Common challenges for business-to-business platforms: Helping travel agencies build new habits

Recently, the company's tourism circle Business-to-business Platform announced the completion of a new round of financing, they from the spectrum run, Huaxia and Haitong three funds, a total of 120 million yuan.

Shanghai Horse Buckle Company was founded in 2013, its tourism circle Business-to-business platform in January 2014 project. To get a sense of the new company and their views on the area of Business-to-business travel, a global travel journalist exclusively interviewed the Li Eiling of the CEO of a travel ring.

"Business-to-business platform neutrality is important, otherwise many benefits cannot be reconciled."

Li Eiling is a business vice president of the Tourism network, on the financing, she to the global travel news reporter introduced, there is a popular feeling: "Investors are more excited than us, reached a preliminary intention of the Fund has several, finally even we are a little embarrassed, because every family want to participate in, In the end, we had a tangle of decisions. For this we have adjusted our initial financing assumptions and made a more imaginative mix of arrangements. ”

As for investors bullish on their reasons, Li Eiling himself summed up two points: "Tourism Circle business-to-business Platform of the founding team, both the Internet electric quotient gene, but also a deep understanding of the tourism industry." At the same time, the tourism circle belongs to the industry, open and serve the entire tourism downstream, independent third party business-to-business trading platform. ”

For the 2nd, Li Eiling explained that in the hot field of business-to-business platforms, most of the other business-to-business platforms were suppliers or channels, while the tourist ring claimed to be a completely neutral and open third party platform, "we always feel that neutrality is very important, otherwise many interests cannot be co-ordinated." ”

The birth process of the Tour circle: inadvertently came to the Tuyere

Li Eiling also specially introduced the Tour circle Business-to-business platform This project how was born. In June 2013, three founders, together with the creation of a Shanghai Internet company, the company's business positioning is to provide marketing services to travel agencies, "This is actually our previous experience in OTA to play." As a result in the service process, the travel agency's customers have put forward the new request to us, namely can help them introduce the supplier, help them to look for the product.

At first they thought it was just a case, but as the business expanded, more and more customers were making similar demands, "we began to think, and then there was the idea of a platform." Results The travel Circle Business-to-business platform after the online surprise. ”

In the old saying, this is called unintentional inserting willow, if according to the current popular words, they are inadvertently walked to the line travel agencies, distributors business-to-business demand before the wind.

The field is now quite hot, especially by the strength of the capital: A year ago, the Nanjing Eight-claw fish received 150 million investment, this October, Teng Bang International to 195 million to buy 65% shares of Xin Tourism, the listed company's most valued, is Xinxin tour of the Business-to-business platform Hin Travel pass.

Li Eiling also said: "In fact, the investor's judgement is very simple, mainly to see the market is not big enough."

Get the wind to vote, from east to the country

By logging into the public account Travel Circle Web site, the global travel news reporter found that compared to other business-to-business platforms, the tourism industry business-to-business platform has a feature, that is, from the display to booking, design patterns and general 2C OTA site very similar to the user experience is more friendly. Their products all over the home and abroad, to the main line tour, there are peripheral tours, cruise and other forms.

The Business-to-business platform often has a certain regional nature when it starts, and the tour circle is no exception. At present, they only have Shanghai, Nantong, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Hefei 7 sites. Li Eiling said, to get the wind cast, will vigorously attack, based in east China, began to layout the national market.

Common challenges for business-to-business platforms: Helping travel agencies build new habits

"As a platform, must have good goods, such as high-quality tourism resources have, then the next thing we can do, tell customers." "According to the introduction, the establishment of less than a year of travel circle, has tens of thousands of distributors settled in," This speed let us also a little surprised that the market than we imagined to be brilliant. ”

Similar to the business platform of the Xin-Yan Travel network, the travel scene of the overseas travel Group and other business-to-business platforms, Li Eiling also found that most of the travel agencies on their platforms are accustomed to doing things the old-fashioned way, and there is a considerable distance between the online, the electronic and the systematic, so "it's important to find an efficient way To help travel agencies build new habits. "

This is an industry challenge for all business-to-business platforms, namely how to help the outdated offline travel agencies, distributors, abandon old methods, build new habits, and work together to improve the actual efficiency of distribution transactions within the industry.