Tnooz, Martin Cowen - Alibaba’s Q2s contain some eye-watering bigger picture e-commerce numbers but its response to a question about this week’s Qunar/Ctrip share swap added little to the sum of human knowledge.
Earlier this week Baidu, a majority shareholder in Qunar and one of Alibaba’s big domestic rivals, announced a share swap with Ctrip, resulting in Baidu getting a 25% stake in Ctrip with Ctrip getting a 45% stake in Qunar.
When asked by analysts about this, CEO Daniel Zhang said:
“We observed the deal announced by Baidu and Ctrip. We think the travel market in China is huge, a 500 billion market [currency not specified]
“Chinese people, when their lifestyle is getting better, will enjoy more travel products and services.
“In Alibaba we have our own travel business which has already made a very big progress… we are very happy with this result and business development…we will continue to invest in this travel business because this is the need for the Chinese people, when their lifestyle is getting better.”
Alitrip is Alibaba’s standalone travel business, launched just over a year ago, with statements at the time saying that it wanted Alitrip “to win in a crowded online travel industry dominated by rival Ctrip.”
A lot has happened to Ctrip since that statement was made – a tie-up with Amadeus, a billion dollar fund raise and more cash from Priceline as well as the Qunar tie-up.
Elsewhere, Alibaba’s Q2s reveal some big, big numbers about the business. Its customer base, defined by active annual buyers, is 368 million – bigger than the entire population of the United States.
In lieu of any specific travel metrics, the mobile-commerce figures might prove insightful – mobile sales accounted for nearly two-thirds (62%) of all sales on its China retail marketplaces. In cash terms that equates to RMB10,520 million or $1.7bn. That’s a year-on-year increase in mobile sales of 183%.
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