eLong's ticker was LONG, the Chinese word for dragon. The Beijing company booked hotel rooms for China's business travelers, mostly through a big call center backed by a website. In 2004 China's middle class was starting to travel. IAC, the American owner of Expedia and Hotels.com, saw the opening and bought into eLong before its offering. eLong went public that October as a bet on Chinese travel.

Expedia's Way into China

Justin Tang was one of the co-founders of eLong.com in 1999, after working as an investment banker in New York. He later became its chairman and CEO. The bet was that Chinese travelers would book rooms the way Americans had learned to, by calling one number or visiting one site. IAC bought a large stake and the right to take control. That made eLong the vehicle for Expedia's push into China.

From Nasdaq to Tongcheng

eLong priced its American depositary shares at $13.50 in October 2004 and listed on Nasdaq as LONG. It spent the next decade fighting a larger rival, Ctrip, and a wave of new travel apps. In 2015 Expedia sold its stake to Ctrip and other investors. eLong was taken private and left Nasdaq in May 2016. It later merged with Tongcheng to form Tongcheng-Elong, which listed in Hong Kong in 2018.

Cover: Dragon in clouds, Utagawa Hiroshige. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a dragon (long, the Chinese word for dragon).