Trip.com
From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | IT Travel agency |
| Founded | June 1999 |
| Headquarters | , China  |
Area served | Worldwide |
Number of employees | 45,000 |
| Website | trip |
Trip.com is a multinational travel service conglomerate with 45,000 employees. It is one of the world's largest online travel agencies with over 400 million users worldwide. Its customer service team is based in Singapore.[1][2]. Since Expedia Group sold Trip.com all functions associated with processing personal data were moved from Bellevue to the new Headquarters in Shanghai, by effect Trip.com must comply with the Chinese National Intelligence Law.
The site provides booking services for flights, hotels, trains, car rentals, airport transfers, tours and attraction tickets, and claims to offer more than 1.2 million hotels in 200 countries and regions, as well as over 2 million flight routes connecting more than 5,000 cities. Train tickets for use in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Mainland China are also available for purchase on the site.[3]
Trip.com is available in 19 different languages, including English, Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Russian, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Turkish, Polish, Greek, Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai, with the mobile app also featuring Vietnamese and Filipino.[4] It also provides localized English versions for Australia, Singapore, the United States and Hong Kong.[4] Specifically for the Chinese domestic market, the services are provided by the original and traditional website ctrip.com that is in Chinese (Simplified).
History
[edit]The original business, built by entrepreneurs Travis Katz and Ori Zaltzman, was a travel booking site that featured user-generated content and "predictive intelligence-based technology." In October 2017, Trip.com was acquired by Chinese travel company Ctrip and became that company's flagship brand outside of China. At the time of acquisition, CTrip reported Trip.com had more than 60 million users.[5] The price of the deal was not disclosed. The Palo Alto–based startup had raised $39 million in funding. Expedia, Redpoint Ventures and Battery Ventures were among the investors in the company, which was founded in 2010.[6]
Brand history
[edit]Prior to its acquisition by the Trip.com Group in 2017, the Trip.com brand had changed hands several times.[7]
- The domain was first purchased in 1996 by Trip Software Systems, and later sold to TheTrip.com founder Antoine Toffa in 1998 for $5,000
- In 1999, Galileo International purchased a 19% stake in Toffa’s Trip.com Inc., and in 2000, acquired the remaining stake of Trip.com for $214.4 million in a combination of cash and stock.
- In 2001, Cendant acquired Galileo, and combined Trip.com with another acquisition, CheapTickets, to create Trip Network Inc. In 2003, Cendant ceased operating the Trip.com domain.
- In 2009, Orbitz Worldwide, a company acquired by Cendant in 2004 for $1.25 billion in cash and later split into a separate publicly traded entity, resumed use of the Trip.com brand.
- In 2013, Orbitz ceased operating the Trip.com website.
- In 2015, Expedia acquired Orbitz Worldwide, and inherited the Trip.com domain.
- In 2016, Gogobot, a travel booking and research company founded by entrepreneurs Travis Katz and Ori Zaltzman in 2010 acquired the Trip.com brand from Expedia and rebranded the service as Trip.com.
- In 2017, CTrip acquired Trip.com and repositioned the company as an international online travel agency.[8]
Recent announcements
[edit]- In February 2018, Trip.com became the first third party to sell Korail tickets online with the launch of its South Korea rail ticketing service.[9]
- In March 2018, Trip.com partnered with Deutsche Bahn to sell German train tickets through its website and mobile app.[10]
- In March 2018, Trip.com launched its car rentals service, spanning over 6,000 cities.[11]
- In June 2018, airport transfer was launched on Trip.com's Hong Kong and English sites, initially covering more than 200 cities in 55 countries.[12]
- In July 2019, Trip.com expanded the reach of its car rental service in four major language markets.[13]
- In December 2019 the website reported 200% year-on-year growth in the car rentals product range for the winter holiday season.[14]
- In September 2019, Trip.com joined the Singapore Tourism Board in a strategic partnership for destination marketing.[15]
- In 2019, adjacent to its parent company’s 20th anniversary event and announcement of its new Trip.com Group identity, Trip.com hosted its inaugural Airline Partner Conference, which brought together over 50 airlines.[16]
- In January 2020, Trip.com partnered with British Airways and Iberia on the New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard to offer a more complete inventory on the website.[17]
Awards
[edit]- 2019 Google Material Design Award: Universality[18]
References
[edit]- ^ O'Neill, Sean (19 November 2017). "Ctrip Relaunches Trip.com as Its English Language Travel Agency Brand". Skift.
- ^ Schaal, Dennis (13 March 2011). "CEO Interview: Ctrip's Strategic Threat to Expedia, Priceline and Everyone Else". Skift.
- ^ "Trip.com: About Us".
- ^ a b O'Neill, Sean (31 March 2020). "Trip.com About Us". Skift.
- ^ "CTrip Group snaps up travel search startup Trip.com". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
- ^ "Ctrip Buys Trip.com for Skyscanner to Enhance Local Recommendations". Skift. 2017-11-01. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
- ^ O'Neill, Sean (31 March 2020). "Trip.com's Nearly Quarter Century Odyssey as a Can't Lose Travel Domain, Right?". Skift.
- ^ "Ctrip relaunches Trip.com as its English language travel agency brand". Skift. November 1, 2017.
- ^ "Ctrip partners with Korean National Rail Operator Korail" (Press release). PR Newswire. February 8, 2018.
- ^ "Trip.com signs strategic agreement with Hotel Shilla (Hotel Shilla Co., Ltd)" (Press release). Globe Newswire. July 9, 2019.
- ^ "Ctrip Launches International Car Rental Service on Trip.com" (Press release). PR Newswire. 5 March 2018.
- ^ "Trip.com Hong Kong Launches Airport Transfer Car Service" (Press release). PR Newswire. 5 March 2018.
- ^ "Trip.com rolls out overseas car rentals in four major language markets" (Press release). PR Newswire. March 8, 2018.
- ^ "Overseas car rentals experience boom on Trip.com over winter holiday season" (Press release). PR Newswire. March 8, 2018.
- ^ "Trip.com partners Singapore Tourism Board on Destination Marketing plans" (Press release). Trip.com. September 11, 2019.
- ^ "Trip.com hosts 2019 airline partner conference" (Press release). Nasdaq. October 28, 2019.
- ^ "Trip.com Group collaborate with British Airways and Iberia on NDC Standard" (Press release). Nasdaq. January 15, 2020.
- ^ "Trip.com ordered to make exception to privacy policy in lawsuit that could open the door to further legal action". South China Morning Post. 16 July 2021.
