Wego Company is an award winning website that provides a country code top level domain operated (CcTLD) search engine for travels. It presents users with search results filtered from more than 700 hundred online travel agency websites, chains of hotels and airline consolidators. The results are availed in up to 30 different languages and converted to over 42 different currencies. It also gives users a basis for comparison of flight rates, hotels prices and other travel research in the market place. Wego has become a top ranked mobile application for travelers as well as the inhabitants of the Asia Pacific and the Middle East regions. The Company employs the use of a powerful and simple technology that actuates the process of filtering and comparison of results automatically. This provides users with unbiased feedback with clear details about all travel products, local and global and various other travel tips. This ensures that users get to choose from the best deals and enable speedy and convenient booking of both flights and accommodations.
FOUNDERS OF COMPANY
Wego Company was founded by Ross Veitch and Craig Hewett. Ross Veitch is a passionate and active Entrepreneur who has been a veteran of the Asian internet industry since his time as Yahoo’s leader of product and engineering in Southeast Asia from 1998 to 2004. He first worked at Wego as the chief product officer until January 2012 before assuming his current role as chief executive officer. Ross is a primary investor in many online startups and a board member of Valadoo in Indonesia and Cobone in United Arab Emirates. He has managed to start a range of successful initiatives in the commerce and travel industry and made it is easy for Wego users and travelers to research their flight and accommodation options independently by checking live inventory platforms. His love for travel and technology has enabled him to lead the company through a period of rapid growth. Craig Hewett is also the cofounder and chief commercial officer at Wego. Together with Ross, they have seen the company becomes Singapore’s best Asia pacific travel agency website across 52 markets.
START/HISTORY OF THE COMPANY
The Wego Company was formerly known as Bezurk. This was a travel search engine whose objective was to provide users with the best rates for flights, hotels and rental cars. It operated an Ajax user interface which allowed users to filter the prices, arrival and departure time of flights quickly without having to reload the web pages. The company got lots of traffic and this enabled the providers to build direct relationships with new customers. It also had up to 50 partners and ample airspace. This made the company’s value to increase in the online travel market to around $20 billion in the Asia Pacific region back in 2006. Bezurk’s Chief executive officer at the time was Martin Symes. However, in 2005, it was acquired and transformed to Wego by Ross Vietch and Craig Hewwet. Wego headquarters is based in Singapore but also has offices in India, Australia and Indonesia. It also operates in Dubai, Jakarta and Bangalore.
INVESTEMENT ROUNDS
Wego Company has a series of Investors. These include; Tiger Global Management, SquarePeg Capital, Victoria Capital, Crescent Point and News Corp. News Corp Company from United States of America provided Series A funding round worth US$4.5 million in January 2008. In December 2010, the Company secured an investment was from Tiger Global Management which is an existing shareholder from United Kingdom. This was through a Series B funding round worth $13 million. In June 2013, the company acquired series C funding round of $17 million in growth capital through the completion of a preferred share offering from Australian Square Peg Capital Company. The investment round was led by Crescent Point investors with contributions from Victoria Capital. Another. This investments brought the total capital raised by the company to around $36 million and enabled it to focus on growth and increase in scale business in the middle east region and the general Asia pacific market place.
DATA/ METRICS (IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION)
Crescent Point Investors have had a great working relationship with AirAsia and other assisting companies in the past and are most preferred by Wego for building and scaling competitive brands across the Asian pacific markets. It is an emerging markets investment company focusing on building long term, mutually beneficial relationships with companies such as Wego. It is able to invest in attractive market opportunities by leveraging its execution expertise, network, track record, and disciplined investment process. Victoria Capital also invests in the growth of businesses which focus on online internet based technology and other networking industries. They invest their capital led by investment partners on a deal by deal basis, thereby creating a model which combines the principles of investment with the best elements of private equity. Leveraging the partner’s combined experience, they hope to support their investments in a way that will achieve significant growth in the short to medium term. With the objective of becoming Australia and New Zealand’s first choice capital firm, they partner with Company’s such as Wego to attract other international businesses and new sectors in the Asian market.
PARTNERS
Wego launched its partnership with Saudi Airlines in December 6th, 2014. This is the leading full service carrier in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The partnership increased Wego’s significant strength and continued growth in the Middle east Speaking from the region’s premiere travel industry event at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, Chief Flights Officer, Dean Wicks shared the news which he said ‘reinforced Wego’s continuing strength and growth in the Middle East. Saudi airline is a fully established and quite respected airline and benefits mutually by sharing their products through Wego’s inventory with all travelers around the globe. Saudi Airlines has experienced exponential growth in the travel market and growth and continues to escalate. Wego’s wide network and dominance as a travel search engine the Saudi airline with the much needed brand exposure in Asia Pacific and the Middle East markets. The airlines have invested on Wego in order to provide customers with the best travel experience by building their travel itinerary with access to an extensive information provided by the popular search engine. Middle Eastern travelers have also expressed their confidence and appreciation of Wego, and describe it as a simple and complete online travel evolution. Wego also has various partnerships with several online travel accommodation agencies. Through its accommodation booking feature known as Holiday Rentals, users can not only book hotels but also as private homes, houseboats, farm stays, villas, castles and beach houses. This feature attracted more partners such as Travelmob, TheVillaGuide, Stayz.com.au, HomeAway.com and FlipKey.com
COMPETITION
Wego has faced competition from various search engines in the Asian pacific market. One such competitor is Cheapflights which is a search and comparison website that provides its users with information about flight deals, the deal providers and travel agencies. HotelsCombined is another competitor search engine which enables users to discover and compare accommodation rates. Kayak is also a travel metasearch engine which allows its users to discover and book flights, accomodations, rental cars and cruise lines. Mobissimo is another competing travel search engine which gives users a platform to compar air tickets prices, travelling deals, rental cars and hotel bookings. Momondo is another competitor travel metasearch engine that allows users to find and make price comparisons on air tickets, hotel bookings, rental cars, and other travel deals. Qunar is another potential competitor. It provides online travel information in Chinese language through a mainland search engine for web based and mobile users. Skyscanner is another global travel search engine which compares airline prices, hotel bookings, rental cars, number of flights and other travel deals. Trivago is another competitor search engine that enables hotel searches and allows up to 120 million worldwide travelers every month to search and find ideal hotels
Lastly, there is TripAdvisor, which is the world’s largest travel website that allows users to plan and book accommodations and flights. It poses a great competition to Wego and all the other search engines.
CONCLUSION
Wego is a mobile and web based metasearch engine that provides a platform for users to acquire firsthand information about prices and availability of flights and accommodations in the Asia pacific region. This enables them to plan travels accurately and compare rates from various online travel agencies. The search engine operates well in both iOS and android devices. The mobile app is available and free for download on both the apple apps store and the Google play store and covers up to 20 languages worldwide. Wego also allows users to check the rates offered in various travel deals directly. This gives them firsthand information filtered from online travel agencies, hotels chains and airline consolidators. The company therefore provides a convenient means of finding and booking hotels, air tickets, and other travel necessities and is thus a top ranked mobile application for worldwide travelers as well as the inhabitants of the Asia Pacific and the Middle East regions.