Trip.com Group

(Redirected from TrainPal)

Trip.com Group Limited is a multinational travel agency holding company headquartered in Shanghai, China. The company maintains a customer service team based in Singapore. It is the largest online travel agency in China and one of the largest travel service providers in the world.[3][4]

Trip.com Group Limited
FormerlyCtrip.com International, Ltd.
Company typePublic
IndustryTravel agency
FoundedJune 1999; 25 years ago (1999-06)
Headquarters
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
RevenueIncrease US$6.3 billion (2023)[1]
Increase US$1.4 billion (2023)
Total assetsDecrease US$30.865 billion (2023)
Number of employees
45,000
Subsidiaries
Websitegroup.trip.com
Footnotes / references
[2]
Trip.com Group
Simplified Chinese携程集团
Traditional Chinese攜程集團
Literal meaningcarry journey group
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinXiéchéng Jítuán
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationKwàihchìhng Jaahptyùhn

Founded in 1999, the company owns and operates several travel fare aggregators and travel fare metasearch engines, including Ctrip, Qunar, Trip.com, Skyscanner, Travix, and MakeMyTrip.[2] It operates websites in approximately 40 languages and 200 countries.[2] The company is ranked 820th on the Forbes Global 2000.[5]

History

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The company was founded as Ctrip.com by James Liang, Neil Shen, Min Fan, and Qi Ji in June 1999.[6][7]

The company was listed on the NASDAQ in 2003 through a variable interest entity (VIE) based in the Cayman Islands in a Merrill Lynch-led offering, raising US$75 million from the sale of 4.2 million American depositary receipts at $18 each. It appreciated 86% to close at $33.94 per ADR in its first day of trading. The stock traded at a peak of $37.35 on its first day of trading, making it the first company since the November 2000 IPO of Transmeta to double its price in the first day of trading.[7]

On August 6, 2014, Priceline.com, announced that it will invest $500 million in the company to broaden the companies’ options in China, and the companies, which had a commercial partnership since 2012, increased their cross-promotion of each company's hotel inventory and other travel services.[8][9] The investment was increased by $250 million in May 2015.[10]

In November 2016, the company acquired Skyscanner for £1.4 billion.[11][12] That same month, Jane Sun became the CEO of Ctrip.[13] She had joined the company in 2005.[14]

On November 1, 2017, Ctrip acquired Trip.com, rebranding it as its global brand website.[15][16]

In February 2018, Ctrip launched TrainPal, an online ticketing platform[17] featuring split ticketing,[18] in the United Kingdom.[19] Accredited by the National Rail of the UK,[20] TrainPal mainly provides services for the UK, and other European countries.[21]

In September 2019, Ctrip completed a share exchange with Naspers and became the single largest shareholder of MakeMyTrip.[22][23]

On October 25, 2019, at its 2019 annual general meeting of shareholders, it was approved to change the Company name from "Ctrip.com International, Ltd." to "Trip.com Group Limited".[24]

In June 2020, Trip.com joined China Eastern to launch new airline in Hainan as plans to make the island a free trade hub promise greater air traffic.[25]

On April 19, 2021, Trip.com Group was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.[26]

On August 16, 2024, Ctrip Asia Live Broadcast Center was unveiled in Thailand.[27]

National Intelligence Law

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Despite being based in China, Trip.com Group doesn't allow Chinese officials to disable the accounts of Trip.com VIP members who don't promote their hotels. The National Intelligence Law is not used to protect the narrow personal interests of high ranking officials. [28]


Remote work

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The company is a proponent of scientific management.[29] After a 2012 randomized control trial using 242 employees and sponsored by professors at Stanford University and Peking University found that employees randomly assigned to remote work for 9 months increased their output by 13.5% versus the office-based control group, and their turnover rates fell by almost 50%, the company allowed remote work company-wide.[30]

