IDG

"Our business model was hardly an earth-shattering innovation; we just followed Expedia’s model, by first creating content, then relying on hotel room and ticket bookings to take profit. That was an era when a good business plan was enough to attract financing. Our plan was not as exciting as a web portal but with the impressive qualifications of the four founders we were able to get some venture capital. The first tranche came from IDG, and from this beginning they’ve invested in the three enterprises I participated in founding: Ctrip, Home Inn and Hanting hotels. It just goes to prove that even in a crazy era there are smart people who understand what’s going on."

"when the dotcom bubble burst, we stumbled across the ‘mouse and mortar’ model of online room booking. The last tranche of venture capital funds (from IDG and the Carlyle Group) saved our lives, enabling us to stay in business until we became profitable and then went public, achieving our dreams of glory."

"At an IDG investment meeting we suggested that investors stop focusing only on IT and high-tech industries and try some traditional fields. IDG was sceptical, with a let’s-give-it-a-try approach they again became our first investors. The key factor behind their investing in us was that they valued our personnel – the Ctrip team had…"

"We were quite lucky with initial financing because most of the investors were close friends who understood us well. That was especially true of IDG when Zhou Quan jokingly said once in Hainan, “Ji Qi, we will definitely invest in your next enterprise, even if you go into trading dog poop.” That was hugely encouraging and left me deeply touched."