BEIJING--China's largest online travel company, Ctrip.com
International Ltd., said Thursday that some of its servers had been
hacked, causing disruptions to its website and mobile app
services.
The Nasdaq-listed company said that it suspected some of its
servers had been attacked by "unidentified sources" shortly after
11 a.m. local time, but that Ctrip's data and customer reservation
data remained intact.
A spokesman for Shanghai-based Ctrip said service resumed at
10:45 p.m.
More Chinese are traveling both at home and abroad. By the end
of this decade, the number of tourists venturing outside mainland
China is expected to double to 200 million, according to estimates
by Hong Kong brokerage CLSA.
Booking travel online, especially through the use of mobile
apps, is also growing in popularity although gauging online-travel
market share in China is difficult because travel companies work in
different ways.
In 2013, the government-affiliated China Internet Network
Information Center estimated market share of about 34% for Ctrip
and 22% for Qunar Cayman Islands Ltd.
China's government regularly denounces malicious hacking, while
saying the country and its citizens are among the biggest
victims.
U.S.-based Priceline Group Inc. said this week it planned to
increase its investment in the Chinese company, investing $250
million through a convertible bond after making a $500 million
investment last summer. That could ultimately give Priceline about
10.5% of Ctrip's shares outstanding.
Earlier this month, Expedia Inc. sold its 62.4% majority stake
in eLong Inc., a Chinese mobile and online travel service, to a
group of buyers that included Ctrip, which said it acquired a 37.6%
stake in eLong for about $400 million.
-Liyan Qi, Lilian Lin and Colum Murphy
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