Taobao Quietly Launches Train Ticket Proxy Purchase Service: One-Month Trial Period
On October 25, news broke that Alipay had entered the bidding process for a solution with the railway department and had completed the payment technology plan for the 12306 website. They were set to launch a train ticket purchase service via Alipay. Yesterday, Taobao Travel quietly launched a trial version of its train ticket proxy purchase service. Prior to this, 12306 was the sole online ticket purchasing channel for the railway department.
Upon logging into Taobao Travel, the booking page features the words "Train Tickets Beta." Selecting it brings up the proxy train ticket purchase page. After choosing the desired train schedule, select the seller, fill out the order, and make the payment. The seller will then issue the ticket. Upon successful issuance, you will receive a confirmation SMS and a notification through Wangwang. However, the booking page also indicates: "Train ticket availability is tight, we cannot guarantee 100% ticket issuance. Please understand."
During the ordering process, it can be seen that when purchasing train tickets through Taobao Travel, the entire ordering and ticket issuance process is completed by its partner, Ganhuocheticket.com.
"We do not charge handling fees. The entire ticket purchasing process, as well as subsequent ticket collection and boarding, are basically the same as the model on the 12306 website," relevant staff from Taobao Travel stated, adding that this month is still in the trial phase.
It is understood that as early as the beginning of June this year, China Railway Construction Investment Company had announced that Alipay had become the "preferred bidder" for the third-party payment partner tender project for railway ticket electronic payments. The announcement showed that the publicly tendered electronic payment partners would provide online payment services based on third-party customer accounts for China's railway internet and mobile WAP ticket sales, with a service term of 3 years.
Informed sources said that since the Ministry of Railways was split into the National Railway Administration and China Railway Corporation, the monopoly on train ticket sales has been completely broken. The previously forcibly halted train ticket proxy purchase business by the former Ministry of Railways is quietly being restored on various platforms.