Has Taobao's "QuA" revolutionized online travel?

Taobao gave birth to another son, named "QuA".

This little son, who was born with a jade in his mouth, has famous older brothers and sisters such as Alipay, Tmall, Juhuasuan, Taodiandian, etc. This newborn may break the situation of the two-headed competition in online travel between Ctrip and Qunar.

Alibaba Group announced that it will upgrade its Aviation and Travel Business Unit to Aviation and Travel Business Group, and “Taobao Travel” to a new independent brand “Ali Travel·Go”.

Even at the press conference, whether it was a slip of the tongue or a slogan, Li Shaohua shouted the slogan "Where to go is not important, the key is to go", challenging Qunar to become the leader in the vacation market. Isn't the online travel market, where Ctrip, Qunar, eLong, Tongcheng and Lvmama are fighting fiercely, an absolute red ocean? Why did Alibaba enter?

First of all, the online travel market is a market that is far from saturated and has not been fully developed, so there is enough room for development.

There are four Chinese companies listed in the United States that focus on online travel: Ctrip, which was listed in 2003, eLong, which was listed in 2004, Qunar, which was listed in 2013, and Tuniu, which was just listed in 2014.

Currently, Ctrip's market value is about US$7.5 billion, Qunar's market value is US$3.1 billion, and the total market value of the four companies is about US$12 billion. But these four companies are far from the end of this market. iResearch predicts that the online travel booking market will reach a scale of RMB 500 billion in 2017.

Even without data support, everyone has seen that China's tourism demand has been strong after the expansion of its GDP. In the next few years, a large part of China's domestic demand will come from tourism consumption. In addition, the traditional tourism industry will continue to go online, and the market dividends of online tourism are far from being exhausted. It is not even time for these rivals to go to war: there is more than enough room for development.

Secondly, it is Alibaba’s own need to expand its business.

Although online travel appeared on Alibaba's Taobao very early, Taobao Travel was only tepid when Ctrip and Qunar were conquering the market. Alibaba was busy with clothing and food. Alibaba moved almost all physical goods online, and finally landed on the New York Stock Exchange on September 19, 2014. The dividends of traditional goods have basically disappeared, and Alibaba and JD.com have divided them up. Alibaba began to split up and enter some vertical fields for intensive cultivation. For example, cars will be a main product of Tmall during this year's Double Eleven, and Tmall has reached an agreement with Tesla; as for online travel, it was originally Taobao Travel Channel, so it is reasonable to take it out to impact the market worth hundreds of billions.

Of course, QuAi, which started very late, is still just a little brother. In the eyes of Ctrip and Qunar, the share of QuAi is "negligible."

Although they say so, their bodies are honest. Ctrip and Qunar are not stupid enough to be indifferent to this. A giant like Alibaba may be playing around with Laiwang, but when it comes to vertical e-commerce, it is an existence that cannot be ignored. I believe Ctrip and Qunar are already on high alert.

Jack Ma is thoughtful enough in his actions: amid the excitement of Alibaba's IPO, Alibaba invested 2.8 billion yuan in a company called Shiji Information.

The two companies have been flirting with each other for a long time. In April 2014, Shiji Information announced a strategic cooperation agreement with Alibaba, reaching a comprehensive strategic cooperation consensus on the direct connection between Taobao Travel and hotel information systems, Taodiandian and catering information systems, and the promotion of Alipay and the company's product channels.

What does this company do? Shiji Information is one of the most important comprehensive solution providers for hotel information management systems in China. According to its official website, 90% of the information management systems of five-star hotels in China come from Shiji Information, and nearly 6,000 hotels use Shiji Information's services.

Jack Ma does things like playing chess, he lays out the plan first. With Shiji Information, we have an information management system that can connect to 90% of the five-star hotels in China, so that all our services can be integrated with the hotels.

QuAi is a product of Alibaba, so it naturally bears the imprint of Jack Ma. Jack Ma's point of view is that he disdains dirty, tiring and low-quality work, and only focuses on the ecosystem and the most profitable model. Therefore, QuAi will continue the path of Taobao as a platform, and will not learn the "mouse cement" OTA model of Ctrip.

In this respect, QuA is more similar to Qunar, both of which are platform models, importing traffic to merchants and collecting advertising fees. The difference is that QuA is a travel merchant stationed on Taobao. QuA's profit model is similar to Taobao Tmall, charging advertising fees for direct trains, etc. Qunar attracts a large number of customers through Baidu, and then imports customers to various online merchants selling air tickets and hotels. In essence, it is Baidu's traffic sales model.

Relatively speaking, QuA has stronger constraints on merchants. Through the credit evaluation mechanism, store rules and Alipay evaluation system established by Taobao, QuA can manage the merchants that have settled in. As a vertical search platform, Qunar is only responsible for finding the cheapest air tickets and hotel information, but it is difficult for it to have a large constraint mechanism on information providers across the entire network.

In the scenario described by QuA, "Hotel Postpay" is an important function. It allows users to check in directly at the hotel front desk without swiping pre-authorization or paying a deposit. When checking out, there is no need to queue up to pay. You can leave the hotel by handing in the room card, and the room fee will be automatically deducted from the user's Alipay account.

Another function is "user affinity". After consumers use Yu'ebao to purchase travel products from QuA, the money they paid is not "spent" but remains in their Yu'ebao accounts, but becomes frozen. Until "confirmation of receipt", consumers can continue to enjoy the Yu'ebao benefits brought by this money.

Both products use Ant Financial's Alipay products: Yu'ebao and Alipay Wallet. Through Alipay's powerful mobile payment function, users can avoid the trouble of front desk registration and check-out, improving the user's check-in experience. If it can be implemented, it will definitely change the rules of the industry.

The product "User Yuan" is about to penetrate the supply chain finance chain of the tourism industry: using the pre-sale user's advance payment to invest or lend is not the main profit model of the tourism industry, but it can also bring considerable profits. Now Quaa is using Alibaba's innovation in Internet finance to change the rules and gameplay, which is a fatal backhand.

Entering the era of mobile Internet, channels are becoming more and more diversified. Neither Taobao's platform nor Baidu's search is the only monopoly entrance. Merchants such as air ticket dealers and hotels hope to strengthen their own brands to reduce their dependence on channels. OTA models such as Ctrip are facing the danger of being bypassed (large hotels have an increasing proportion of direct sales). In addition, merchants directly own the entrance to the mobile Internet, such as WeChat public accounts, Alipay wallet service windows and mobile Taobao.

If Qunar can integrate Alibaba's mobile portal well, it will give merchants more imagination in the mobile field. It will be easier than the investment relationship between Baidu and Qunar, and Tencent and Ctrip.

The capital market has given the best answer. Half a day after the announcement, Alibaba’s stock price broke through $100 for the first time since its listing.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.