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Traveloka

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Traveloka
Company typePrivate
IndustryTravel, ticketing
FoundedFebruary 2012 in Jakarta, Indonesia[1]
FoundersFerry Unardi, Albert, Derianto Kusuma[2]
Headquarters
Jakarta
,
Indonesia
Areas served
Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, Japan[3][4]
Key people
Ferry Unardi (CEO)
Caesar Indra (President)
[5]
ProductsOnline travel portal, ticket bookings, financial services
Number of employees
2,500 (2019[6])
ParentTraveloka Holding Ltd[7]

PT Trinusa Travelindo, operating as Traveloka is an Indonesian technology company focused on travel and ticketing. Operating a services website and mobile application of the same name and based out of Jakarta, Indonesia,[8] Traveloka is active in six countries,[4] and in 2022 remained the largest online travel app in Southeast Asia.[9] Founded in 2012 as a travel search engine,[1] it now also offers services such as cruises, attraction tickets, activities, transportation rentals, and restaurant vouchers.[10] It also provides financial services such as credit[2] and insurance.[11] Classified as a unicorn company[12] and regarded as functionally similar to Expedia,[10] in 2022 it was valued approximately at US$3 billion.[13]

History

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Founding (2012-2013)

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Traveloka was established in February 2012[4][1] by three Indonesian software engineers: Ferry Unardi, Albert, and Derianto Kusuma.[14] Unardi and Albert had met while studying computer science in the United States, while Unardi met Kusuma while both were interning at Microsoft.[15] All three ultimately worked in Silicon Valley.[16] Unardi, frequently encountering travel difficulties when visiting his hometown of Padang, came upon the idea of a website to ease travel logistics in Indonesia.[14] As he had no business experience, he began an MBA program[17] at Harvard Business School. However, in early 2012, the Indonesian tech market was attracting international investors[15] and e-ticketing was becoming more popular,[18] so Unardi dropped out early[19][10] and the three founders[10][19] moved to Jakarta and established Traveloka.[17]

After an early iteration was completed in February 2012, Traveloka launched in September 2012 as a travel metasearch site,[20] serving as both an aggregator and search engine for flights in Indonesia.[17] In November 2012,[20] the company raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from East Ventures.[18] With Unardi serving as CEO and Kusuma as chief technology officer (CTO),[6][21] they also implemented 24-hour customer service in multiple languages[16] and moved from a metasearch model to a full online travel agency (OTA)[22] and ticket reservation website.[17] Also in September 2013, the company announced a series investment by Global Founders Capital.[1] Redesigning the portal and relaunching[15] in September 2013,[20] Traveloka began allowing users to purchase flights using various payment methods,[17] taking between a 10 to 15% commission on bookings.[15]

Expansion (2014-2018)

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Traveloka introduced hotel bookings[23] in July 2014. It then launched apps for iOS and Android in August 2014,[20] and by the end of the year, had 10 million visitors each month.[15] In May 2015, comScore ranked Traveloka as Indonesia’s number one flight search and booking service.[18] Traveloka first entered Thailand in 2015,[16] and by September, it had partnerships in Southeast Asia with 33 hotels and airlines.[15] The company expanded rapidly in 2016, opening regional offices in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines[12] and Vietnam.[24] Train tickets and food features were added that year,[23] as well as ticketing for Indonesian tourist attractions.[25] In Traveloka's first public funding round since 2013, in July 2017 Traveloka raised $350 million from Global Founders Capital, GIC, the Qatar Investment Authority,[10] and Expedia, which also became a minority investor.[8] The investment valued Traveloka at over US$1 billion, making Traveloka a unicorn company.[26] Funds were earmarked for developing machine learning and artificial intelligence,[27] investments, and hiring more staff.[25]

By August 2017, according to Reuters, Traveloka had incorporated "100,000 hotels, apartments and other forms of accommodation" in Southeast Asia into its booking options, and had partnerships with around 100 airlines.[25] It added online check-ins in December 2017, as well as airport transportation services via a taxi company.[20] In December 2018, the company acquired three online travel agencies: Pegipegi from Indonesia, Mytour from Vietnam, and Travelbook from the Philippines, all previously subsidiaries of Recruit Holdings in Japan – for $67 million.[28] In May 2018, Traveloka launched a mobile app feature offering dining information.[29] 2018 also oversaw the resignation of Kusuma from his role as Traveloka's chief technology officer, citing a "clash of aspirations".[30]

New services (2019)

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By 2019, Traveloka was one of four unicorns in Indonesia,[31] as well as the largest online travel startup in Southeast Asia.[32] Traveloka opened a research & development (R&D) center in Bangalore, India in January 2019.[33] In March 2019, AirAsia permanently withdrew sales of its flights from Traveloka, citing Traveloka's lack of explanation for several AirAsia Indonesia flights that had been unlisted the month prior.[34] By 2019, Traveloka had ventured into financial services for the first time.[23] In 2019, it started a credit card scheme with Bank Rakyat Indonesia, marking the company's move into financial services.[32]

