Universal Travel Group Shifts Perceptibly to Online Services

First of all, look at this chart. In the space of less than a month, Universal Travel Group's (UTVG.OB) website, CNUTG.com (not to be confused with its CBA-HOTEL.com site), has gone from nowhere to be the ~4,400 most trafficked site in all of China. Additionally, the website is also gaining traction in South Korea (ranked ~11,000) and Vietnam (ranked ~24,000). This reinforces what I have already been saying - while UTVG's strategy last year was to shore up its physical footprint across China, this year is all about online presence.

In fact, the company's press release regarding its termination of financing agreement on Wednesday is illustrative of a perceptible shift in the UTVG's positioning. It described itself as, I quote, "a fast growing travel services provider in China specializing in online and customer representative services to the travel service industry." This positioning statement has been in place since late March. Is it an accident that "online" comes before "customer representative services"? I don't think so.

Given this rapid rise, I'm not concerned that the investors backed out. To me this just means less dilution for the rest of us. After all, UTVG is cash flow positive and there is no current need to make acquisitions to sustain its growth.

My Position: Long.

Comments

[weng ho teng]

No doubt the move to online is a MUST for any travel company.

All sectors online in China are surging. UTVG is favorite.

Another great China online company is MYST.OB.

Their B2B and b2C subsidiary, subaye.com, opens an English version next week along with expected strong earnings