In other words, in the past five years, all products on the “Vacation” channel came from Tuniu. At the same time, Tuniu is also the preferred partner of JD’s air ticket and hotel business.
Five years have passed. In June of this year, JD.com transferred all of Tuniu’s shares to Caesars Group for 460 million yuan (approximately US$66.63 million). At that time, Tuniu’s market value shrank by 97% due to the epidemic.
After untied from Tuniu, the cooperation between JD.com and Ctrip has brought new imagination to JD.com’s liquor business. JD.com and Ctrip have a similar customer base, namely the urban business group with high spending power. After Ctrip’s supply link enters JD.com, customers can buy one-stop and have a better experience.
However, it is precisely because JD’s customer base overlaps with Ctrip, so for Ctrip, JD is not the best choice for a new traffic pool.
After the news of Liang Jianzhang’s secret meeting of Xiaoyaozi came out, the industry has more speculation. After all, compared to JD.com, Ali’s traffic pool is more diverse and can complement Ctrip. In addition, Ali has more desires for Ctrip. Cooperation with Ctrip will help Ali increase its competition with Meituan.
For e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba and JD.com, Ctrip is a unique and huge “merchant” in China’s current Internet commerce. Not only do they have a complete supply chain and huge inventory, but they can also make up for their shortcomings in the wine industry, making them a highly sought-after partner.
In this way, we might as well make a bold assumption. The cooperation between Ctrip and JD.com is more like an increase in bargaining chips for negotiations with Ali. Similar incidents have occurred in the history of Internet business. Meituan Wang Huiwen once disclosed to the media that Meituan once “helped raise the price” when Ali bought Ele.
Now the cooperation between Ctrip and JD has been finalized. For Ali, the stronger the sense of crisis, the more chips Liang Jianzhang has.
Image source: Visual China｜Responsible editor: Jing Yu