Trip.com shares plunge as China opens antitrust probe into company
Trip.com Group Ltd. in Shanghai, China, on Monday, August 28, 2023. The sign on the headquarters building.
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Shares of Chinese online travel services provider Trip.com tumbled nearly 22% in Hong Kong on Thursday after Beijing launched an antitrust investigation into the company.
China State Administration for Market Regulation late Wednesday He said he was investigating Trip.com was “suspected of abuse of its dominant market position and monopolistic practices,” according to CNBC’s Mandarin translation of the statement.
Trip.com is Asia’s largest online travel provider by market value and one of the largest globally. The company has shares UK flight aggregator Skyscanner, indian travel company MakeMyTrip as well as several Chinese travel providers.
Trip.com said in a statement It added that it would “actively cooperate” with the investigation and that business operations were operating as usual.
In a high-profile case, SAMR investigated Chinese tech giant Alibaba in 2021 and imposed a record fine of 18.2 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) on the firm after it was found guilty of monopolistic practices.
The investigation into Trip.com comes as Chinese tourism is expected to increase this year, with the travel marketing and technology firm China Trading Desk Mainland Chinese travelers are expected to make approximately 165 million to 175 million cross-border trips in 2026, up from an estimated 155 million last year.
The Chinese New Year holiday, during which hundreds of millions of people return to their hometowns, will be celebrated from February 5 to February 23.
Travel consultancy Dragon Trail International said in 2025: 501 million Chinese traveled within the country There was an annual increase of 5.9% during the Chinese New Year holiday period. During the period, tourism expenditures increased by 7%, reaching 6.77 billion yuan.
