Qunar vs. Ctrip: Accusation, Threats, and Media Bullying

Dai Zheng's text message to Ctrip bigwigs

Yesterday, high-level folks at Ctrip (NASDAQ:CTRP), one of China’s most popular travel websites, got an interesting text message from Dai Zheng, the vice president of Qunar. It read as follows:

If your employee @老榕菁益 posts false evidence on my Weibo [microblog] again about Qunar cheating people, I will publicize complaint cases collected about Ctrip, organize them into a booklet and give it to CCTV’s 3/15 group [i.e., a yearly report on companies that cheat consumers]. I’m warning you I will use my full power to ensure there is a report about it. I’m giving you one last chance to teach this bastard to base what he says on facts. Thanks…Dai Zheng.

The employee in question’s real name is Wu Rongjing, an employee at a Ctrip branch in Xiamen. He had indeed been engaged in a back-and-forth with Dai Zheng that goes back at least a week, suggesting repeatedly that Qunar has fraudulent search results and has “tricked” customers. Dai Zheng says Wu has forged Qunar customer complaints and disseminated them to the media, and at least in this response to that accusation, Wu doesn’t directly deny it. Clearly, the animosity between the two has been growing for some time and we’re not sure who started it, but yesterday, it went very public.

Ctrip’s PR reps told the Guangzhou Daily that Dai Zheng’s text is beyond reason and constitutes a naked threat. Lu Yan, Ctrip’s Marketing and and PR director, said:

Qunar as a company should be investigated by 3/15 too. What’s the reason, how does [Dai Zheng] have the nerve to boldly threaten to use his power to get CCTV 3/15 to report negative stories about Ctrip?

Dai Zheng’s text lays plain a sort of open secret about China’s tech and media circles: there’s an awful lot of bullying, and media reports can often be influenced through personal relationships (or money). How many of the negative reports we read in the Chinese media have this sort of back story? It’s hard to be sure. But I have a feeling the Qunar vs. Ctrip battle may be just getting started, and whoever comes out the victor, it’s certainly interesting to see threats of media bullying aired in public rather than kept private.

[Guangzhou Daily via Sina Tech]