Ctrip, the Chinese online travel agency, has reported a net revenue of $254 million for the first quarter of 2014.
The figure is an increase of 36% year-on-year, exceeding earlier net revenue guidance for the first quarter 2014 by 25-30% YOY.
However, the company's net profit was $19 million, a decrease of 25% YOY.
But the stand-out element in the OTA's earnings was news that its total mobile transaction value is over four times higher YOY and peak daily transactions reach about $24 million.
In addition, accommodation bookings from mobile have surpassed those from desktops, contributing over 40% of the accommodation transactions during the quarter and over 60% on peak days.
Financial updates
For the first quarter of 2014,
- Accommodation reservation revenues were $106 million, an increase of 46% YOY, primarily driven by an increase of 67% in accommodation reservation volume.
- Transportation ticketing revenues were $105 million, an increase of 43% YOY, primarily driven by an increase of 71% in ticketing volume.
- Packaged-tour revenues were $42 million, an increase of 10% YOY, primarily driven by the increase of leisure travel volume.
- Corporate travel revenues were $11 million, an increase of 39% YOY, primarily driven by the increased corporate travel demand from business activities.
- Product development expenses were $71 million, an increase of 65% compared to the same period in 2013, primarily due to an increase in product development personnel related expenses.
- Sales and marketing expenses were $69 million, an increase of 61% compared to the same period in 2013, primarily due to an increase in sales and marketing related activities.
Investments
Recently,
Ctrip invested over $200 million in a local competitor
LY. With this investment, Ctrip became the second biggest stakeholder in LY, after the existing management team.
Just weeks before this investment, LY and eLong
established a strategic partnership that enabled
eLong to become the exclusive supplier of agency hotel and group-buying hotel inventory for LY in mainland China, and LY to be the exclusive supplier of scenic attraction ticket inventory for eLong.
Also, Ctrip plans to subscribe for
$15 million worth of Tuniu shares before the company's IPO in the US.
Tuniu is into the business of providing holiday packages for inbound and outbound travellers.
Chairman and CEO of Ctrip, James Liang, says:
"Ctrip is looking forward to working together with industry peers to create greater value for our customers and partners and to help develop a healthy and flourishing travel industry in China."
Other updates
In March 2014, China-based internet security monitoring service
Wooyun exposed a possible security loophole in Ctrip that would expose Ctrip’s customer credit card information to hackers. Though Ctrip fixed the issue within two hours of issue reporting, a total of 93 Ctrip customers' credit card information had been downloaded by Wooyun for testing the security procedures.
Ctrip replaced all 93 credit cards, free of charge, and it also setup a security reserve fund of $800,000 to reward white hat security teams who can help the company improve its information security system.
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