Website Operations at Qunar: Ensuring Stability, Security, and Efficiency During the Pandemic

In June, while the pandemic resurged in Beijing, Qunar’s website operations team, led by Sun Bin, reaffirmed the company’s "user first" principle and prepared to ensure both information security and uninterrupted service.

Sun Bin, who joined Yahoo in 2006 and moved to Qunar after Alibaba’s acquisition, describes the website operations group as a "BlackOps" special‑forces unit that provides stable, powerful foundational technical support for both engineering and business teams, while emphasizing efficiency through automation.

The team also delivers data analysis and cost‑reduction solutions, monitors industry trends, and explores public‑cloud strategies to support strategic thinking.

When the pandemic struck, the operations team quickly formed a 24‑hour guarantee group, tackled remote‑work challenges such as device deployment and network adaptation, and maintained continuous support via IT, NOC, WeChat, and QTalk. Pre‑existing network redundancy and VPN infrastructure ensured employees could work from home without interruption.

The data‑guarantee sub‑team, responsible for databases and real‑time computing, upgraded the legacy 3M architecture to PXC, merged and optimized databases and Redis instances, and integrated big‑data infrastructure to create an end‑to‑end data tracking system, preparing for future traffic spikes.

Regarding information security, Qunar enforces strict top‑down policies, encrypts user data, monitors and audits data flow, and complies with standards such as PCI‑DSS, ISO‑27000, and other certifications. The team also engages with media and the public to bridge knowledge gaps and alleviate privacy concerns.

During the pandemic, the company leveraged big‑data for epidemic tracking while confronting heightened privacy challenges, and successfully defended against increased web‑security threats, demonstrating strong web‑security and risk‑control capabilities.

Sun Bin emphasizes that operations work is far from monotonous; it spans PC, mobile, and cloud eras, requiring proactive thinking, self‑driven improvement, and close alignment with evolving business needs.

The Qunar culture, described as pragmatic and straightforward, fosters trust and direct communication, which the operations team embodies through reliability, self‑drive, and cost‑saving initiatives that have saved the company millions of yuan during the pandemic.

Looking ahead, the team has established robust emergency response mechanisms, aims to continue safeguarding user experience, and expects team members to focus on their core responsibilities while delivering reliable service.

Article author: Wang Dongfei; Editor: Zhang Wan‑yi.