Allied Capital Inc Follows Qunar Gains on Mobile Adoption Surge
Allied Capital Inc follows online travel service Qunar Cayman Islands Ltd as the company surges on mobile application bookings.
New York city, New York, June 12, 2015 (Newswire.com) - The Beijing based online travel agency Qunar Cayman Island Ltd, which was spun off from its parent, Chinese online giant Baidu Inc last year has released figures detailing the surge of bookings made by customers using its mobile device applications. Qunar announced that 50% of its total hotel bookings had been made by users of its mobile app and air travel reservations were at a new record for the service.
These strong figures helped Qunar gain a significant edge of its main competitor in the rapidly growing online travel market in China, Ctrip.com International Ltd. So pronounced was this disparity that the markets saw Qunars’s stock surge 11% for the largest single gain since the company’s debut in November bringing its total gains to 99% from its debut listing price. As Qunar was gaining rapidly, Ctrip suffered a 7.9% loss in value leading the losses on the U.S-China Equity Index of Chinese stocks being traded in N.Y.
“Ahead of its spinoff from Baidu in November a lot of people familiar with Chinese travel patterns were expecting big things from Qunar and they haven’t been disappointed. We’re just coming into the biggest single travel period for a country of a billion people of whom a large percentage utilize online travel services, in particular from mobile devices and smart phones, just the niche that Qunar has perfected” detailed Asia Desk Analyst for Allied Capital Inc, Lilly Wang
Even with this week’s seemingly one sided race between Qunar and Ctrip, most analysts see the rivals as being far more evenly matched than the numbers might suggest. With both companies experiencing solid gains in the last quarter of 2013 in terms of both revenue and market share, they are both well placed to capitalize on travelers in Asia of the Chinese Lunar New Year’s period, the busiest such period in Asia.
“The online travel business in China, massive though it is, is only just staring to grow. This gives plenty of growing room for even more than just the two frontrunners Qunar and Ctrip. Both make very good investments at this time with Ctrip getting a slight edge due to its depressed prices at this point in time” concluded Lilly Wang of Allied Capital Inc.