Traveloka
Indonesian unicorn company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
PT Trinusa Travelindo, operating as Traveloka, is an Indonesian technology company focused on travel and ticketing. Operating a service website and mobile application of the same name and based out of Jakarta,[8] Traveloka is active in eight 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, Traveloka was valued at approximately US$3 billion.[13]
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry |
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| Founded | February 2012 in Jakarta, Indonesia[1] |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | Jakarta , Indonesia |
Areas served | [3][4] |
Key people | Ferry Unardi (CEO) Caesar Indra (president) [5] |
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 2,500 (2019[6]) |
| Parent | Traveloka Holding Ltd[7] |
History
Summarize
Perspective
Founding (2012–2013)
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,[6][21] the company implemented 24-hour customer service in multiple languages[16] and moved from a metasearch model to a full online travel agency[22] and ticket reservation website.[17] Also in September 2013, Traveloka announced a series investment by Global Founders Capital.[1] Relaunched with a redesigned portal[15] in September 2013,[20] the company began allowing users to purchase flights using various payment methods.[17]
Expansion (2014–2018)
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, it had ten 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, it 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 it 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 the Japanese Recruit Holdings—for $67 million.[28] In May 2018, Traveloka launched a mobile app feature offering dining information.[29] 2018 also saw the resignation of Kusuma from his role as Traveloka's chief technology officer, citing a "clash of aspirations".[30]
New services (2019)
By 2019, Traveloka was one of four unicorns in Indonesia, alongside Gojek, Bukalapak, and Tokopedia,[31] as well as the largest online travel startup in Southeast Asia.[32] The company opened a research & development center in Bangalore, India, in January 2019.[33] In 2019,[34] Traveloka launched a credit card scheme with Bank Rakyat Indonesia, marking the company's move into financial services.[32]
In June, the company introduced a new lifestyle business division,[35] branding the feature Traveloka Xperience.[10][32] Initially available only in Thailand,[23] it allowed for searching and booking travel-related activities and lifestyle products.[36] The company also launched a home protection insurance plan as well as visa insurance coverage in Indonesia,[36] and it began listing villas and apartments to book in September.[37] By October, it had launched its PayLater card with Bank Rakyat Indonesia.[32] Traveloka also developed a sharia-compliant health insurance program called Bebas Handal for Muslim customers alongside Hong Kong-based FWD Group. Movie booking in Thailand was added in November, through Major Cineplex.[36] Also in 2019, Traveloka partnered with the Indonesian tourism ministry on the Wonderful Indonesia tourist marketing campaign,[38] additionally collaborating with the Singapore Tourism Board to open trip kiosks in that country.[39] That year, a survey of 1,204 Indonesian "millennials" showed that 79% used Traveloka regularly.[6]
Pandemic and recent (2020–2023)
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Traveloka began experiencing surges in refund and rescheduling requests.[40] With flight bookings dropping to essentially zero,[41] in April 2020, the company 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, it began adding features such as its "Buy Now, Stay Later" option,[30] to allow for flexible booking.[41] To help restore cash flow during the pandemic, Traveloka's Xperience sub-brand was also used to host online activities like cooking classes with professional chefs.[30] The company also advertised other online experiences and began bundling flights with COVID-19 tests.[43]
Through Traveloka Xperience, in June 2020, the company began listing polymerase chain reaction and rapid testing in Indonesia,[44] booking around 600,000 people for vaccinations over the next year and a half.[41] Also in June, the company launched 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 as a lead investor.[46] Demand for travel accommodation was recovering by October 2020,[42] and by the end of the year, Traveloka's travel business had returned to profitability.[11]
After reports that Traveloka was considering an SPAC merger in the United States,[47] the company halted discussions of an initial public offering with Bridgetown Holdings in September 2021.[48] That year, 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 startup in Southeast Asia and was valued at $3 billion.[51] In 2022, the company closed Traveloka Mart, Traveloka Send, and Traveloka Eats, all of which had been launched during its diversification of services during the pandemic.[52][53] In April 2022, Accor properties in 13 countries were added to Traveloka's booking platform.[5]
See also
References
External links
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