Alitrip takes over from Taobao Trip, will provide more services like car rental

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced Tuesday that its online trip business will operate independently under a new brand, in an attempt to expand further into the online travel business after four years.

The businesses of Taobao Trip, a flight and hotel aggregator under Alibaba's e-commerce website taobao.com, are being upgraded and transferred to a new brand Alitrip, according to a press release e-mailed to the Global Times.

Alitrip will focus on trip services during holidays, including air ticket booking and auto rental, which was not offered by Taobao Trip.

Taobao Trip was launched in 2010, but has a relatively small market share in the country's online market.

"Its (Taobao Trip's) ranking in the online trip market wasn't even in the top 10," Ma Tianjiao, an analyst at Internet consultancy Analysys International, told the Global Times Tuesday.

In the second quarter of 2014, Ctrip, one of China's leading online travel agencies (OTA), accounted for 51 percent of the total market share of online travel agencies, while eLong Inc, another leading Chinese travel booking website, accounted for 8.2 percept of the total share, according to data released by Analysys International.

Ma noted that the launch of Alitrip will not likely have a big impact on China's current online business market, as leading online travel service providers such as Ctrip have stable business operations in hotel booking, air ticket booking and ticket sales for places of interest.