eLong to balance prudent expense management against investments for growth in 2009
Published: 28 Nov 2008
Online travel company eLong's third quarter net loss from continuing operations increased year-on-year by RMB8.1 million to RMB15.5 million, driven primarily by greater service development, and sales and marketing expenses.
Total gross revenues increased seven percent year-on-year to RMB90.0 million and net revenues increased six percent year-on-year to RMB84.1 million.
"We achieved several key milestones in the third quarter including improving the call centre service to the highest standard in the China online travel industry and the continuous improvement of the online booking experience," said Guangfu Cui, CEO, eLong.
"Although we expect the near term environment to be challenging, we believe we are making the right strategic moves and we will continue to set our company on a path to long-term growth."
In light of the current environment, eLong intends to balance prudent expense management against investments for growth in 2009, and is taking steps to streamline its costs, according to Chris Chan, CFO, eLong.
"We believe that our increased but focused investment in marketing, technology, and our product competitiveness will pay off over time while the reduced cost base relative to the business growth opportunity will help protect the bottom line and drive a higher efficiency," said Chan.
eLong expects net revenues, net of business tax and surcharges, for the fourth quarter of 2008 to be within the range of RMB83 million to RMB92 million, or an increase of 1-12 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.
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