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Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

ir.ctrip.com

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Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#51

Post by smcl »

welly wrote: post #9
garagemc2 wrote: post #6

This is great news for skyscanner. Unfortunately, the media in the UK will go all nativist and claim that Britain is being sold out to foreign countries, as they did with ARM.

Yep. I can see it now... "Scottish technology firm Skyscanner sells out to foreign interests". vs. "British technology firm Skyscanner does something the media sees in a positive light"

I don't think OP meant that this is the Failure=Scottish/Success=British terminology thing (which I'm not convinced exists), but more that the UK media will use this as a way to peddle their "Broken Britain" message. ARM's sale was seen in people like us in tech as just another huge acquisition, but the UK media portrayed it as evidence that the UK is "losing" and that something needs to be done about it.

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#52

Post by cmdkeen »

dvdhnt wrote: post #23
stewhuk wrote: post #7

Skyscanner is based in Edinburgh, with another large office in Glasgow. This is huge news for the Scottish tech scene, and will hopefully bring much needed cash to help it thrive. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening here in all types of tech. Sadly Scotland's other unicorn, FanDuel, looks set to close its hq in Edinburgh after merging with draft kings. However, that will probably release a lot of talent to h…

> happening here Does that mean you're living there? I'm curious what the prospects are like there. There's been more discussion lately about us Americans looking for work abroad. My wife is finally on board with making a move out of the US as a family, so I'm glad it's being discussed more.

On the more corporate end of the market in Edinburgh there is a definite shortage of tech talent. Pay isn't at American levels but Edinburgh is the best city in the UK in terms of average disposable income - an average £800 per month compared to London's £300. Job security is also pretty rock solid. It's also a World Heritage site, has pretty good transport links to the rest of Europe and you can easily spend weekends in the country/Highlands.

It's not London but then a developer up here should have no problem owning a house, raising a family and having a decent quality of life. All while working a 35 hour week so you actually have time to enjoy living here.

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#53

Post by contingencies »

paradite wrote: post #40
contingencies wrote: post #29

From about 2005-2009 I founded a hotel reservation platform in direct competition to CTrip and ELong, both of whom were already Nasdaq listed with deep pockets. I successfully grew the business to the same network size as the competitors on a shoestring budget through automation, undercutting them on almost every property, and even offered services in six human languages (they almost managed 2). We received rave revi…

What do you think of the current competitors like Tuniu.com and Qunar.com?

Qunar was a travel meta-search engine in those days; we used to pay them to list our inventory. Their API was quite shoddy. We stopped paying them, because it didn't make sense (we paid more for less business in return than was profitable). They then turned around and started offering the same services other companies used to offer and advertise through them... after they'd taken everyone's listing and price data. I personally find that a questionable change of model which would have caused legal havoc in a western context, not so in China. Tuniu I am unfamiliar with.

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#54

Post by tluyben2 »

paulsutter wrote: post #32
dvdhnt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> happening here Does that mean you're living there? I'm curious what the prospects are like there. There's been more discussion lately about us Americans looking for work abroad. My wife is finally on board with making a move out of the US as a family, so I'm glad it's being discussed more.

Prospects are good generally for technology talent. I'm in Tokyo now. Take a big chunk of vacation and visit several places that you have considered moving. Once you've visited and met other expats, you'll know what it's really like. The biggest barrier is your own decision.

I did that a few times; talking to expats really gives a skewed (and to my taste usually ugly) view of a place. I rather befriend locals first and then go to meet them which we do now. Then you also get a nice perspective on expats from them which indeed usually is consistent with my views of them. This is a generalisation and obviously there are plenty exceptions, but it is rather unpleasant to sit with yet another someone who says "ye,yeyyeyeye,ye,ye,ye,ye" to all you say and then starts talking about their own enormously important company and/or life in a way too loud tone. Which is basically what I see the average expat do everywhere (besides the not listening to others, I was like that too). Again matter of taste and exceptions, just saying I do not find talking to expats giving you much or any info about a what a place 'is really like'.

