In the fiercely competitive online travel market, Flying Pigs, once the platform carrying Alibaba's travel ambitions, now grapples with marginalization, persistent marketing stumbles, and user attrition.

Since its inception in 2010 as Taobao Travel, Flying Pigs enjoyed Alibaba's favor. However, its position within the Alibaba Group gradually waned. Recent organizational shifts within Alibaba saw Flying Pigs increasingly integrated into other business segments, ultimately losing its status among the six core groups. This decline not only limited Flying Pigs' access to internal resources but also intensified its competitive disadvantages.

The dwindling user base poses another significant challenge. According to QuestMobile data, among the top four online travel apps in June 2024 (excluding Meituan's travel apps), Tongcheng, Ctrip, Qunar, and Flying Pigs ranked based on deduplicated total user volume. Tongcheng and Ctrip boast hundreds of millions of users, with 207 million and 135 million respectively, while Qunar has 50.75 million. Flying Pigs, with 29.94 million users, experienced a 15% year-on-year decrease. This decline reflects deficiencies in marketing and user experience, hinting at a tougher road ahead in the online travel market.

Moreover, Flying Pigs' frequent marketing mishaps have compounded its struggles. From being reprimanded by the China Railway Customer Service Center (12306) for exaggerated marketing claims to facing backlash from brand partners during promotions, its strategies often spark controversy and doubt. These setbacks have tarnished the brand image and eroded user trust and loyalty.

On December 9, Flying Pigs announced the start of the Spring Festival travel rush ticket grab on Weibo, claiming reservations could be made up to 90 days in advance. Two days later, 12306 published an article on its WeChat official account, stating that a third-party platform's claims about the ticket grab and advanced reservations were purely marketing hype unrelated to 12306. It demanded the third party cease such promotions. Many saw this as a direct rebuke to Flying Pigs, which subsequently deleted the relevant Weibo post.

This was not the first time Flying Pigs faced 12306's criticism. In July 2024, it promoted a full refund on ticket cancellation fees for airline and train tickets during the summer vacation, offering new users 'free cancellation' for train tickets. 12306 responded that this was a marketing tactic to attract new members, misleading consumers into believing train ticket cancellation fees were waived.

Flying Pigs has also faced backlash from brand partners. For instance, in March 2024, it announced a 'special offer' for the Westin Kyoto Hotel in Japan. The hotel later issued a statement denying authorization for the promotion and ceased honoring related orders on the platform.

In September 2023, Flying Pigs capitalized on Moutai's popularity by promoting a 'Moutai-flavored king-size bed' package starting at 999 yuan per night. However, Moutai clarified it had not cooperated with Flying Pigs, leading to the package's removal.

As Flying Pigs CEO Zhuang Zhuoran notes, if a travel platform fails to provide satisfactory service, resulting in a poor first-time user experience, users are unlikely to return, regardless of new traffic influx.

Strategically, Flying Pigs aims to break the deadlock by accelerating its transition from the traditional OTA model to the OTP model. However, this transformation has not yielded desired results. While the OTP model offers third-party merchants more autonomy, it weakens Flying Pigs' control over suppliers and performance management, leaving it lagging behind competitors in service quality and operational efficiency.

Meanwhile, Flying Pigs faces stiff competition. Rivals like Ctrip and Tongcheng have targeted market strategies, catering to high-tier city business travelers and lower-tier market travelers, respectively. In contrast, Flying Pigs heavily relies on the Taobao 88VIP membership system, lacking an independent market strategy and user base, hindering its competitive edge.

In summary, Flying Pigs confronts multifaceted challenges, including marginalization, marketing stumbles, user attrition, and market competition. To overcome these, it must comprehensively upgrade marketing, user experience, strategic transformation, and market competitiveness. However, this endeavor will require time, resource investment, and unwavering determination and execution. Whether Flying Pigs can surmount these hurdles and achieve a turnaround remains uncertain.