Fliggy president Zhuoran Zhuang announced in an internal letter (in Chinese) on March 31 that the Alibaba travel unit would start an organizational reform to prepare itself for independent operation in the future.
Travel market and demand are different from that of e-commerce, and Fliggy should build itself into a service-centered and commitment-focused unit, set standards and growth paths for the company’s various talents, and improve the motivation and professional competence of each business line, said Mr. Zhuang.
The company said it was working on an employee share ownership plan and would expand its headcount in technology and ground operation teams.
The travel industry has been severely hit due to Covid-19. Mr. Zhuang admitted that the company would need to “tighten the belt” these two years to adapt to the needs of the industry and the current development stage. Also, the management team should focus on business growth.
The revenue growth rate of Fliggy in 2021 surpassed most rivals’ in China, according to Fliggy’s internal letter, and the NPS (net promoter score) increased by over 10 percentage points.
Before the pandemic, most services purchased on Fliggy were supplied by channel operators, but now over 80% of the company’s hotel transactions are from direct bookings, indicating that Fliggy has transitioned from a user traffic-driven platform to a service-centric platform.
Last July, Alibaba integrated its navigation service Amap, food delivery platform Ele.me and travel unit Fliggy into a life service segment. Fliggy acted as a vertical service platform that supplies hotels, transportation and scenic spot tickets, penetrating into the lifestyle of one billion Chinese users.
Mr. Zhuang emphasized that employees should show entrepreneurial spirit and make efforts to drive business growth, but not focus only on scale expansion and provide quality services to customers.
