Relying on subsidies to fight, travel rate is a mystery, can everything really be a blind box?
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “CBN Data Center” (ID: CBNData), author: CBNData.
98 yuan to travel, are you excited?
The 26-year-old Ms. Wang exchanged 98 yuan for a round-trip air ticket from Shanghai to Kunming on May 25, and she is about to embark on a “just-go trip”.
Such impromptu travel is not an exception among young people. On April 3 this year, Tongcheng Travel launched a “Blind Box Travel” campaign, which became popular across the Internet for a while. Data shows that during the Qingming period, the event attracted more than 20 million users, and its Douyin and WeChat video account related exposures exceeded 2 million.
The success of Tongcheng has ignited the enthusiasm of the online travel (OTA) platform. Coinciding with the May Day holiday, platforms such as Ctrip.com, Qunar.com, and Fliggy came to an end. # Ticket Blind Box# appeared on Weibo hot searches, and Douyin related topics amounted to more than 360 million.
Along with the slogan “Start as you wish”, the trend of “blind box fever” has blown into the tourism industry.
Market frustration and increased competition: Blind box opens the way to self-help on the OTA platform
The black swan incident of the 2020 epidemic has dealt a heavy blow to the tourism industry. According to data from the 2020 China Online Travel Industry Report, online travel transactions have fallen by 50.9%. In addition, the policy requirements for free ticket refunds and changes have caused huge losses for the airlines. In February alone, China’s civil aviation generated 20 million refunds, with a total amount of more than 20 billion yuan.
Data source: “2020 Online Travel Report Data”
At the same time, huge competitive pressure has taken the opportunity for OTA platforms to breathe. Compared with comprehensive platforms such as Meituan, the OTA platform is more instrumental, its content is scattered and single, and lacks one-stop traffic that attracts users to actively browse.
In recent years, a large number of integrated application platforms have squeezed out the tourism market. According to the “Analysis Report on the Development of China’s Online Hotel Reservation Industry 2019-2020”, Meituan’s hotel room nights in 2019 have reached 110 million, with a market share of 48.7%, surpassing the total of Ctrip.
Vacant cash flow and declining competitiveness, all kinds of pressures are forcing airlines andThe OTA platform strives to innovate and try new businesses. Against this background, the popular blind box economy has become the straw to rescue the OTA platform.
One hundred yuan blind box, full refund, hidden upgrade: use subsidies to drive traffic
Selling air tickets in a blind box game is not the first of OTA (online travel) platforms. Prior to this, many airlines as suppliers have launched such products. At present, there are probably two ways of ticket blind boxes on the market: one is pure platform subsidy, and the other is cooperation between the platform and the airline.
The picture shows the promotional picture of China Southern Airlines “Adventure Travel” activity
Li Chen, vice president of Fliggy and general manager of the ticket business department, explained: “The airline has many routes with low load factor, and there are cases where vacant seats are generated on the old routes after the new routes are opened. Through this new marketing method , Which can help airlines pack their spare capacity and lock in consumer demand in advance.”
As an emotional service product, the machine wine blind box targets Generation Z, which caters to the young people’s gambler psychology of “playing small and big” and the anti-scrolling craze of “just walk away”. Some consumers said: “(Drawing the blind box of the ticket) There is a sense of excitement that disrupts the routine life, like an adventure.”
The data confirms the young people’s obsession with machine wine blind boxes. According to Tongcheng Travel Data, among the users who participated in the ticket blind box, users born in the 1990s accounted for more than 65%, and users born after 00 accounted for 24%. Qunar data shows that Qunar will travel blindly on April 21st. On the first day of box sales, more than 70% of the participants were born after 95.
The blind box gameplay set by each OTA platform is roughly similar: the price of the product is controlled within 100 yuan, of which the ticket blind box of Fliggy and the blind box of train ticket of Qunar only cost 66 yuan; in terms of gameplay, there are mainly The two steps of “assistance + timing blind box”, the number of assists is mostly three; in terms of consumer rights, all platforms have opened the right of full refund, and refunds can be unconditionally within a certain time limit after the box is opened.
The picture shows the screenshot of the second phase of the blind box promotional article of the same journey
In addition, the variety of products is constantly increasing. In the fourth issue of ticket blind box on April 22, Tongcheng launched a two-person, upgraded hidden product; Ctrip launched an additional 699 yuan / 999 yuan hotel blind box; Qunar also added help to unlock routes In the event, every additional three boosters can unlock one more route, and up to ten routes can be unlocked.
