Ctrip revenues surge, but losses widen

Ctrip International‘s losses widened slightly in the first quarter of 2015, as rising costs continued to offset higher revenues. The Chinese travel company suffered a net loss of CNY126 million (US$20m) for the first three months of the year, compared to a CNY115m loss in Q1 2014. Ctrip’s revenues surged 46% to CNY2.3 billion, including a 45% increase in accommodation reservation revenues, a 46% rise in transport ticket sales and a 53% jump package tour turnover. But the company’s expenses also continued to soar, with product and development costs rising 83%, sales and marketing expenses up 68% and general admin costs increasing 36%. This caused the company to suffer an operating loss of CNY180m for Q1 2015, compared from an operating profit CNY71m last year. Regardless of this, Ctrip’s chairman & CEO, James Liang, said he was happy with the results. “We are pleased with the strong results delivered in the first quarter of 2015,” said Liang. “The investments that we have made over the past few years continue to gain strong momentum and the majority of our new initiatives grew 200%-800% year-over-year in the first quarter. “We look forward to seeing greater achievements in the coming quarters with our growth strategy and solid execution in technology, products and services,” he added. Ctrip is also making progress in the mobile sector; the company’s mobile app has now reached 800m downloads, an increase of over 550% compared to a year ago. And Ctrip’s mobile channels accounted for approximately 70% of its total online transactions during the first quarter. sourced:traveldailymedia.com