Trip.com Group Ltd delivered a stronger-than-expected finish to 2025, buoyed by a surge in inbound tourism and rapid overseas expansion, but the upbeat numbers were overshadowed by an ongoing antitrust investigation and a surprise reshuffle at the top.

The Shanghai-based company said on Thursday that fourth-quarter net revenue rose 21 percent year-on-year to 15.4 billion yuan ($2.23 billion), exceeding market expectations. Full-year revenue increased 17 percent to 62.4 billion yuan, capping another year of steady recovery for China's largest online travel platform.

The results show that the standout was overseas expansion. In 2025, total bookings on the company's international online travel agency platform jumped about 60 percent year-on-year. The company said it served approximately 20 million inbound travelers during the year, benefiting from China's further opening-up and easier cross-border travel.

Data from the National Immigration Administration show that in 2025, international visitors made more than 82 million border crossings, a 26.4 percent year-on-year increase. Last year, China expanded its unilateral visa-free access to 48 countries and extended mutual visa exemption agreements to 29 countries.

Sun Jie, CEO of Trip.com Group, described inbound tourism as a "key growth driver", noting that overseas revenue, including inbound travel, accounted for around 40 percent of total revenue in 2025.

Analysts at China International Capital Corp noted that in the fourth quarter, hotel revenue on the company's international platform jumped nearly 70 percent year-on-year, with transportation bookings and revenue up more than 50 percent. They expect international growth of around 60 percent to continue in the near term, with hotels expanding faster than air tickets.

More significantly, the company has positioned inbound travel as a strategic export of China's digital service capabilities. In 2025, it invested 1 billion yuan to help more than 40 Chinese cities improve inbound reception capacity. Nearly 70,000 hotels, scenic spots and travel agencies received their first inbound orders through its overseas platforms.

The company's self-developed AI translation engine processed 6 billion words annually across 25 languages, lowering operating barriers for international visitors. The number of inbound tour routes powered by its proprietary AI model rose 400 percent year-on-year.

Accommodation and transportation ticketing remained the company's core revenue engines, contributing 78 percent of total revenue. Full-year accommodation revenue rose 21 percent to 26.1 billion yuan, while transportation ticketing revenue grew 11 percent to 22.5 billion yuan.

While revenue growth was broad-based, a closer look at profitability showed that non-recurring gains played a significant role.

Full-year net income nearly doubled to 33.4 billion yuan. However, 19.9 billion yuan came from investment gains recorded under "other (expense)/income", compared with 1.1 billion yuan in 2024.

Operating profit, a clearer reflection of core business performance, rose 11.2 percent to 15.77 billion yuan, indicating a steady but more moderate improvement.

The bulk of the investment gain was recorded in the third quarter, following a partial disposal of its stake in MakeMyTrip Ltd.

The company ended the year with a strong balance sheet, holding 105.8 billion yuan in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.

The earnings release was the company's first since the State Administration for Market Regulation opened an investigation into the company for suspected abuse of market dominance under the Anti-Monopoly Law in January.

The company said it was fully cooperating and that business operations remained normal, but added it could not predict the outcome or timing of the investigation.

Compounding the regulatory overhang, the company also announced that co-founders Fan Min and Ji Qi had resigned from their board roles, with Fan stepping down as president.

Trip.com Group appointed Wu Yihong and Xiao Yang as new independent directors, strengthening financial and governance expertise at the board level.