Traveloka

Traveloka is an Indonesian unicorn company that provides airline ticketing and hotel booking services online expanding rapidly into Southeast Asia[1] and Australia.[2] It recently expanded to provide lifestyle products and services, such as attraction tickets, activities, car rental, and restaurant vouchers.

Traveloka
Type of site
E-commerce
Available inEnglish
Indonesian
Thai
Malay
Vietnamese
HeadquartersJakarta, Indonesia
Area served
OwnerPT Trinusa Travelindo
Key peopleDerianto Kusuma
Ferry Unardi
Albert
IndustryOnline ticket and hotel bookings
Employees1200+
URLtraveloka.com
Launched29 February 2012 (2012-02-29)
Current statusActive

History

Traveloka was established in 2012 by information technology practitioners who returned from the United States to Indonesia, Derianto Kusuma, Ferry Unardi and Albert.[3] They were joined in 2013 by the initiator of election result watch site KawalPemilu.org, Ainun Najib.[4] In 2014, hotel reservations instead of just flight reservations were added.[5] In 2017, train tickets and food features were added.[5] At that time, it said it had raised funds to develop machine learning and AI.[6]

Expedia became a minority investor in 2017, when Traveloka was operating in six countries and advertising heavily in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.[7] In 2018, the company acquired three online travel agencies: Pepipegi from Indonesia, Mytour from Vietnam, and Travelbook from the Philippines.[8] In 2019, it launched a home protection insurance plan in Indonesia, taking advantage of widespread travel durking the mudik tradition.[9] Movie-booking was also added that year through Major Cineplex.[10] It then introduced visa insurance for Indonesian travelers, to cover accidents, sickness, flight delays, and baggage loss.[11] Later that year, it also began listing villas and apartments to book.[12]

In January 2019, Traveloka opened a Research & Development (R&D) center in Bangalore.[13] Also it began releasing kiosks to buy tourist trips in Singapore.[14]

In the beginning, Traveloka served as a search engine to compare the price of airline tickets from various other sites.[15] In mid-2013, Traveloka then turned into a ticket reservation website, where users could place an order on its official website.[16] By 2019, it had also moved into financial services as well as ticketing and hotel booking, and it had launched a credit card with Bank Rakyat Indonesia.[17] Traveloka launched the "Xperience" brand in July 2019,[17] initially in Thailand. It was active in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.[5]

Within the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, in April 2020, the company laid off a significant portion of its staff as the demand for travel dropped significantly. The cuts affected 100 people in Indonesia. There had also been a "massive amount" of requests for refunds for travel plans. [18] There was also in increase in trip cancelations.[19]

On october 2020, Demand for travel accommodation was gradually recovering, as seen in the bookings for Indonesian hotels that had reached 75 percent of the pre-coronavirus figure, said Traveloka president Hendry Hendrawan. A positive transaction trend was also seen in its other major markets, Thailand and Vietnam, with transaction volume returning to pre-pandemic levels in Vietnam, and Thailand not far behind。 [20]

Investment

In November 2012, the company Traveloka announced its initial investment by East Ventures.[21] In September 2013, the company announced a series investment by Global Founders Capital.[22] Funds from investments are used to build new services such as hotel bookings and travel packages. In July 2017, Traveloka again get an injection of funds of Rp. 4.6 Trillion [9] from companies such as Expedia Inc., East Ventures, Hillhouse Capital Group, JD.com and Sequoia Capital.[23]

By 2018, it was often referred as a unicorn company.[24][25]

In April 2019, Traveloka announced it had raised $420 million dollars in a round led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC.[26] At the time, it was the largest online travel startup in Southeast Asia.[17] While aiming to establish profit before going public,[27] the company then was considering a dual listing in Indonesia and the United States, if it went through with an IPO. Henry Hendrawan was Traveloka Group's president.[17] Apparently, the IPO had been delayed due to a slowing economy, as well as difficult IPOs by Uber and WeWork. Among backers at that time were GIC Pte Ltd, JD.com, and Expedia, and it had raised a total of $900. Talks put the company's valuation at around $4.5 billion.[17]

Acquisitions

In December 2018, Traveloka announced it had acquired three online travel agencies (OTAs) – Indonesia’s Pegipegi, Vietnam’s Mytour, and the Philippines’ Travelbook – for US$66.8 million.[28]

Controversy

Traveloka was boycotted by netizens because founder, Derianto Kusuma, allegedly participated in the walk-out action, like Ananda Sukarlan, when Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan gave a speech during the 90th anniversary celebration of Kolese Kanisius on 14 November 2017, although Traveloka denied that the founder attended the event.[29]

References
  1. Baziad, Masyitha (22 September 2016). "Indonesia's Traveloka Begins South-EAst Asian Voyage". Digital News Asia. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  2. "Traveloka expands to Australia". TTG Asia. 4 March 2019.
  3. 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.
  4. Hutapea, Febriamy (8 February 2015). "Ainun Najib Bergabung dengan Traveloka". beritasatu.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  5. "Traveloka adds to travel apps". Bangkok Post. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  6. Diela, Tabita (1 August 2017). "Traveloka Raises $500m to Develop AI, Machine Learning". Jakarta Globe. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  7. "Expedia makes minority investment of $350 million in Traveloka". China Travel News. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  8. Muskita, Putra (16 December 2018). "Traveloka has bought Indonesian rival Pegipegi, two others for US$66.8m". Tech In Asia. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  9. "Traveloka offers home protection insurance for 'mudik' travelers". The Jakarta Post. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  10. Cordon, Miguel (12 November 2019). "Traveloka launches movie-booking service in Thailand". Tech In Asia. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  11. "Traveloka now sells Schengen visa insurance". The Jakarta Post. 6 July 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  12. "Traveloka seeks to capitalize on rising demand for alternative accommodation". The Jakarta Post. 11 November 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  13. "Happened in Indonesia: Bukalapak launches R&D centre". Yahoo News. 28 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  14. Lim, Shawn (18 December 2019). "Traveloka creates interactive installations for tourists to experience Singapore". The Drum. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  15. "The story behind Traveloka's pivot from metasearch to OTA". Phocuswire. 15 November 2013.
  16. "Reservasi Kamar Hotel". id.berita.yahoo.com.
  17. Davies, Ed (31 October 2019). "RPT-SE Asia's biggest travel app Traveloka eyes dual listing, bets on fintech". Reuters. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  18. Tani, Shotaro (7 April 2020). "Coronavirus drives Indonesia's Traveloka to lay off staff". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  19. "Significant trip cancelations recorded amid COVID-19 pandemic: Traveloka". The Jakarta Post. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  20. https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/10/21/traveloka-looks-to-profitability-amid-signs-of-recovery-from-coronavirus-crisis.html
  21. "East Ventures backs ex-Silicon Valley engineer's travel startup". e27.co. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  22. "Travel portal Traveloka is first investment by Samwer brothers in Asia". e27.co. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  23. antaranews.com. "Traveloka raih investasi 500 juta dolar - ANTARA News". Antara News (in Indonesian). Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  24. "Indonesia to Have More Than 5 Start-Up Unicorns by 2019: Minister". Jakarta Globe. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  25. Amindoni, Ayomi (15 February 2018). "Ekonomi digital mulai moncer, ini dia daftar unicorn dari Indonesia". BBC News.
  26. "Indonesia's travel unicorn Traveloka said to secure $420m in funding". DealStreetAsia. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  27. Sugiura, Eri (13 September 2019). "Indonesian unicorn Traveloka learns what not to do from Uber". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  28. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  29. "Diboikot Netizen, Traveloka Angkat Bicara". wartaekonomi.co.id. 14 November 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
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