Traveloka

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]

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]

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]

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]