Ctrip enters car sharing field

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Ctrip.com (Ctrip), a China's leading online travel-services provider, has officially launched its car sharing business a few days ago, following the launch of the“taxi business”on the front page of its website. The company plans to cut into the car timesharing rental scenario through this business.

Reportedly, Ctrip's car sharing business has covered such first tier cities in China as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and therefore radiated relevant surrounding cities like Tianjin, Yantai, Zhongshan, etc. The vehicles being used include 15 new energy models, such as Beiqi EC200 and Chery EQ, with a total of 10 thousand units.

Wang Yuchen, CEO of Ctrip car unit, stated that in the past the company's attention on car rental was daily and monthly scenarios. However, from the current market demands, those passengers with relatively fragmented time needs have been unable to be ignored. 

Ctrip had frequent actions in car rental field in recent months. Apart from the new label of “taxi”, the company also added a tag of “tailored vehicle and rental car service” on its App's front page with two major options, domestic car and overseas car.

Currently, many players have sprung up in China's car sharing field. In the early of this month, Didi Chuxing, a China's ride sharing giant, launched its car sharing platform, teaming up with 12 automakers, including Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, BAIC BJEV and BYD, to build an open new energy car sharing system in the future. In addition, Meituan.com, Mobike and CAR Inc. have also launched their car sharing services in the past few months.

Some insiders analyze that Ctrip intends to seize the footing of the early market in car sharing field. However, just like the other competitors, it also burdens with plentiful difficulties mainly caused by huge cost, low operating efficiency and unsatisfied user's experience.