The picture shows the Qunar Unlocking the route page | Picture source: Weibo
The speculative and alluring power of the machine wine blind box makes it a powerful tool to revitalize idle resources and increase interactive traffic. The ticket price of less than 100 yuan has greatly reduced the entry threshold, and the “full refundable” rights protection provides consumers with a way out. In addition, hotels and air tickets account for a large proportion of the consumption amount during travel. Blind box products have reduced their prices sharply, effectively reducing the economic burden of travel for users.
The blind box gameplay has brought considerable traffic to the OTA platform. According to the air ticket/hotel blind box rules of each platform, all activities need to download APP; all platform products except the same journey require participants to invite at least 3 friends to be eligible to purchase, and each user can only help others 1 time. In the process of boosting and being boosted, the platform uses the “blind box” as a lever to leverage user growth through fission marketing.
On April 22, after Tongcheng Travel released the second phase of the ticket blind box, its APP rose to the first place in the APP store travel list, and the exposure of Douyin and WeChat video accounts exceeded 200. Million. During May 1st, “Blind Box” ranked 5th in the keyword search rankings of the Ctrip APP, and its search volume soared 40 times, overwhelming many popular destination keywords across the country.
In addition, under the background of the May Day holiday, which is full of travel atmosphere, the machine wine blind box, as an emerging travel product, pushes the travel atmosphere of Chinese people to a climax. According to the 2021 May Day holiday tourism market data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 230 million domestic tourists traveled nationwide during the May Day holiday. According to the comprehensive data of various OTA platforms, compared with the same period in 2019, the number of bookings on Qunar platform has increased by more than 30%, and the number of bookings for Ctrip has increased by 23%.
Use subsidies for traffic, trip rate is unknown
Up to now, the machine wine blind box has attracted mainstream OTA platforms such as Tongcheng Travel, Ctrip Travel, Qunar, Fliggy, etc., and has brought huge traffic to them. However, behind this hot business, there is a dispute over subsidies for the OTA platform.
The routes covered by the ticket blind box products are mostly one-way tickets less than 1,000 yuan in the next 3-30 days. Same journey, Ctrip, and Qunar have publicly stated that most of the air ticket difference is subsidized by the platform. In addition, in order to stand out in this “blind box war”, many platforms have increased their preferential efforts-blind boxes for round-trip air tickets, 15% off hotel coupons… once again increased the burden of subsidies on the platform.
The picture shows the activities of each OTA platform
Picture source: “CondeNastTraveler” magazine official number
The OTA platform exchanges subsidies for traffic, what is the actual rate of return?
According to public information, none of the platforms has announced the final travel rate of the machine wine blind box (the number of blind boxes: the number of successfully redeemed tickets). Ms. Wang, who has bought the ticket blind box many times, told CBNData that she had successfully snapped up the ticket blind box five times on the same journey travel app, but only redeemed the two-way ticket to Kunming during the May Day event. “The ticket time is very random. Some will depart in three days, and some will take about a month. I redeem a round-trip ticket. On this basis, I only need to pay for accommodation, which is relatively cost-effective.”
Word-of-mouth problems frequently occur, and the government calls for rational consumption
Ms. Wang got a ticket that met her expectations, but more participants were not so lucky. The problem of inappropriate travel time and location of cities in the province became their main targets.
In addition, consumers who have blind boxes in hotels of Ctrip said that the price of the blind boxes they bought (999Yuan) is higher than the price of the exchanged product. In response, Ctrip responded: The hotel’s calendar rate is refreshed in real time, and what consumers encounter is that resources are being refreshed in real time. In order to prevent similar situations, Ctrip has set up an anti-inverted screening mechanism, and has also added a manual verification team to assist consumers in purchasing suitable products.
Some consumers have encountered problems during the refund process. Many Weibo users stated that their blind box flights purchased on an OTA platform have been cancelled, and the platform clearly stated that no refunds will be given, and involuntary changes are limited to three days before and after the original date.
The picture is a screenshot of Beijing Quality Report on Weibo
In this regard, Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Protection Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society, called on consumers to consume rationally, and said: “Promotions should be more sincere and less routine, especially the blind box rules should be fair and reasonable. And inform consumers in a significant way.”
For the blind box business, Pao Mart founder Wang Ning has repeatedly stated that “the blind box gameplay itself is not the core competitiveness, but IP is the key threshold.” This is no different from the online travel market. .
For the OTA platform, the greater value of the wine blind box lies in diverting and activating silent users, but without this layer of clothing, how to use the product itself as a competitiveness, truly solve the low passenger load factor transport line and hotel off-season The “Long Tail Market” is the future that OTA platforms, airlines and hotels need to face together.