Big story in the travel industry today with the news that Chinese giant Trip.com (formerly Ctrip) has entered into a joint venture with another big name, reviews platform TripAdvisor.
This includes a global content-licensing agreements for TripAdvisor content, which could now be used across the Trip.com suite of brands which includes Skyscanner and a stake in Indian travel agent Make My Trip.
The Ctrip group recently re-branded their group as Trip.com Group. You can see the re-branded stock on your app.
(And of course many other local and niche players for other use cases)
Each of these big apps is looking to differentiate in different ways. Skyscanner is moving towards a marketplace model where you can book direct with the providers it shows, directly on the Skyscanner app. And Airbnb hired an aviation stalwart as Head of Transportation to explore ideas outwith their core accommodation offering.
At the same time, there also partnerships between many of them, e.g. you can book hotels on Booking.com via the Hotels section on Skyscanner, and Airbnb can also be found on one or two other travel apps, such as Hipmunk.
There’s a long way to go, but everyone wants to be the ‘Amazon of travel’.
Hi @Robbo545 — as @fte mentioned, Trip.com is available in the Basic Account but not available in the ISA.
This for regulatory reasons around recognised stock exchanges by the HMRC. There are a couple of other stocks which fall into this category, such as Alibaba and Baidu.
What happened with TCOM? The price looks to have been ~10x lower on freetrade for over a year compared with all other sources. Then today is has gone up to match.
Would the $5 price have been honoured? Should have gotten in yesterday if so.