While major players in the online travel industry were battling it out from air tickets and hotels to attraction tickets in 2014, UGC-based travel internet companies were also upgrading their platforms, leveraging massive user bases and content to build their own business ecosystems.
In April 2014, the developers behind "On The Way," the first domestic travel recording and sharing app, quietly ventured into mobile O2O by launching a new app called "Taobao On The Way." This is the company’s second app release in two years, following "On The Way." On April 28, "Taobao On The Way" will kick off a major promotion on travel products, subsidizing users with millions of yuan and offering dozens of discounted domestic and international travel packages.
Taobao On The Way adopts the product philosophy of “Travel Like a Local”: leveraging LBS technology and the team’s strong technical and product supply chain resources, it accurately recommends discounted, high-quality leisure and vacation options through a travel booking platform based on the user’s location.
Pu Minghui, co-founder and CMO of the On The Way app, made this analogy: if Qunar’s model is like a Carrefour supermarket, and Ctrip’s is like a department store, then he and his team at On The Way prefer to see "Taobao On The Way" as a “24-hour convenience store” that travelers can access anytime, anywhere, both domestically and abroad—offering practical, discounted, and convenient services for quality-conscious travelers.
“Our proposal of the Travel Like a Local concept is neither an innovation nor a disruption, but rather a down-to-earth realization of what travelers truly value. Right now, the big names in the online travel industry are scrambling for the mobile market, but there’s still a lack of a truly personalized, convenient mobile online booking platform tailored for in-depth, independent travelers. Taobao On The Way aims to fill that gap,” said Pu Minghui.
From the perspective of Tang Yibo, President of On The Way, “Taobao On The Way”—an app based on LBS technology and the platform’s extensive UGC content, focusing on leisure travel and discounted flight & hotel packages—is a redefinition of independent travel.
“In the past, when we talked about booking travel products, it was the model first advocated by Ctrip’s vacation packages. But now, international travel has become commonplace, and people no longer settle for sightseeing from a bus and taking photos—that kind of superficial travel. I remember a report from the China Tourism Academy last year on outbound tourism showing that China’s outbound travel market is segmenting, with over 40% of travelers going abroad for more than one time. Against this backdrop, traditional airfare + hotel, or even + attraction ticket packages can no longer meet travelers’ needs. Take travelers to Thailand for example—families usually hire a car instead of using public transport. Similarly, visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland often purchase not just the park tickets, but also Hong Kong metro tickets and even all-day dining plans inside the park.
Taobao On The Way provides a convenient travel product booking platform for more travelers with in-depth needs. That’s why we came up with the product slogan ‘self-guided travel, freely booked.’ In addition to selling discounted attraction tickets and other basic travel products, we hope that through LBS technology and the vast amount of UGC content accumulated by On The Way over the past two years, travelers can discover more highlights along the same routes.
Currently, the Taobao On The Way app already offers functions such as curated recommendations of great-value self-guided travel packages; push notifications of discounted travel products based on your location; map view to check the distribution of local tours and quickly understand the best ways to explore various destinations; multi-dimensional filtering to help you find what you want fast; and instant booking for all products—making self-guided travel truly something you can decide on a whim and book on the go.”
Additionally, he revealed that "Taobao On The Way" will hold its first major promotion on April 28. Users can preorder ultra-low denomination vouchers by snapping them up for just 1 yuan between April 25 and April 27, and then log in to the Taobao On The Way app between April 28 and April 30 to book travel products of equivalent value. For instance, users who previously purchased 300-yuan, 500-yuan, and 1000-yuan vouchers for 1 yuan, 2 yuan, and 10 yuan respectively can use them to offset the same value during the promotion period—potentially enjoying ultra-discounted deals such as a 1-yuan Hong Kong five-star hotel self-guided trip. It is reported that subsidies for travelers during the 4.28 promotion will total as much as one million yuan.