Are you happy and dissatisfied? If so, Steve Hafner wants you and it’s why he’s still there
If there’s one question Steve Hafner, co-founder and CEO of KAYAK, gets asked a lot, it is “Why are you still here?”
After all, he and co-founder Paul English founded their meta-search business in 2004 and sold it for $1.8 billion in 2012. And on the surface, Hafner doesn't seem to be the [...]
Letter from Fort Lauderdale: Time shifting as search chokes, funds bloat and brands battle for supremacy in next age of tech
As I wait for the first of three flights that will bring me home from Fort Lauderdale to Singapore via Houston and San Francisco, I have downloaded the Timeshifter jetlag app, one of the startups that presented at the Phocuswright conference. It’s relatively easy to set up, I just hope it works b [...]
Skyscanner starts selling flights, via mobile only
Skyscanner has now gone beyond being just a metasearch platform, announcing it will sell flights, albeit via its app and mobile web only in Australia, Singapore and the UK.
Bryan Dove, Skyscanner CEO said: “It’s not a secret that people are increasingly turning to thei [...]
The Wrap: WebBeds launches destination index in support of Hong Kong’s travel industry
News Roundup: WebBeds’ new destination performance tool launched, SITA's latest report on airlines and airports reaping benefits from IT investments, mobile app for booking tours and activities in Malaysia, ANA reducing single-use plastics from 2020
Distribution:WebBeds launches destination i [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: Why the travel industry needs to embrace e-payments
It may
soon be possible to travel across the world without bringing out your physical
wallet, thanks to the proliferation of mobile payment apps like e-wallets.
A recent Worldpay Global Report predicted that
adoption of e-wallets will rise sharply within APAC, growing from 52% in 2018
to 66% in [...]
Grab launches ride-hailing service on Booking.com mobile app
As
an extension of its current partnership, Booking.com and Grab have incorporated
Grab’s ride-hailing service into Booking.com’s mobile app. The collaboration
will allow international travellers visiting South-east Asia to make real-time
transport bookings via the Booking.com app, in their pre [...]
Letter from the South China Sea: Time for unusual thinking, unorthodox partnerships and old-fashioned making money
Yeoh Siew Hoon gets stranded on a coral
reef off Cempedak and ponders the secrets of the travel universe as they were revealed
at last week’s WiT Singapore 2019.
The sun was about to call it a day when we set out on a boat from Cempedak Island off Bintan, Indonesia. Our destination was a coral [...]
WiT Innovation Stage: Why a seamless online experience is key to building customer loyalty
Here’s a little-known fact: The ubiquitous QR code that we use today was actually invented in 1994 in Japan. Yet, according to Ory Rusli, head of South-east Asia, Japan Foodie – a restaurant search app for visitors to Japan – when it came to introducing this mode of payment to Japanese mercha [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: Alipay and Fliggy collaborate to provide seamless travel experience for tourists
A year on since she last spoke on the WiT Singapore stage in October 2018, much has changed in Cherry Huang’s life – from looking after Alipay cross-border payments for South-east Asia, she’s now the Head of Global Travel at Alibaba Group for the region, in charge of the development of both A [...]
On the back of booming Internet economy in SEA, WiT takes bird’s eye view of travel 2020 and beyond
It’s been a momentous time for online travel and on the cusp of a new decade, the WiT Singapore 2019 conference – being held Oct 14-16 – will take a bird’s eye view of the industry and project into the future of what travel could look like in 2020 and beyond.
And it’s a promising futu [...]
