A year into her role as vice president, product and marketing for Trip.com, and Lynn Qu is taking her experience working for brands such as Microsoft, Expedia and HomeAway (now Vrbo) to take the Ctrip group brand global and using the Chinese edge in native app development to build a super travel app.
Qu, born in Shanghai but left for the US when she was nine years old, made the decision to move back to her home country “because I have always felt the pull of Asia”.
Lynn Qu: “It’s always been on my bucket list to work and live in Asia.”
She started her career with Microsoft during the first round of the dot.com rush, after which she went to a startup “but it didn’t make it”. From there, she went to Expedia and so began her career in the OTA world.
She worked her way up in a tech role and after 10 years of working, decided to take a break when she went to study French. “I wanted to experience living in France and also to do a reset, to clear my head.”
But the call of travel was strong and she took on a product role in Expedia’s London office where she got to work on the HomeAway brand after its acquisition by Expedia. It was in London when she got the call from Ctrip. “It’s always been on my bucket list to work and live in Asia – Singapore, Hong Kong or Shanghai – so sooner or later, I knew I’d make my way back to Asia. When Ctrip found me, it was hard to resist.”
The challenge was also hard to resist. “Ctrip is a very powerful company in China, yet it’s a relatively unknown brand worldwide. It has huge ambitions to scale globally and is trying to find its way. There haven’t been many super successful software companies from China that has had an impact on a global scale.
“Trip.com is a nascent brand and it is super exciting to ride on a giant that is as yet unknown outside China.”
On her plate is a list of hundreds of things to do but Qu has set her priorities. “We continue to grow and we’ve had triple digit growth since its founding two years ago. It’s relatively easier to do that on a small base.”
The bigger challenge is how to fully globalise from an organisational point of view, as well as keep that same DNA that Ctrip is known for – customer service.
“We have call centres in places like Edinburgh, Tokyo and Seoul but building a global business takes time – things are different globally. In terms of scale, we have to look at how to achieve global operational efficiency and maturity. So growing the team to handle international business is critical – call it the internationalization of people.”
Trip.com now has 23 sites in the world servicing 19 different languages and its primary growth driver is currently Asia. It offers flights, hotels, airport transfers, car hire, trains, tours and activities and the idea is to put them all on one platform – that is, to build a super travel app.
“In terms of core competence in native app development, no one does it better than the Chinese and our aim is to build a super travel app to make it easy for customers to book their travel in one spot.”
It benefits from Ctrip’s scale in sourcing and tech but “we are very distinct from each other”, said Qu.
“Although we are learning from the success of Ctrip, Trip.com customers are global – we don’t want to assume that what works for the Chinese will work outside. Each region is very different and we are in the process of learning the different preferences for the global consumer.”
While she admits there is a small overlap – there are English speakers who prior to Trip.com use Ctrip – the two brands are very different. “Ctrip has over 60 products, we have seven products now. We are also different from other OTAs like Expedia, Agoda and Booking.com – our core focus and core advantage is our app, it feels different and ours is better.”
While the bulk of its business is currently within Asia, Qu said its ambitions is to be a global brand. She believes the time is right for an Asia-based brand to go global.
And she could be right. Consider the fact that Ctrip Group has 300 million registered members, giving it formidable leverage and scale to work from, and add to that, the growing reach of the Chinese traveller, and you’ve got a solid foundation for Trip.com to work from.
China’s mobile edge also gives it an advantage in the Asian market where most markets are mobile first. Yet there are differences, she said. “Japan is as big on apps as in Indonesia and South Korea but in those markets, we have the sweet spot.”
The most practical and impactful thing she learnt at Expedia and which she has applied to Trip.com though is the importance of the mobile web.
“In China, the focus is app, app, app. Mobile web is not used by the Chinese but in the rest of the world, mobile web is still very important. A lot of people are searching on their phones and they land on the mobile web. They are not as willing as the Chinese to download apps. You must first build trust.”
Trip.com also has a similar “global scale, locally relevant” philosophy as Expedia. “If you look at the global brands, they have dominance in a home market and then they pivot from something that’s worked really well in their home market to be locally relevant.”
As for whether consumers are ready for a super travel app or a super app, Qu said it takes two forces to converge – the product has to be ready and the market has to be ready – and that’s what Trip.com is working towards. “Some people will only use us to book flights and hotels, but there will be those who want more. We want to have the best product for the global customer.”
Note: Lynn Qu will be speaking at WiT Japan & North Asia, July 4-5, in Tokyo.
