[비즈한국] The "offensive" by Chinese capital targeting the domestic travel industry is accelerating. As Trip.com makes a concerted effort to expand its share of the domestic inbound travel market, AliExpress, a subsidiary of Alibaba, is also setting its sights on the accommodation and flight booking market.
Trip.com Surpasses Airbnb in Domestic Users
Trip.com is Asia’s largest global Online Travel Agency (OTA) that allows users to book all travel-related products, including global accommodations, flights, and train tickets, at once via its website and mobile app. It provides travel products across some 200 countries in 17 languages in 15 countries. Based in Shanghai, China, Trip.com changed its name from Ctrip to minimize its "Chinese image" and is focusing on penetrating the global market. In particular, it is rapidly expanding its share of the domestic inbound travel market through discount codes and lowest-price marketing.
According to the data analysis firm IGAWorks, Trip.com ranked first in new travel-related app downloads in January with 340,000 installs. This is notable when compared to domestic platforms like Good Choice (Yeogi Eottae) at 280,000 and Nol Universe (Yanolja) at 220,000.
In terms of user numbers as of May, it ranked 4th (1,416,177 people), following 1st place NOL (3,657,812), 2nd place Good Choice (3,599,593), and 3rd place Agoda (1,868,586). This is higher than Airbnb (1,184,215).
This is due to their low-price strategy. In fact, when checking flight prices for a 6-day, 5-night trip to Osaka, Japan, for late June, Trip.com indicated that a purchase was possible for 100,000 won. This was about 50,000 won cheaper than other travel platforms. A representative for a domestic travel platform explained, "Since overseas travel involves high costs—anywhere from a minimum of 1 million won to over 10 million won—customers try to book at the lowest possible price," adding, "(Trip.com) is flooding the market with lowest-price products backed by Chinese capital, which is why domestic platforms are struggling."
This is also translating into performance. In the January rankings for flight ticket issuance market share based on the Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP), Trip.com ranked 5th with a market share in the 5% range. It has shown a consistent upward trend, following 2022 (13th), 2023 (8th), and 2024 (6th). Its ticketing performance also reached 44.9 billion won, nearing the 47 billion won of 4th-place Yellow Balloon Tour104620.
Alibaba Also Moves to Capture Korean Customers
Alibaba has also entered the travel market in earnest through its affiliate, AliExpress. It has officially launched and begun operating a dedicated travel section, "AliExpress Travel." Promoting the slogan, "For overseas travel, AliTravel is enough," it emphasizes easy booking and exceptional benefits.
AliExpress Travel highlights that, in conjunction with Fliggy, the Alibaba Group's online travel platform, users can book over 1.5 million global hotels, more than 25,000 direct flights, and tickets for over 8,000 tourist attractions and theme parks all at once. Furthermore, it plans to provide real-time consultation and support throughout the entire travel process, including booking, payment, and cancellations, by operating a Korean-language customer service center for Korean consumers at all times.
While domestic firms Nol Universe (Yanolja) and Good Choice are still ahead in various metrics like Monthly Active Users (MAU), there are concerns that the strategies of Chinese companies leveraging massive capital, such as Trip.com and AliExpress Travel, could destabilize not only the domestic OTA market but the entire travel ecosystem.
According to data submitted by the Korea Consumer Agency to Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Hyun-jung last September, while consumer complaints against overseas OTAs have surged, Trip.com and Agoda accounted for approximately 71.5% of total damage relief claims. These claims have increased explosively, rising from 241 cases in 2021 to 498 in 2022, 820 in 2023, and reaching 846 already by August 2024.
The CEO of one travel agency pointed out, "Trip.com is the entity that advertises most heavily on TV and YouTube," adding, "Because they are based overseas, the level of dissatisfaction among domestic consumers is quite high." He added, "Since it is a Chinese company, it seems worth considering the implications of customers' travel-related data being accumulated, as well as the potential for accidents arising from that."