In June 2019, Traveloka introduced a new lifestyle business division,[35] branding the feature Traveloka Xperience.[10][32] Initially available in Thailand,[23] it allowed for searching and booking travel-related activities and lifestyle products.[36] It also launched a home protection insurance plan as well as visa insurance coverage in Indonesia in 2019.[36] Traveloka began listing villas and apartments to book in September 2019.[37] By October 2019, it had launched its PayLater card with Bank Rakyat Indonesia.[32] Traveloka also developed a shariah-compliant health insurance program called Bebas Handal for Muslim customers alongside Hong Kong-based FWD Group. Movie-booking in Thailand was also added in November 2019 through Major Cineplex.[36] Also in 2019, Traveloka partnered with the Indonesian Tourism Ministry on the Wonderful Indonesia tourist marketing campaign,[38] also collaborating with the Singapore Tourism Board to open trip kiosks in Singapore.[39] Traveloka in 2019 had 2,500 staff members and 20 products, with around 50 million downloads of its app. That year, a survey of 1,204 Indonesian "millennials" showed that 79% used Traveloka regularly.[6]

Pandemic and recent (2020-2023)

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During the early months of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Traveloka began experiencing surges in refund and rescheduling requests.[40] With flight bookings dropping to essentially zero,[41] in April 2020, Traveloka laid off 100 staff members[40] and over the next half year, refunded around 150,000 flight tickets equating to $100 million.[42] In response, the company began adding features such as its "Buy Now, Stay Later" feature[30] to allow for flexible booking.[41] To help restore its cash flow during the pandemic, its Xperience sub-brand was also used to host online activities like cooking classes with professional chefs.[30] Traveloka also began advertising other online experiences and "flash sale livestreams," and began bundling flights with COVID-19 tests.[43]

Through Traveloka Xperience, in June 2020, Traveloka began listing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rapid testing in Indonesia,[44] booking around 600,000 people for vaccinations over the next year and a half.[41] Also in June 2020, Traveloka started its Traveloka Clean Partners campaign to align with government health measures.[45] A new funding round was completed in 2020 with the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) as a lead investor.[46] Demand for travel accommodation was recovering by October 2020, according to Traveloka,[42] and by the end of 2020, Traveloka's travel business had returned to profitability.[11] After reports that Traveloka was considering a SPAC merger in the United States,[47] Traveloka halted discussions over a SPAC IPO with Bridgetown Holdings in September 2021.[48] In 2021, Fast Company named Traveloka one of its 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators[49] in the International category.[50] In January 2022, Traveloka remained the largest online travel start-up in Southeast Asia, and was valued at $3 billion.[51] In September 2022 it raised USD$300m. In 2022 as well, Traveloka closed Traveloka Mart, Traveloka Send, and Traveloka Eats, all of which[52] had been launched during its diversification of services during the pandemic.[53] After appointing brand ambassadors,[54][55] in April 2022, Accor properties in 13 countries were added to Traveloka's booking platform.[5]

Website

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Traveloka
Type of site
E-commerce, online travel agency (OTA)[22]
Available inEnglish, Indonesian, Thai, Malay, Vietnamese
IndustryOnline ticket and hotel bookings
URLtraveloka.com
Launched29 February 2012; 12 years ago (2012-02-29)
Current statusActive

Traveloka is a services and e-commerce site available in multiple languages. Classifying its products and services in the categories of travel, local services, and financial services,[4] the app has been downloaded over 100 million times[2] and has around 40 million monthly active users. It is claimed that the website lists around 150 airlines covering a total of 200,000 domestic and international flight routes. More than 2,500,000 hotels, villas, and guesthouses in 100 countries are also listed.[10] According to Traveloka, it allows for searching and booking[15] in areas such as transportation and lodging,[10] and also provides lifestyle products and services, for example attraction tickets, activities, car rental, and restaurant vouchers.[2]  Customer services are provided 24-7 in local languages. The platform allowed four methods of communication in 2017: a desktop portal, a mobile portal, iOS and Android applications, and direct calls.[16]

