Ctrip, China’s largest travel brand, believes that being its own competitor has enabled it to grow to be where it is today.

“Whether it is for a company or person, the most competition should be yourself. You should challenge yourself and go beyond your boundaries. Think about how to challenge yourself and go beyond your boundaries to achieve another level of success in a more efficient way. Only when we can improve ourselves faster than others will we continue our success,” said Jenny Wu, chief strategy officer of Ctrip.

She was a responding to a question on who she considered Ctrip’s competition to be, following its investment in MakeMyTrip �" India’s largest online travel company �" at the WIT Conference 2016 in Singapore this week.

In a wide-ranging conversation with Yeoh Siew Hoon, Wu shared her vision for Ctrip as it expands its reach beyond its home shores. Here are  the main takeaways.

Is the MakeMyTrip-Ibibo merger a typical Ctrip playbook strategy, to take out the competition that’s creating havoc in the market? Just as you did with eLong and Qunar in China?

“I don’t think it is the typical Ctrip playbook strategy but it happened to be like that.  We see the India market has great potential with a rising middle class. With huge amounts of capital flying into the India market, the competition in online travel market is so fierce, fiercer than in China. Gradually the smaller players will be out, leaving the two giants standing up.

“So it has become a very obvious trend for the two giants to make a truce, put irrational competition aside and now refocus their energy on the real business and to think about how to improve products, efficiency, and service for customers. So I think this is definitely a milestone for the India market.”

Read the full story here.