Ctrip.com: Is This Risky Stock Worth It?

By John Warbuck Ctrip.com (CTRP) is China’s largest online travel agency and specializes in hotel and air travel bookings. 40% percent of its business comes from its website, while call centers handle the remainder. After a decade of nothing but steady growth and a dominance of the Chinese market, the company fell into a tailspin in the fall of 2011. The question on many investors’ minds currently is: Can Ctrip.com recover, or will it fall prey to competitors who will seize the opportunity to diminish its dominance on the Chinese travel market? The Chinese travel giant was founded in 1999 in Shanghai and went public only four years later in 2003. The stock reached $34 per share in its first day of trading and became the only stock since the IPO of Transmeta (TMTA) to double its value on its first day. The stock proceeded to reach a peak of $50 per share until plummeting in the last quarter of 2011. It is currently trading around $24 per share and is has a pretty bleak outlook going into 2012 as competitors begin to make their moves against the company. Ctrip.com’s tight grip on the Chinese travel market has defended it…