http:\/\/www.eLong.net<\/a>, the Company's website, which is maintained in the English language, currently provides customers with the ability to book international hotels, car rentals, activities and vacation packages through a private-label service owned and operated by IAC\/InterActiveCorp through IAC Travel. Customers can now take advantage of expanded options for booking a complete vacation to more than 720 worldwide destinations.<\/p>\nRevenues from air ticketing during the fourth quarter totaled RMB2.9 million (US$347,000), a 105% increase year-over-year and a 15% decrease sequentially. The lower total air ticketing revenues were the result of lower air ticketing revenues from corporate customers in the fourth quarter as compared with the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Revenues from air ticketing during fiscal 2004 totaled RMB10.1 million (US$1.2 million), an increase of 170% year-over-year. eLong sold 250,000 air tickets in fiscal 2004 compared with 73,000 in fiscal 2003.<\/p>\n
Gross margins in the fourth quarter remained relatively unchanged from the previous quarter at 85%, and gross margins in fiscal 2004 were 87%.<\/p>\n
Operating expenses for the fourth quarter, excluding stock-based compensation and amortization of intangibles, were RMB41.4 million (US$5.0 million), an increase of 29% from the previous quarter. This increase in operating expenses was due to a number of factors, including additional operating expenses attributable to Ray Time, which the Company acquired in November 2004, additional spending in sales and marketing and service development associated with hotel and air business, and additional administrative expenses.<\/p>\n
Operating expenses for fiscal 2004, excluding stock-based compensation and amortization of intangibles, were RMB130.7 million (US$15.8 million), an increase of 112%, compared with RMB61.5 million (US$7.4 million) in fiscal 2003. The increase was due to our business expansion as well as somewhat lower than normal operating expenses in the second and third quarters of 2003 as operations were scaled back due to the outbreak of SARS.<\/p>\n
During the fourth quarter we had non operating expenses of RMB913,000 (US$110,000) as compared with non operating income of RMB455,000 (US$54,000) in the third quarter of 2004. This change was primarily due to a RMB3.0 million (US$362,000) investment provision made in the fourth quarter with no comparable provision in the third quarter. The fourth quarter investment provision was partly offset by fourth quarter interest income of Rmb2.1 million (US$253,000) earned on our cash deposits resulting in a non operating expense of Rmb913,000 (US$110,000).<\/p>\n
Adjusted loss, a non-GAAP measure that excludes amortization of stock compensation and intangibles, in the fourth quarter was RMB7.8 million (US$944,000), compared with adjusted income of RMB1.4 million (US$167,000) in the third quarter. This decrease was primarily due to higher operating expenses which exceeded the gross profit contribution from the additional revenues.<\/p>\n
Adjusted loss for fiscal year 2004 totaled RMB11.0 million (US$1.3 million) compared with an adjusted income of RMB3.0 million (US$361,000) in fiscal 2003.<\/p>\n
As of December 31, 2004, the Company's cash balance was US$78.0 million, including restricted cash of US$4.3 million. On January 7, 2005, the Company received RMB892.2 million (US$107.8 million) from IAC\/InterActiveCorp in connection with the exercise of its warrant of which RMB446.1 million (US$53.9 million) was used by the Company to buy back shares from existing shareholders resulting in a net cash inflow of RMB446.1 million (US$53.9 million).<\/p>\n
In the fourth quarter, eLong once again demonstrated healthy revenue growth. Top-line growth will remain a key focus for us as we look to take advantage of our strong position and the opportunities in China's travel market, said Derek Palaschuk, eLong's Chief Financial Officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
eLong's total unaudited revenues for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2004, were RMB40.3 million (US$4.9 million), an increase of 48% from RMB27.2 million (US$3.3 million) reported in the same period in 2003 and an increase of 6% from RMB38.0 million (US$4.6 million) reported in the previous quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12723],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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eLong's total unaudited revenues for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2004, were RMB40.3 million (US$4.9 million), an increase of 48% from RMB27.2 million (US$3.3 million) reported in the same period in 2003 and an increase of 6% from RMB38.0 million (US$4.6 million) reported in the previous quarter.<\/p>\n