Signage at the Trip.com Group Ltd. headquarters building in Shanghai, China, on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023.
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Shares of Chinese online travel services provider Trip.com plunged nearly 22% in Hong Kong on Thursday after Beijing opened an antitrust probe into the company.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation late Wednesday said it was investigating Trip.com due to “suspected abuse of its dominant market position and monopolistic practices,” according to a CNBC translation of the statement in Mandarin.
Trip.com is the largest online travel provider in Asia by market cap, and one of the biggest globally. The company has stakes in UK flight aggregator Skyscanner, Indian travel company MakeMyTrip, as well as several Chinese travel providers.
Trip.com said in a statement it would “actively cooperate” with the investigation, and added its business operations were functioning as usual.
The probe comes as Chinese tourism is expected to surge this year, with travel marketing and technology firm China Trading Desk estimating that mainland Chinese travelers are expected to take about 165 million to 175 million cross-border trips in 2026, up from an estimated 155 million last year.
