Trip.com headquarters in Shanghai. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
Trip.com, China’s largest online travel platform, said today it lost 647 million yuan, or $100 million, in the second quarter of 2021, an increase from its loss of 476 million yuan in the same period in 2020. Trip.com reported profit of 1.8 billion yuan in the first quarter. (See announcement here.)
Trip.com’s shares, which trade on the Nasdaq, declined by 3.6% after the announcement. Before the announcement, they had gained 5.7% from a year earlier.
“The company’s overall results for the second quarter of 2021 were negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as subsequent outbreaks driven by new variants of Covid-19,” Trip.com said.
“However, benefiting from the general containment of the Covid-19 pandemic in China, the company’s domestic business has continued to show a strong recovery, which has contributed to substantially all of its total revenue.”
Net revenue totaled 5.9 billion yuan, or $912 million, gaining by 86% year over year and 43% quarter over quarter. The value of domestic hotel and air-ticket purchases increased by about 150% year over year. Compared with the same pre-Covid period in 2019, both domestic hotel and air ticketing reservations had double-digit growth in the second quarter, the company said.
The company said sales and marketing expenses for the second quarter of 2021 increased by 112% to 1.4 billion, or $217 million, from the same period in 2020 and increased by 47% from the previous quarter, accounting for 24% of net revenue.
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Shareholders include China online search leader Baidu, which owns about 11% of Trip.com. The company’s co-founders include billionaires Neil Shen, currently the founding and managing partner of Sequoia China, and Ji Qi, CEO of U.S. listed hotel company Huazhu Group.
Trip.com has investments in at least six hotel and travel businesses in China: BTG Group, Tuniu, Atour, Elong, HomeInns and Huazhu.
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