerships as well as the company's investment in technology.
• Recognise the opportunities and threats facing Trip.com Group.