Hutchison-Priceline to enter China?

Hutchison-Priceline (Travel) Ltd Inc is reportedly contemplating plans
of launching operations in China. 

According to Forbes, online travel company Hutchison-Priceline (Travel)
Ltd Inc is considering entering the mainland China market, although
concerns about online payment and regulatory restrictions will first
need to be resolved, the company reportedly told XFN-ASIA.

"In a written response to questions, the company, which is a joint
venture of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd and US-based priceline.com
Inc, said it is considering expanding into mainland China, but there are
a number of considerations it is looking into before it decides. It said
it would need to address issues of online payment," said the report.
"Although there is PayPal and AliPay in the market, what priceline want
to see is the maturity of credit card payment. Credit card adoption
remains a major concern."

The report added, "The company said it is also evaluating if its
'name-your-own-price' model is feasible for China, especially as air
fares are regulated. However, it said it believed that the hotel
business, with fewer business concerns, will grow faster than air ticket
business. Under its model, the company -- which under
Hutchison-Priceline serves Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan -- allows
users to bid on hotel rooms and airline seats, which hotels and airlines
will often sell for below normal or less than agency discounted cost
when vacancies are available."

Recently, Glenn Fogel, senior vice president - corporate development,
Priceline.com told Eyefortravel.com, that there are many challenges in
creating a very large online market in China and its not similar to
other parts of the world. "When you have an issue where first of all
people aren't certain about the security of the site, then you see the
people are concerned about whether they should use a credit card or not
or there is low credit card penetration. These are all challenges you
really need a little bit of technology but you also need people
understand the product (like nake your own price) and be ready to trust
that the system is going to achieve what they want which is the lowest
price possible," Mr. Fogel had said.