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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

#71
post #23
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.

As much as I love Edinburgh, and hope the technology sector and economy there (and in Scotland as a whole) thrives, it has to be said that the technology job market is currently very small in comparison to London. Some stats to put this in perspective: There are 328,000 "digital tech jobs" in London[0], the entire population of Edinburgh is 464,990[1], and Edinburgh is the 11th biggest technology cluster in the UK with 21,000 "digital tech jobs"[0].

And if you're thinking of relocating your family from the US, there are 5 American schools in and around London[2], whereas I believe the only one in Scotland is in Aberdeen[3].

[0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37380696

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_School_in_England

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_School_of_Aberde...

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#72
post #23
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.

There is an estimated 5k more developer jobs per year in central Scotland than there are developers to fill them, so it is a pretty good time to be a developer here. Especially if you're senior level or above as you'd be in high demand.

Salary is not going to be as high as Silicon Valley, but living expenses are much lower[1]. A senior developer can expect to earn around £40k

I actually live in Glasgow and work in Edinburgh, and both cities are fantastic. Glasgow has more vibrant nightlife and music scene; while Edinburgh is so historic with beautiful architecture.

Also our politicians are not as bat shit crazy as the rest of the UK which is nice.

[1]: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#73

Wouldnt it be considered a conflict of interest if the original founder of Ctrip Neil Shen, later invests in Skyscanner as a Sequoia VC-raises its valuation and then gets it acquired by Ctrip.

CoI to whom? Ctrip I assume? I don't think China really recognizes that concept in business from what I've been able to ascertain.

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#74
Well done SkyScanner! I live 20 minutes from Edinburgh, and I don't really see what others are saying here. I am in a very flexible but really lame paid role, I have friends who have offered me a job in England twice. In Edinburgh though, it is either corporate jobs (demand), low paid hacky jobs for media agencies (pays in peanuts), and everything else is 50k jobs paying 28k via a recruitment agency who skims all the cream... ie: You need to be a mug.

Otherwise where are people seeing all the tech jobs?

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#75
post #57
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.)

Hint: When you're an ass about something, you're an asshole.

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#76

As an American, I find there are better tools for finding domestic flights. However, for international flights, Skyscanner is always my go to tool.

I tend to use Hipmunk for both domestic and international flights; I haven't seen anything that comes close to Hipmunk's UI for presenting flights. What's the main advantage of Skyscanner?

Himpmunk uses Skyscanner's API for international flights.

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#77
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.

There is an estimated 5k more developer jobs per year in central Scotland than there are developers to fill them, so it is a pretty good time to be a developer here. Especially if you're senior level or above as you'd be in high demand. Salary is not going to be as high as Silicon Valley, but living expenses are much lower[1]. A senior developer can expect to earn around £40k I actually live in Glasgow and work in Ed…

A senior dev in Skyscanner would be earning more than £40k

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#78
post #74

Well done SkyScanner! I live 20 minutes from Edinburgh, and I don't really see what others are saying here. I am in a very flexible but really lame paid role, I have friends who have offered me a job in England twice. In Edinburgh though, it is either corporate jobs (demand), low paid hacky jobs for media agencies (pays in peanuts), and everything else is 50k jobs paying 28k via a recruitment agency who skims all the…

Well, my company Administrate is hiring in Edinburgh and we are still a fairly early stage (~50 people) startup. We pay pretty well. Check out www.getadministrate.com

Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B

#79
post #74

Well done SkyScanner! I live 20 minutes from Edinburgh, and I don't really see what others are saying here. I am in a very flexible but really lame paid role, I have friends who have offered me a job in England twice. In Edinburgh though, it is either corporate jobs (demand), low paid hacky jobs for media agencies (pays in peanuts), and everything else is 50k jobs paying 28k via a recruitment agency who skims all the…

> everything else is 50k jobs paying 28k via a recruitment

I have no idea how that even works. Every time I got a job from a recruiter in the UK I got 100% of the month. Recruiters get paid on top of what you get paid, not you paying them.

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