Since the beginning of this year, the tourism market for holidays such as New Year's Day, Spring Festival, winter vacation, and May Day has continued to be booming. The county-level tourism market has burst into strong vitality, and good news about visas from multiple countries has continued to stimulate people's willingness to travel, resulting in significant growth in tourism consumption. This also helps the Chinese concept stock Tuniu Tourism Network gradually "revive".
Recently, Tuniu released its unaudited first quarter performance report as of March 31, 2024.
According to financial report data, Tuniu's revenue in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 70.9% year-on-year to 108 million yuan; The gross profit is 82 million yuan per person, an increase of 111.0% compared to the same period in 2023; The net profit was 21.9 million yuan, with an adjusted net profit of 27.7 million yuan, a year-on-year turnaround. As of March 31, 2024, the total amount of cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments held by the company was 1.2 billion yuan.
"We are pleased to see that the company's performance continued to maintain a strong growth momentum in the first quarter of 2024," said Yu Dunde, CEO of Tuniu Tourism Network. Tuniu achieved its first quarterly profit since going public, indicating that the company's performance has gradually entered a healthy development track.
In addition to a rebound in performance, another noteworthy change for Tuniu in the first quarter was the change in board members, with JD.com returning to the second largest shareholder list.
Affected by this news, the US stock market opened yesterday and Tuniu rose 12.61% at one point, then continued to decline. As of the close, Tuniu closed flat at $1.11, with a market value of $137 million.
Live streaming transaction volume increased by 71% year-on-year in the first quarter
At present, Tuniu's revenue is mainly divided into two parts, namely packaged tourism product revenue and other revenue, with packaged tourism product revenue accounting for more than 80% of Tuniu's revenue in the long term.
Specifically, according to the financial report, Tuniu's revenue from packaged tourism products in the first quarter was RMB 83 million, an increase of 106.7% compared to the same period in 2023. Tuniu explained in the financial report that this was mainly due to the growth of its group tourism business. In addition, other income was RMB 25 million, an increase of 8.5% compared to the same period in 2023
It is worth mentioning that another growth point of Tuniu in recent years has come from live streaming of liquor and tourism.
According to data released by Tuniu to reporters, the live streaming transaction volume of Tuniu exceeded 440 million in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 71%. In addition, the verification rate of Tuniu's live streaming products has significantly increased. Among them, the verification amount in the first quarter of this year increased by 138% year-on-year, and the verification amount from January to May increased by over 400% year-on-year. As of the end of May this year, the transaction volume and verification amount of Tuniu Live exceeded the full year of 2023.
It is reported that Tuniu's live streaming attempt began in February 2020. After the outbreak of the epidemic, in order to stabilize its customer base and cope with the impact of the epidemic, Tuniu launched online "cloud tourism" through short videos and live streaming. During this period, many tourists had already planned to travel after the epidemic and began to consult in the live streaming room.
While achieving breakthroughs in its self broadcasting business, Tuniu has also developed its MCN institutional business, established a small player MCN, expanded its reach across all channels, and provided a one-stop tourism live streaming training solution for tourism destinations and partners through proxy broadcasting, live streaming, and live training, helping destinations build a sustainable self operated live streaming system.
According to the 2023 financial report previously released by Tuniu, the total transaction volume of Tuniu's live streaming exceeded 1 billion last year, with Tuniu's supply side live streaming payment amount exceeding 800 million. During the reporting period, Tuniu has built a talent matrix for live broadcast of wine travel, including more than 60 self operated live broadcast accounts, more than 40 self owned full-time anchors, more than 130 incubators, and more than 200 agency contracted anchors on Tiktok and other live broadcast platforms.
The financial report also shows that in March 2024, Tuniu's board of directors approved a stock repurchase plan, under which the company can repurchase up to $10 million worth of common stock or American depositary shares representing common stock. As of May 31, 2024, the company has repurchased a total of approximately 3.5 million American depositary shares from the public market for a total consideration of approximately $2.9 million under the stock repurchase program.
