The average MAUs of China’s OTA Tongcheng-eLong (HKG: 0780) increased by 18.5% year-to-year from 173.7 million in Q4 2018 to 205.9 million in Q4 2019 according to its unaudited financial results.
Tongcheng-eLong’s average MPUs increased by 21.5% year-to-year from 22.3 million in Q4 2018 to 27.1 million in Q4 2019.
Its revenue increased by 24.4% year-to-year to RMB1,956.5 million in Q4 2019. And, the adjusted EBITDA increased by 47.7% year-to-year to RMB415.1 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased from 17.9% YoY to 21.2%.
The adjusted profit for Q4 2019 increased by 67.7% year-to-year to RMB 331.1 million in Q4 2019. The adjusted net margin increased from 12.6% in Q4 2018 to 16.9%.
In 2019, the average MAUs of Tongcheng-eLong increased by 17.1% year-to-year from 175.2 million in 2018 to 205.2 million. And, the average MPUs increased by 34.5% year-to-year from 20.0 million in 2018 to 26.9 million.
The total GMV grew by 26.3% to 166.1 billion yuan in 2019. eLong’s paying ratios also increased from 11.4% in 2018 to 13.1% in 2019.
In 2019, Tongcheng-eLong’s total revenue increased by 21.4% from RMB 6,090.8 million in 2018 to RMB7,392.9 million in 2019.
Adjusted profit for the year increased by 35.4% from RMB1,140.7 million in 2018 to RMB1,544.3 million in 2019 and adjusted net margin for the year was 20.9% in 2019, representing an increase from 18.7% in 2018.
As of December 31, 2019, approximately 85.6% of its registered users resided in non-first-tier cities in China. About 62.4% of newly acquired paying users in WeChat were from tier-3 or lower-tier cities in China, which increased from 61.1% over the same period of 2018.
Currently, WeChat users can access its mini program within the WeChat ecosystem through:
1. WeChat Pay (Wallet) portal and a drop-down list of users’ favorite or most frequently used mini programs, which generated an average MAUs of 113.6 million in 2019, accounting for 65.7% of the total average MAUs of its Tencent-based platforms.
2. Interactive advertisements placed on the Tencent-based platforms, which generated an average MAUs of 37.7 million in 2019, accounting for 21.9% of the total average MAUs of its Tencent-based platforms.
3. The sharing and search functions in WeChat, which generated an average MAUs of 21.5 million in 2019, accounting for 12.4% of the total average MAUs of its Tencent-based platforms.
In addition, the average MAUs in its native apps recorded a faster growth than that in WeChat channel in the second half of 2019, mainly due to the expanding investments in marketing and R&D resources.
As of December 31, 2019, Tongcheng-eLong online platforms offered over 6,800 domestic routes and around 1.4 million international routes operated by more than 400 domestic and international airlines, over 2.0 million hotels selections and alternative accommodation options, approximately 346,000 bus routes, over 500 ferry routes and approximately 8,000 domestic tourist attractions ticketing services.
It has launched an accommodation upgrade service “WeChat Payment Point” with Tencent and an online seat selection service for international flights with China Southern Airlines with the implementation of NDC technology.
For the first quarter of 2020, it expects net revenue to decrease by about 42% to 47% year over year due to COVID-19.
In the first quarter and the whole year of 2020, the number of domestic tourists will decrease by 56% and 15.5% respectively according to China Tourism Academy. 2020 will see a decrease of 932 million person-trips. See the forecast here.