Looking at the frustrating situation of the ticket hotel booking market from the loss of Ctrip
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Over the past two years, disputes between the two major online travel providers 9588 Travel.com and Ctrip.com, which have caused intense controversy in the industry, have recently become authoritative. The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled that the defendant Shanghai Ctrip Business Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Ctrip) constituted unfair competition. Reimbursement of plaintiff's financial loss on Handheld Aviation Services (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Pocket Navigation Service) was the final judgment.
This case, as the first successful case in the OTA industry, sounded a wake-up call on the unfair competition of peer companies in the search engines to purchase rival brands and trademark keywords, and triggered the OTA industry's reflection on competition and development.
The origin of a lawsuit
The origin of the incident, but also from September 2011, Xiaotong Ping, chairman of Pocketcom, suddenly found a Baidu search "handheld pass", but in the Baidu home page first impressively displayed "Pocket-pass - booking airline on the Ctrip.com", Click on the link to enter the home page of Ctrip. He also searched for the "9588" and "9588 Travel Network" of "9588 Travel Network," a provider travel service site created by Pocket Navigation Services. It was also found that Ctrip's infringing ad was "9588." Travel Network: On Ctrip.com appears on the homepage promotion link.
In the field of search advertising, buying competitor's keywords to launch seems to be a common competitive method. Although it is not fair and righteous, money and resources are overwhelming. This is the strength and coldness of giants in responding to market competition. However, the most important thing that cannot be underestimated is the determination of the challenger. Xiaoqing Ping, a former veteran of the Federal Software & 8848 Executive Director who has extensive experience in the industry, has repeatedly complained of Ctrip after he failed to communicate with the Ministry. Borrowing the weapons of the law, it is the name of the 9588 Travel Network it represents.
For the 9588 Travel Network, the difficulty of litigation lies in: not only does this kind of lawsuit have few successful examples in the country, and the legal means “to fight against the enemy†seems to be more like an opponent's Ctrip’s “good trick.†Sure enough, the lawsuit went through twists and turns: from proof to applicable legal terms, from the first instance to the second instance, and until the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court made a final judgment, the court held: "In this case, Ctrip knew or should have known "9588" and "9588 Travel Network." "Personal Handheld Communication" has already been closely linked with Handheld Communications, and is still used as a keyword to purchase and promote on the Internet, linking to the websites it operates. This practice has violated the principle of good faith and recognized Business ethics."
Thinking Caused by "Win or Win"
In the process of this lawsuit, it is also the wrestling period of domestic OTA. Continuous and fierce "price war", "marketing warfare", "litigation warfare", and "spiritual warfare" stir up the lively tourism and hotel industry market. As an industry giant, Ctrip is eager to use strong measures to further consolidate market share. Although Ctrip is already the current market leader, it does not have an overwhelming advantage. For example, in the area of ​​vertical segmentation, eLong focuses on hotel bookings, donkey mothers focus on ticketing services, and Handheld Aviation Services (Beijing) Co., Ltd.'s 9588 Travel Network has relatively deep accumulation in the area of ​​ticketing.
"Ctrip's practice is due to its own product price ranking does not have an advantage." According to a person in charge of a vertical search field in the country, because in some search results, the rankings are often quite late, so you can only use high prices to buy competitive products and brands.
However, objectively speaking, under the pressure of fierce market competition, it is not just the Ctrip family that adopts such measures. What is worthy of recognition is: After Ctrip accepts the result of the legal judgment, the feedback is also positive and active, conscientiously fulfilling the law and demanding compensation. It is precisely because of this that the verdict of this case has far-reaching implications for the industry: not only does it say "no" from the legal point of view for all kinds of competition that are lacking in the bottom line, but it is bound to prompt the overall thinking of the online travel booking industry: Is it really better than "right or wrong?" "more important?
Differentiate competition to win the user has the future
After more than ten years of market cultivation, the online travel market in China has begun to take shape, showing a broad market prospect. Ctrip's strategy is a "big and full" integration model, and other business travel service providers such as 9588 Travel Network are based on their own advantages, hoping to make breakthroughs in the segmented areas.
From this level of analysis, this case reflects not only the case conflict between Ctrip and the 9588 Travel Network, but also an inevitable contradiction between all industry leaders and strong challengers. The crowded market needs more respect and wisdom. The leader of the industry needs to become a true industry leader. The most important thing is not to use resources and funds to “kill†opponents. Instead, based on user experience and service enhancement, the industry will truly be introduced into a healthy ecosystem.
“The price, service, and user experience are the cornerstones of the industry.†Xiao Qingping, chairman of 9588 Travel Network, pointed out: The “marathonâ€-style lawsuit between China and Ctrip is only a fair outcome for us. What we are more interested in is to promote the industry to establish a healthy competitive order.
For users, in fact, they will not even be interested in the lawsuits of various tourism service providers. Instead, they hope to see that under the fierce competition, those service providers can bring new ideas and resources to the industry and thus make it more accessible. More users benefit from and satisfaction. After all, winning customers with products and services is the right way to deal with future competition.