JD.com regains its second largest shareholder
It is worth noting that in February this year, Tuniu announced that Chen Jie had resigned from his position as a member of the Board of Directors and the Compensation Committee of Tuniu Company, and Zhang Rui had been appointed as a member of the Board of Directors and the Compensation Committee. The above adjustments took effect on February 29, 2024.
Behind the adjustment of the board members of Tuniu this time is the personnel rotation after the equity transfer and division.
According to the announcement, Zhang Rui, a new employee, joined JD.com in 2023 and is currently responsible for JD's lifestyle and travel business department. He has over 25 years of experience in the tourism industry. Before joining JD.com, Zhang Rui had previously worked in Meituan's overseas business department, Alibaba's travel and leisure tourism department, and China Tourism Group's outbound tourism department, while Chen Jie was the chairman of another travel company * ST Caesar.
On May 28, 2020, Caesar Travel announced that JD.com would transfer all of its subsidiary companies' shares in Tuniu to Caesar Group. At that time, Caesar stated that it would further mobilize the advantageous resources of the three parties, strengthen the linkage between online and offline business, and actively engage in business collaboration with Tuniu.
However, in December last year, JD, Caesar, and Tuniu signed a termination agreement, and Caesar Group returned over 78 million shares of Tuniu shares held by them to JD, accounting for 21.0% of Tuniu's issued common shares.
In fact, the fate between JD.com and Tuniu can be traced back to 2014.
At that time, in the Chinese tourism market, apart from the top three companies, Ctrip, Yilong, and Qunar, Tuniu had the best momentum. After going public on the US stock market in April 2014, Tuniu's stock price reached $24.99 per share in August, with a market value exceeding $3.076 billion (approximately RMB 21.7 billion).
Therefore, on December 16th of that year, JD.com chose to strategically invest $50 million to invest in Tuniu Tourism Network and reached a cooperation agreement with Tuniu on a cruise business. At that time, JD.com responded publicly, confident that Tuniu's existing business model, product strategy, and management team would make it an industry leader.
On May 8, 2015, six months later, JD.com announced that it would subscribe to Tuniu's shares for $350 million and become its largest shareholder. This $350 million includes $250 million in cash and $100 million in resources and operational support provided to Tuniu. Tuniu will obtain a 5-year exclusive commission free operating rights for the JD Travel and Vacation Channel website and mobile devices. JD.com will also provide Tuniu with big data, financial services, traffic, and other operating resources.
In 2016, HNA invested $500 million in Tuniu to replace JD as the major shareholder, diluting JD's shareholding to 21% and becoming the second largest shareholder.
But as Ctrip gradually achieved the integration of Yilong and Qunar, the stock price of Tuniu fluctuated and fell, and due to the stock price being below $1 for a long time, it received several delisting warning letters issued by NASDAQ.
As of now, BHR Winwood (HNA Group), JD.com, and Sequoia Capital are among the top three shareholders, holding 24.44%, 20.99%, and 12.56% respectively.
"The return of JD.com and the addition of Zhang Rui will inject new impetus into the future development of Tuniu." Gao Songyuan, the head of the China region of the Asia Hotel Big Data Research Institute and the founder of Space Exploration, told Caixin reporters that JD.com's return to the ranks of Tuniu shareholders undoubtedly injected strong capital support into Tuniu. Not only can it enhance Tuniu's market competitiveness, but it also helps Tuniu obtain more resources and support in tourism resource integration, marketing, and other aspects.
In Gao Songyuan's view, Tuniu can leverage JD's capital support and Zhang Rui's industry experience to accelerate its layout and expansion in the tourism market, further enhancing its brand influence and market competitiveness. Tuniu can also leverage JD's e-commerce advantages to strengthen its layout and operation in the tourism e-commerce field, enhance the integration of online and offline, and provide consumers with a more convenient and high-quality tourism service experience.