China opens anti-monopoly probe into largest booking platform Trip.com

Home-stay operator Gary Huang is now offering his service at nightly rates same as more than 10 years ago, as Trip.com’s frequent discount campaigns force them to cut prices to remain visible on China’s dominant booking platform.

In this photo illustration the Trip.com logo seen displayed on a smartphone. Photo by ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters

"The promotion campaigns now are almost a daily routine," said Huang, who asked to use his self-given English name out of concern of speaking out against Trip.com, as quoted by Bloomberg.

"We have to constantly cut prices at least 15% to attract travelers. We have no choice but to go along with the price cuts."

On Jan. 14, the State Administration for Market Regulation launched an investigation into Trip.com – which operates its own booking platform alongside Skyscanner, Ctrip, Qunar and Travix – over allegations of abusing its "dominant market position" and engaged in "monopolistic practices."

The investigation followed years of complaints over data-driven price discrimination and rising commission fees, said Alberto Vettoretti, managing partner at consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates, as cited by South China Morning Post.

Industry groups have accused Trip.com of "abusing its market position" by using algorithms to intervene in pricing and by imposing forced exclusivity, which requires merchants to sell only on one platform, he said.

In December, The Yunnan Provincial Tourism Homestay Industry Association said it had received multiple complaints from member businesses that some online travel agencies, such as Trip.com, abused their dominant market positions to carry out unfair practices, according to Reuters.

The practices include coercive clauses, arbitrary commission hikes and blocking internet traffic, the association's statement said. The association had started an anti-monopoly campaign, it added.

Trip.com controls about 56% of China’s online travel market, according to China Trading Desk, and has grown into one of the world’s largest booking sites.

Its dominance has helped fuel domestic tourism’s recovery: nearly 5 billion trips were logged in the first three quarters of 2025.

But the rise in dominance also came with more controlling power. Brian Linden, co-founder of the Linden Centre hotels in southwestern Yunnan province, said that Trip.com remained a key source of customers but was also "the only one in town and controlling access to so many travelers."

He added that the company had long valued its relationship with Trip.com, "but at the same time there are some complications because they are so large."

Trip.com has gradually cemented its position as the primary gateway for domestic flight and hotel bookings, making market entry increasingly difficult for new rivals, said Bian Siyu, an assistant researcher at Beijing-based think tank Anbound.

With consumer spending remaining weak, hotels and other suppliers have become more reliant on online platforms, Bian added.

Trip.com’s profit outweighs that of thousands of hotels. It reported net income of CNY29.1 billion (US$4.1 billion) in the first three quarters of 2025, while the combined profit of roughly 1,600 hotels in Beijing over the same period was only CNY1.2 billion yuan, according to Bian’s estimates.

To ensure that hotel operators will list their residences exclusively on the platform, Trip.com classifies merchants into different tiers, with so-called "Special Merchants" receiving the highest levels of exposure and traffic, according to industry insiders.

However, these top-tier merchants are generally barred from listing their offerings on competing platforms such as Alibaba’s Fliggy, ByteDance’s Douyin or Meituan.

Merchants not subject to such exclusivity arrangements said they were nonetheless effectively forced to offer the lowest prices on Trip.com’s Ctrip booking platform or face a range of penalties, including reduced visibility in search rankings.

Analysts said regulators initiated the probe as they sought to rein in prices amid subdued consumption. Trip.com has said it would "actively cooperate" with the investigation.

The probe is believed to set the stage for further cases, particularly over commission structures, exclusivity arrangements and the use of advanced pricing algorithms.

"If a platform is no longer just matching buyers and sellers but effectively deciding how an industry functions, regulatory logic shifts from correcting behavior to preventing market governance from being ‘privatized’," Vettoretti said.

Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics in Hong Kong, said that recent policy signals seem to indicate that the State Administration for Market Regulation would be allowed to take more aggressive actions against firms this year."

"There seems to be a tentative merging of anti-monopoly enforcement into the anti-involution campaign," he said, referring to cutthroat pricing criticized by senior officials.

China revised its Anti-Unfair Competition Law last year, adding provisions aimed at the country’s largest online platforms, including clauses addressing the abuse of an "advantageous position" by major enterprises.

Chinese authorities have in the past targeted multiple big tech companies to curb what they see as unfair competition that distorts the market environment.

In 2021, it slapped a record CNY18 billion yuan fine on Alibaba after an anti-monopoly probe found the e-commerce giant had abused its dominant market position for several years.

Trip.com said in a statement that it would "continue to collaborate with industry stakeholders to foster a healthy and sustainable market environment."