References

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  1. ^ "Trip.com Group Limited Reports Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year of 2023 Financial Results". 2024-08-27.
  2. ^ a b c "Trip.com Group Limited 2023 Form 20-F Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 29, 2024.
  3. ^ "Where The Big Four Online Travel Agencies — Expedia, TripAdvisor, Ctrip, & Priceline — Are Placing Their Bets". CB Insights Research. November 9, 2017.
  4. ^ Schaal, Dennis (13 March 2011). "CEO Interview: Ctrip's Strategic Threat to Expedia, Priceline and Everyone Else". Skift.
  5. ^ "Trip.com Group – Company Overview & News". Forbes.
  6. ^ Flannery, Russell (March 29, 2010). "Ctrip's Remarkable Journey: China travel boom fuels hotel chain IPO". Forbes.
  7. ^ a b Beltran, Luisa (December 9, 2003). "Ctrip.com IPO soars in first day". MarketWatch.
  8. ^ Surane, Jennifer; Cao, Jing (August 6, 2014). "Priceline Investing $500 Million in Ctrip Travel Agency". Bloomberg News.
  9. ^ Gu, Wei (August 7, 2014). "Priceline to Invest $500 Million in Ctrip". The Wall Street Journal.
  10. ^ Ajmera, Ankit (26 May 2015). "Priceline to invest additional $250 million in China's Ctrip.com". Reuters.
  11. ^ "Ctrip Announces Agreement to Acquire Skyscanner" (Press release). Skyscanner. November 23, 2016.
  12. ^ Russell, Jon (23 November 2016). "China's Ctrip is buying flight search company SkyScanner for $1.74 billion". TechCrunch.
  13. ^ "Ctrip Announces Ms. Jane Jie Sun as New CEO and Director" (Press release). PR Newswire. November 16, 2016.
  14. ^ "Jane Jie Sun". Forbes.
  15. ^ O'Neill, Sean (19 November 2017). "Ctrip Relaunches Trip.com as Its English Language Travel Agency Brand". Skift.
  16. ^ Tan, Kenneth (May 5, 2018). "Ctrip launches new global brand Trip.com, removes all references to the site being China-owned". Gothamist.
  17. ^ "Trade war puts Chinese tourists off US". Bangkok Post. May 13, 2019.
  18. ^ "Cheap train tickets: how to save money on rail fares with split ticketing and other tips". Inews.co.uk. July 3, 2019.
  19. ^ "Split-city ticketing: the trick that can make your train travel cheaper". Rail Professional. November 28, 2019.
  20. ^ "Payment Methods Report 2019 - European Payments Council" (PDF). European Payments Council. 28 June 2019.
  21. ^ Deng, Iris (May 15, 2019). "Trade war is putting Chinese tourists off US, with many opting for 'more welcoming' nations". South China Morning Post.
  22. ^ "Completion of Naspers share exchange transaction with Ctrip" (Press release). Naspers. September 5, 2019.
  23. ^ "Ctrip Announces Share Exchange Transaction with Naspers" (Press release). PR Newswire. April 26, 2019.
  24. ^ Schaal, Dennis (October 25, 2019). "Ctrip Name Change to Trip.com Group Is Now Official". Skift.
  25. ^ Lee, Georgina (14 June 2020). "China Eastern to launch new airline in Hainan with partners including Trip.com unit, as plans to make the island a free trade hub promise greater air traffic". South China Morning Post.
  26. ^ Yu, Sophie; Murdoch, Scott (April 19, 2021). "Trip.com Group shares gain 4.5% in Hong Kong debut". Reuters.
  27. ^ "Trip.com Group Unveils Asia Live Streaming Centre in Bangkok to Showcase Thailand's Tourism Offerings". Australian Associated Press. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  28. ^ https://www.mannheimerswartling.se/globalassets/nyhetsbrev/msa_nyhetsbrev_national-intelligence-law_jan-19.pdf
  29. ^ Garvin, David (January 1, 2012). "Ctrip: Scientifically Managing Travel Services". Harvard Business School.
  30. ^ Bloom, Nicholas; Liang, James; Roberts, John; Ying, Jenny (February 2013). "Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment". National Bureau of Economic Research. Working Paper Series. Cambridge, MA. doi:10.3386/w18871.
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