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#55

Post by ddeck »

stewhuk wrote: post #7

Skyscanner is based in Edinburgh, with another large office in Glasgow. This is huge news for the Scottish tech scene, and will hopefully bring much needed cash to help it thrive. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening here in all types of tech. Sadly Scotland's other unicorn, FanDuel, looks set to close its hq in Edinburgh after merging with draft kings. However, that will probably release a lot of talent to h…

Skyscanner is a fantastic service. I'm really hoping CTrip don't bring their dark patterns, spam, and generally scammy behavior to it.

My experiences with Ctrip includes regular price revisions after booking (and after they ensure they have all of your personal information), added fees for "discount coupons" which can't be removed and are only included after they have your payment information, regular spam despite opting out, and various other deceptive behaviors.

Unlike most booking engines, they often advertise firm prices for hotels, flights etc, but don't actually have confirmed inventory and often take days to confirm (or cancel or revise) the booking despite having taking your payment information already. This is only revealed after taking payment info.

There are also reports of them illegally selling children's tickets as adult tickets and trying to sell tickets purchased via mileage. [1]

[1] http://www.shanghaidaily.com/metro/society/Flyers-left-in-lu...

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#56

Post by contingencies »

ck425 wrote: post #45
contingencies wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Flights in China are routed through a single government clearing house not multiple commercial systems as per the west. In addition, at that time tickets still required physical delivery to the customer. Therefore, we considered it was too much hassle to go through the government approvals in order to compete with established local providers, a market which remains very fragmented. Car rental is beginning to tak…

See comments: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/24/skyscanner-...

Didn't see anything in there, despite reading two pages. Perhaps you could be more specific?

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#57

Post by scoot »

donw wrote: post #30
tomhoward wrote: post #12

The company was formed in 2001 by three IT professionals, Gareth Williams, Barry Smith and Bonamy Grimes, after one of them was frustrated by the difficulties of finding cheap flights to ski resorts. [1] Lessons: scratching a trivial-seeming personal itch can pay off handsomely in the long term. And it takes a loooong time to make it big in travel. Like most travel startup founders who've attended industry events ove…

Disclaimer: I'm the Engineering Director for Skyscanner's Japan office. During my interview process, I had an hour session with Gareth, and since joining the company in February, have had several opportunities to work with him directly. He is a very kind person, and works hard to take care of both his team and our travelers. It's actually a core part of how we do business: the needs of the traveler come first, and ou…

> I'm the Engineering Director for Skyscanner's Japan office.

Then you should probably learn the difference between a disclaimer and a disclosure. (Hint: when you disclose something, it's a disclosure.)

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#58

Post by robinduckett »

scoot wrote: post #57
donw wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclaimer: I'm the Engineering Director for Skyscanner's Japan office. During my interview process, I had an hour session with Gareth, and since joining the company in February, have had several opportunities to work with him directly. He is a very kind person, and works hard to take care of both his team and our travelers. It's actually a core part of how we do business: the needs of the traveler come first, and ou…

> I'm the Engineering Director for Skyscanner's Japan office. Then you should probably learn the difference between a disclaimer and a disclosure. (Hint: when you disclose something, it's a disclosure.)

This is a bit more condescending than I would usually like to see on HN.

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#59

Post by ck425 »

contingencies wrote: post #56
ck425 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See comments: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/24/skyscanner-...

Didn't see anything in there, despite reading two pages. Perhaps you could be more specific?

Apologies, replied to wrong comment. Meant to reply to comment mentioning negative opinions to a Chinese firm buying a Scottish one.

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#60

Post by neximo64 »

stewhuk wrote: post #7

Skyscanner is based in Edinburgh, with another large office in Glasgow. This is huge news for the Scottish tech scene, and will hopefully bring much needed cash to help it thrive. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening here in all types of tech. Sadly Scotland's other unicorn, FanDuel, looks set to close its hq in Edinburgh after merging with draft kings. However, that will probably release a lot of talent to h…

Not to pile onto nationalist sentiment but anything of this size is quite big for the British tech scene too. Heck European too. We don't have many unicorns on this side.
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