According to Qunar, CTrip is looking for reparations because Qunar crawls Ctrip's site in its searches and posts findings from Ctrip on its result pages. However, the reparations it is seeking amount to just Rmb 1,000 (US$146).
The proceeding, which will go through Beijing's Haidian District People's Court, "is centred on Qunar's ability to search and display user-generated comments and reviews on the internet," Qunar said in a release.
The proceeding, which will go through Beijing's Haidian District People's Court, "is centred on Qunar's ability to search and display user-generated comments and reviews on the internet," Qunar said in a release.
"By combining meta-search technology and semantic keyword analysis, Qunar is able to find and link to relevant user comments from a number of mainstream online destinations in a transparent and unbiased manner. As a vertical search engine, we believe it is our responsibility to deliver the most up-to-date, comprehensive information available to all users."
Both Qunar and Ctrip are key players in China's online travel industry as Qunar claims 24 million visitors each month and Ctrip is the online travel agency leader, claiming 57 per cent market share.
Ctrip declined to comment on the proceedings.
