Ticket booking revenue in the third quarter was 17.7 million yuan

But almost at the same time that Ctrip announced its dividend distribution, news came that eLong could not acquire a ticketing agency due to its foreign investment background. Relevant reports stated that "a responsible person from the North China Administration of Civil Aviation said that enterprises can currently participate in the operation and management of ticketing agencies through forms such as capital injection and equity participation. However, since eLong has sold 30% of its shares to the American IAC company and has already entered the U.S. securities market, it is determined to have a foreign investment background. According to current domestic policies, foreign enterprises are not allowed to operate air passenger services." According to relevant staff members of Hainan Airlines, "different ticket sales volumes determine the discount levels enjoyed by a ticketing agency. This traditional market rule also applies to the electronic ticket market. Without a large ticketing agency network, there is no talk of ticket sales volume, scale cannot be achieved, profits cannot be discussed, and the enterprise cannot stand firm in this market." To quickly develop its ticketing business, Ctrip almost replicated its mature hotel reservation business model. In April 2002, Ctrip acquired Beijing Coast Ticketing Agency Company, one of the top five ticketing agencies in North China. Subsequently, its national central ticket reservation system was officially launched, covering ten cities with ticket delivery services. On the other hand, traditional ticketing agencies are organized through an agency association, where members must pay membership fees; additionally, adopting a unified booking system requires paying an initial installation fee of 3,000 yuan to the development company—Aviation Information Network Co., Ltd., and afterward, for each ticket sold, 5 yuan must be paid to Aviation Information Network. Relatively high thresholds have scared away many operators with low profit margins, leaving them no choice but to sell black tickets. "Ctrip believes it has found the right path." When CEO James Liang initially targeted the ticket reservation business, many people expressed doubts. "Although electronic tickets have not yet appeared domestically, similar to hotel reservations, ticket reservations require delivery but are not bulky goods, nor do they require inventory concerns, and guest payments are not difficult to resolve. We believe the timing is ripe." Announcing dividends first drew much attention to Ctrip. It is reported that this will be Ctrip's first announcement of a dividend plan since its listing on NASDAQ in 2003. On the day the message was announced, Ctrip's stock price increased by $3.71 per share, with a growth rate exceeding 8%. Seeing these benefits, "long-time rival" eLong also announced its development plan just one month after its IPO, with CEO Tang Yue confidently stating, "eLong is fully capable of acquiring the currently top-selling domestic ticketing agency." Clearly, the target is also aimed at the domestic aviation industry, which has performed quite well this year. At this point, a quiet battle for ticketing agency dominance between travel websites has begun. eLong's new plan directly targets Ctrip. "Background controversy" Ctrip's dividends, small tickets make big contributions Experts summarized that Ctrip and eLong have similar risk investment backgrounds, both relying on acquisitions of smaller traditional hotel reservation companies to achieve their first pot of gold, and both rapidly growing into industry leaders within two to three years. Some insiders were puzzled by the information: if being listed on NASDAQ automatically counts as a foreign company, how should Ctrip's similar actions be explained? One claim is that when Ctrip acquired Beijing's largest individual ticket service company—Beijing Coast Aviation Service Company—it was not yet listed, and relevant regulations should apply to listed companies. It is introduced that part of this cash will be used to acquire medium and small-sized ticketing agencies with business models similar to eLong's. Facing eLong's offensive, Ctrip displays a calm demeanor of "meeting force with force." Data shows that the primary ticketing agencies acquired by Ctrip several years ago, including "Coast Tickets," have long been operating smoothly together, forming an efficient ticketing network around Ctrip. However, compared to domestic medium and small-sized ticketing agencies, eLong and Ctrip, these larger-scale enterprises with foreign investment backgrounds, usually operate more standardly. But some industry experts still explain from another perspective the possibility of Ctrip playing the policy "borderline ball." Obviously, Ctrip undoubtedly has a foreign investment background. Therefore, the news that eLong is prohibited from engaging in booking businesses due to foreign investment seems inconsistent. Thus, competing for limited ticketing agencies has become the urgent task for Ctrip and eLong. According to the third-quarter financial report published by Ctrip, it is clearer that the third-quarter ticket reservation revenue was 17.7 million yuan, an increase of 34% from the second quarter's 13.2 million yuan. Ticket reservation revenue grew by 159% compared to the same period last year, with the total number of tickets sold reaching 490,000, an increase of 26% from the second quarter and 165% from the same period last year. The commission per ticket also increased from 34 yuan in the second quarter to 36 yuan. Clearly, the substantial revenue growth mainly benefits from the expansion of Ctrip's hotel supply network and the increase in user groups. Another main character in this battle—eLong claims to currently hold $80 million in cash flow, with $60 million coming from IAC, the world's largest American online travel service company. This decision changed the original plan to go public in June of this year. Tang Yue believed that "introducing IAC funds helps eLong go public." Because a familiar authoritative company joins, recognized by American investors, representing, to some extent, overseas capital's recognition of eLong. At 15:22 on December 16, 2004, according to investigations by reporters: Ctrip is a travel service company formed by absorbing overseas venture capital. Before going public, it received three rounds of overseas venture capital investments, involving nearly $18 million. In 1999, when Ctrip was founded, major investments included the American Carlyle Group, Japan's SoftBank, and America's IDG, among others. Among them, in October 1999, Ctrip accepted IDG's first round of investment, in March 2000 accepted the second round of investment led by Japan's SoftBank; in November 2000, it acquired Modern Express, the earliest and largest traditional booking center domestically, thereby becoming China's largest hotel distributor, and in the same month, accepted the third round of investment led by the American Carlyle Group. When Ctrip became the first Chinese concept stock to distribute dividends, everyone knew that tickets could make money, but there was a distinction between domestic and foreign entities.