Attracted by the expanding business pie, numerous small and medium players are gearing up to jump into China’s online travel market.

Attracted by the expanding business pie, numerous small and medium players are gearing up to jump into China's online travel market, which will likely intensify the existing price wars.

According to a report released by iResearch, the scale of China's online travel market advanced 27.1% to 277.3 billion yuan (US$44.7 billion) in 2014 and will continue to expand robustly before hitting 650 billion yuan (US$104.8 billion) in 2018.

Observers said that in striving for a market share, market players have resorted to price competition, especially in the wake of the three internet giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent joining the fray as investors, with some now offering "one-yuan admission tickets" and subsidies for plane tickets and hotel accommodations. Such fighting expected to intensify further in coming years, according to the financial channel of the website of the Hong Kong-based Tao Kung Pao.

The price war has taken a heavy toll, sending many major players into the deep red in the first quarter of this year, with some such as Ctrip.com incurring net losses of 126 million yuan (US$20.3 million) compared with a net profit of 115 million yuan (US$18.5 million) a year earlier. Qunar.com experienced a net loss of 680 million yuan (US$109.6 million), a drop 455% larger than that of one year earlier. Tuniu.com showed a net loss of 233.1 million yuan (US$37.5 million), 2.71 times that of one year before, and elong.com showed a net loss of 180 million yuan (US$29 million), despite their whopping sales growth during the period.