What’s next for OTAs? 

The growth of online travel users and transactions in China has slowed in the past two years. Has the online travel market hit a bottleneck? Where will the next opportunities arise? As one of the industry titans, Trip.com Group (formerly known as Ctrip) is at the forefront of experimenting with new initiatives to maintain its competitive position in the market.

As Head of Innovation at Trip.com Group, Margaret Feng, shares how they are exploring new offline products and planning how to acquire more customers in lower-tier cities. More importantly, she explains how Trip.com Group is embracing the concept of open innovation by investing in and collaborating with startups. Stay tuned to learn how Trip.com Group runs pilot programs with startups and tests new concepts and technologies in the market.

Show Notes:

01:16  Innovation in the US and China 

04:39 The landscape of the travel Industry in China

06:54 Chinese innovation with global potential

07:49 Exciting travel innovation practices

10:20 Hype around new technology

11:30 China as the early adopter market

13:40 Exploring offline activities 

14:07 Acquiring customers in lower tier cities 

18:13 From “Ctrip” to “Trip.com Group”

19:30 Ctrip expanding to emerging markets

20:25 The collaboration models with startups

23:12 Running pilots 

26:03 Pilots in B2B space

27:24 User experience

29:40 Early stage investment

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos, our guest Margaret Feng, producers Eva Shi and Matthew Wu, editors David and Geep, organizer Chinaccelerator, and sponsor People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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