We have reported that Ctrip and Elong lost money over a string of price wars last year. Now we know for a fact, both are willing to shed more blood in order to bludgeon the other. According to Tang Lan, VP of CtripWhether, Ctrip would cease fire only on one condition: Elong must do it first.
Mr. Tan revealed that while Ctrip knows that the price war is making both parties worse off, it has also benefited the company, albeit at a steep price. First of all, both Ctrip and Elong have gained market share, if not profit. Since the war begun, Ctrip and Elong’s market share keep expanding, according to OTA market share report in Q3 2012 from iResearch. Attracted by the low price, new users are flocking to Ctrip, and the user base is growing at a faster pace than 2011. The marginal effect of this expansion is allowing Ctrip to demonstrate its advantage in products, service and technology .
The battlefield of the previous year has been mainly concentrated in hotel booking services. But Elong has claimed that the battle might extend to flight booking services. This hasn’t concern Ctrip much, however. Mr. Tang claims that Elong’s market share in regard to flight booking services is only a tenth of Ctrip’s, so Ctrip may simply ignore Elong’s provocation on this front.
the online ad reads “big sale, daily and monthly”