Articles tagged “skyscanner”

There will be multiple winners in flight metasearch and Skyscanner, a relatively smaller player in the scheme of things, has the tech acumen and potential to be one of them. However, the company realizes it will need a merger/acquisition or an IPO to get headed toward where it ultimately wants to go.

With Skyscanner's new funding and ample cash, the company sees itself as an acquirer over the next few months. Skyscanner believes a few modest acquisitions, increased marketing, and continued organic growth should do the trick. There won't be any quick, easy answers as this looks like a strategy for the long haul.

Skyscanner has more or less been a bootstrapper in metasearch, growing mostly organically and profitably for the last seven years. But its challenge has been how to get to the next level. It's unclear how much of a difference this latest funding round will make since a chunk of it will be used as a payout to existing investors.

Getting behind the wheel of a global company as an engineer, CEO or a bartender can be fun and informative for both brands and loyal customers.

Travel companies commonly face the question of how to expand beyond their home markets. In China, Scotland-based Skyscanner went the acquisition route in 2014, acquiring fellow metasearch site Youbibi. In Japan, Skyscanner hopes a joint venture with Yahoo Japan will be the answer.

Does this new affiliate relationship between Skyscanner and Hipmunk portend a more strategic partnership in the future? Neither company is pointing to such a scenario for now.

You are, therefore you book. From maps to mobile and wearables, booking becomes ubiquitous, ever-present.

Skyscanner is going against the grain in now supporting a hotel-search app separate from its flight-search app. Consider this an opening shot for Skyscanner in hotels, and one that will help the company collect enough data about plotting its next move.

2014 is turning out to be a consolidation year, with big getting bigger. But there is lots of interesting jostling beyond leaders, and that's where the action will be rest of the year. Airbnb's rise has been spectacular, and will continue to break through on the charts.

For years Skyscanner launched a plethora of country domains as if it were a major global player, which it wasn't. Now it is finally starting to put a little meat on its bones outside of Europe, and its competitors are only now starting to pay attention.