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Kayak Files for $50 million IPO

83 points| ojbyrne | 15 years ago |techcrunch.com

38 comments

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[+] thushan|15 years ago|reply
Does anyone know of any other solutions for this kind of data other than ITA? Are there any open/cheap APIs for getting at scheduling/price data? I hear Hipmunk is using Orbitz currently to power their results (or so someone said on that recent TechCrunch article in the comments). Does Orbitz have some API? Would be a fun data set to play with if one is openly available, though I love what Hipmunk is already doing.
[+] tomhoward|15 years ago|reply
The lack of open/cheap APIs is probably the biggest factor that keeps innovation in travel so slow.

My company, Adioso (YC W09) has a free API in beta. It's what's used to power http://destmapper.com/. Coverage is limited but soon to start expanding rapidly. Email me - tom at adioso dotcom - if you're interested.

[+] gms|15 years ago|reply
While Orbitz might offer an API, I believe that underneath the hood they also use ITA. ITA currently have no competitors in this space.
[+] dlokshin|15 years ago|reply
TC article keeps referring to revenue and net income as compared to a year ago which was a notoriously bad year for the travel industry. So these growth numbers don't really mean anything. Would be really interesting to see where Kayak stands in comparison to 2007 & 08.
[+] krschultz|15 years ago|reply
I didn't realize that the Kayak founders have a member from basically every other major competitor. I would love to hear that story.
[+] ojbyrne|15 years ago|reply
I think if you look at any large website in the travel space, that holds true, it seems to be an especially incestuous industry. When I worked at Tripadvisor (owned by Expedia) we had significant numbers of people in our group from Travelocity.
[+] aberkowitz|15 years ago|reply
Luckily for them, flight search is such a small [1] industry.

[1] orbitz, chapoair, hipmunk, expedia, travelocity, farecompare, cheaptickets, hotwire, priceline, kinkaa, zoombu, cheapflights, etc

[+] jfarmer|15 years ago|reply
Funny enough, these sites (including Kayak) are pushing users away from flight booking and towards hotel booking because the margins are much larger.

kayak.com defaults to hotel search now, for example.

[+] wyclif|15 years ago|reply
The article implies that Kayak may have had privileged information about the Justice Department's investigation of the Google-ITA deal, or else they would have held off on the IPO. Now there's a story I'd like to read.
[+] jedc|15 years ago|reply
Interesting. I've played around with Kayak's API, but has anyone used it for any projects? I'm curious what others think.

As for the IPO... good luck to them!

[+] smackfu|15 years ago|reply
Interesting how much money they get from other travel booking agencies. These are basically referrals of referrals.
[+] abalashov|15 years ago|reply
Revenue? What's the profit?
[+] borism|15 years ago|reply
"Net Income was actually down for the first three quarters to $6.2 million from $10.4 million in 2009."
[+] rorrr|15 years ago|reply
I'm surprised it's valued that low. We constantly hear about all kinds of shitty sites getting millions in funding.
[+] theoneill|15 years ago|reply
50m is not the valuation; it's the amount of stock they're selling.
[+] huadie|15 years ago|reply

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[+] DeusExMachina|15 years ago|reply
This is the first time that I see spam make it to the comments of an articles. Is there a way, other than flagging the comment, to report the account as well?
[+] unknown|15 years ago|reply

[deleted]

[+] smackfu|15 years ago|reply
From the article, it sounds like Kayak already uses ITA.

Everyone in this space is scared of Google though, if they manage to buy ITA.

[+] JacobAldridge|15 years ago|reply
Aren't we all - that's one freaky little rodent.
[+] ojbyrne|15 years ago|reply
Pretty well everyone who offers online airline reservations uses ITA. So it's unlikely that Hipmunk is their motivation.