Alongside the release of its latest earnings report, Trip.com Group announced that two of its co-founders, Mr. Min Fan and Mr. Qi Ji, have stepped down from their respective board positions. Both were core members of the company’s founding team in 1999 and, together with James Liang and Neil Shen, were known as the company’s “founding quartet” — the architects of what has grown into China’s largest OTA platform.
The announcement comes amid heightened regulatory scrutiny. On January 14, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said that, following preliminary reviews and in accordance with China’s Anti-Monopoly Law, it has formally opened an antitrust investigation into Trip.com Group over suspected abuse of market dominance.
Mr. Fan played a pivotal role in building the company’s internal operating system. Over the years, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer. During his tenure as CEO from 2006 to 2013, he led the establishment of standardized service systems and drove the large-scale expansion of the company’s air ticketing, hotel and vacation businesses, laying the groundwork for Trip.com’s rise to industry leadership. After Liang returned as CEO, Fan transitioned to Vice Chairman of the board and President, continuing to contribute at the governance level.
Mr. Ji was one of the company’s early co-CEOs. Around 2000, he co-led the company with Liang before gradually shifting his focus to the hotel sector. He later founded Home Inns, and separately founded Hanting, which was integrated into what became H World — now a major player in China’s hospitality industry. Despite pivoting to hotel entrepreneurship, Ji remained a long-serving Trip.com director and maintained close ties with the company. In 2020, at Trip.com’s 20th anniversary celebration, the four co-founders made a rare joint appearance, symbolizing the enduring bond of the founding team.
The successive resignations of the two co-founders from the board signal that Trip.com is entering a new phase increasingly led by professional managers, marking the gradual retreat of the founding generation from the core of corporate governance.
