Recently, Tujia – also known as the “Airbnb of China”- announced that its orders set a new record, with single-day orders exceeding 56,000 room nights. It was the first time for Tujia to disclose its single-day order data, and such data constitutes the highest single-day transactions recorded among those publicly disclosed in the house sharing field in China so far.
Analysts in this sector hold that Tujia’s renewing order records signifies that house sharing is being favored by an increasing number of Chinese users. It probably marks the beginning of a new round of explosive market growth in the coming 6 to 12 months.
The news of single-day orders exceeding 56,000 room nights was released by Tujia on August 5. As the leader of house sharing in China, Tujia is also known as the “Airbnb of China.” In August 2015, Tujia raised USD 300 million of financing at an estimated valuation surpassing USD 1 billion. Tujia host an inventory of 430,000 online properties, covering 312 destinations in mainland China and 1000+ of those overseas. First launched on December 1, 2011, Tujia maintains an annual transaction growth of 300% Y2Y.
On June 22, 2016, Tujia announced the acquisition of mayi.com, another leading enterprise in China’s house sharing sector. The disclosed transaction data also includes orders from mayi.com. Orders on mayi.com have enjoyed substantial growth in the past two months trailing the announcement of merge, with daily average orders reaching 10,000 room nights, five times the number before the M&A. The merger with mayi.com is deemed to be an important strategy of Tujia in an effort to consolidate its leading position in the Chinese market.
Other data disclosed showed that the number of Tujia’s core users was increasing with improved activeness. During summer travel season, family outing and group travel users consisted over 70% of all users, and orders featuring three-day occupancy and more contributed more than 60% of all the room nights. Multiple persons staying together or staying for multiple days has become a notable characteristic of Tujia users. Since 2013, Tujia has started to step in international market mostly focusing on outbound travel for Chinese customers. The current focus is on the top vacation destinations for Chinese customers, i.e. Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea. Tujia’s overseas transaction amount also maintains rapid growth.
Market analysts are of the following opinion: Tujia’s renewing transaction records signifies that house sharing is being favored by an increasing number of Chinese users. It probably marks the beginning of a new round of explosive market growth in the coming 6 to 12 months. After over five years of market cultivation, it is estimated that at least tens of millions Chinese consumers have familiarized and adopted the new house sharing model. China has recorded a 4 billion domestic man trips and 120 million overseas man trips in 2015. The potential market size for house sharing in China is far from being saturated. Meanwhile, major platforms like Tujia have insisted on quality management on a long-term basis, thus establishing trust from users for this new type of accommodation. This is also a significant basis for rapid market growth in the future.
