Trip.com lays out big plans for expansion

Globalization will be the key word for the company's development strategy in the next decade, said Liang Jianzhang, founder of China's largest online travel agency Trip.com, formerly known as Ctrip.

Liang made the statement at the travel agency's 20-year anniversary celebration, held in Shanghai on Tuesday. It is the company's three-year target to grow into the largest global travel agency in Asia. Trip.com should aim to be the world's largest travel agency in five years' time, he said.

Southeast Asia will be a key target market for the company's globalization strategy in the next three to five years, Liang said. The large population in this area, especially the large younger consumer group, can be translated into huge market potential, he added.

Founded in 1999, Trip.com only had 784 users by the end of that year. But its number of users exceeded 400 million by the end of September, among which 100 million are overseas. The company's users only made an average of two orders on the website in 1999, with prices of each order coming in at around 750 yuan ($106). But users made 14 orders on average via Trip.com in 2018, with the price of each order reaching over 1,600 yuan.