In relation to financial services, it offers wealth management services, insurance,[11] financing and credit. Other features in the Traveloka platform include the prebooking service Buy Now Stay Later, the live-streaming service LIVEstyle, the blogging platform Kampoeng Traveloka, and the multiplayer game Sodaloka.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Travel portal Traveloka is first investment by Samwer brothers in Asia". e27.co. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e "A decade of innovations: Traveloka's journey, from metasearch to lifestyle superapp".
  3. ^ "Indonesia's Traveloka Looks to Raise over $200 Million". 9 June 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d "From Metasearch Engine to Lifestyle Superapp, A Decade of Traveloka's Transformation in Growing Together with its Customers". 2 March 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Accor partners with Traveloka to expand its global distribution footprint". Archived from the original on 29 August 2022.
  6. ^ a b c "Top Tech Exec at Traveloka Instrumental in New Wave of Growth Dies". 31 July 2019.
  7. ^ "Traveloka Holding Ltd - Company Profile and News". Bloomberg News.
  8. ^ a b "Expedia invests $350M in Traveloka to create Southeast Asia's newest unicorn".
  9. ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem".
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h "In the top flight: Everything you need to know about Traveloka (Part 1 of 2)". KrASIA. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  11. ^ a b c "Southeast Asia's biggest travel app plans regional fintech expansion before 2021 listing". Reuters. 25 February 2021.
  12. ^ a b Baziad, Masyitha (22 September 2016). "Indonesia's Traveloka Begins South-EAst Asian Voyage". Digital News Asia. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  13. ^ "The Complete List Of Unicorn Companies". instapage.cbinsights.com. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  14. ^ a b Karimuddin, Amir (29 October 2012). "Layanan Pencarian Tiket Pesawat Traveloka Masuki Tahap Public Beta". dailysocial.id (in Indonesian). Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g "Jakarta: Ripe for a tech start-up take-off". Financial Times. 21 October 2014.
  16. ^ a b c d "Traveloka ad boost for social media". Bangkok Post.
  17. ^ a b c d e "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem".
  18. ^ a b c "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem".
  19. ^ a b "East Ventures backs ex-Silicon Valley engineer's travel startup". e27.co. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  20. ^ a b c d e "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem".
  21. ^ Hutapea, Febriamy (8 February 2015). "Ainun Najib Bergabung dengan Traveloka". beritasatu.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  22. ^ a b "Traveloka bolstering Thai market with OTA strategy". Bangkok Post.
  23. ^ a b c d "Traveloka adds to travel apps". Bangkok Post. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  24. ^ "Expedia makes minority investment of $350 million in Traveloka". China Travel News. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  25. ^ a b c "Indonesian travel site Traveloka to expand tourist attraction booking service". Reuters. 2 August 2017.
  26. ^ Amindoni, Ayomi (15 February 2018). "Ekonomi digital mulai moncer, ini dia daftar unicorn dari Indonesia". BBC News.
  27. ^ Diela, Tabita (1 August 2017). "Traveloka Raises $500m to Develop AI, Machine Learning". Jakarta Globe. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  28. ^ Muskita, Putra (16 December 2018). "Traveloka has bought Indonesian rival Pegipegi, two others for US$66.8m". Tech In Asia. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  29. ^ "Traveloka launches culinary directory feature".
  30. ^ a b c "In the top flight: Everything you need to know about Traveloka (Part 2 of 2)". KrASIA. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  31. ^ "Indonesia to Have More Than 5 Start-Up Unicorns by 2019: Minister". Jakarta Globe. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  32. ^ a b c d Davies, Ed (31 October 2019). "RPT-SE Asia's biggest travel app Traveloka eyes dual listing, bets on fintech". Reuters. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  33. ^ "Happened in Indonesia: Bukalapak launches R&D centre". Yahoo News. 28 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  34. ^ "AirAsia to permanently withdraw sales from Traveloka".
  35. ^ "Indonesia Digest: GOJEK partners DBS Bank; Traveloka rolls out new lifestyle feature".
  36. ^ a b c Cordon, Miguel (12 November 2019). "Traveloka launches movie-booking service in Thailand". Tech In Asia. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  37. ^ "Traveloka seeks to capitalize on rising demand for alternative accommodation". The Jakarta Post. 11 November 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  38. ^ "Traveloka expands to Australia". TTG Asia. 4 March 2019.
  39. ^ Lim, Shawn (18 December 2019). "Traveloka creates interactive installations for tourists to experience Singapore". The Drum. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  40. ^ a b "Significant trip cancellations recorded amid COVID-19 pandemic: Traveloka". The Jakarta Post. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  41. ^ a b c "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem".
  42. ^ a b "Traveloka looks to profitability amid signs of recovery from coronavirus crisis".
  43. ^ "Traveloka tops up with $250M amid the coronavirus crisis".
  44. ^ "Traveloka announces new COVID-19 testing service across 44 Indonesian regions".
  45. ^ "Public's confidence in travel, outdoor activities increasing: Traveloka".
  46. ^ "SE Asia's biggest travel app Traveloka raises $250 million as lockdowns ease". Reuters. 28 July 2020.
  47. ^ Lee, Yoolim; Chew, Elffie (11 February 2021). "Traveloka Picks JPMorgan for U.S. Listing Via SPAC". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  48. ^ "Indonesia's Traveloka to suspend merger talks with a SPAC". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  49. ^ https://www.fastcompany.com/best-workplaces-for-innovators/2021?view=1
  50. ^ https://www.fastcompany.com/90659111/best-workplaces-innovators-2021-international
  51. ^ "Traveloka enters ride-hailing as super app race heats up".
  52. ^ https://www.techinasia.com/traveloka-close-eats-send
  53. ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem".
  54. ^ "13 Things to Know About Singapore's Favourite Ah Lian, Michelle Chong".
  55. ^ "#TECH: Traveloka launches Balik Kampung campaign". Archived from the original on 26 April 2022.
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