Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Travel |
Founded | (2003[1] | )
Founders |
|
Headquarters | , |
Key people |
|
Revenue | £261 million (2016) [2] |
Number of employees | 1,200+ (2024) [3] |
Parent | Trip.com Group |
Website | skyscanner.com |
Skyscanner is a search aggregator and travel agency based in Edinburgh, Scotland. [1] The site is available in over 30 languages and is used by 100 million people per month. [1] [4] The company lets people research and book travel options for their trips, including flights, hotels and car hire. [1]
The company was formed in 2003 [1] by three information technology professionals, Gareth Williams, Barry Smith, and Bonamy Grimes, after Gareth was frustrated by the difficulties of finding cheap flights to ski resorts. [5] Skyscanner was first developed and released in 2002.[ citation needed] In 2003, the first employee was hired to assist with site development.[ citation needed] The Edinburgh office was opened in 2004. [6]
In 2008, Skyscanner received first round funding of £2.5 million from venture capital firm Scottish Equity Partners (SEP). [7]
In 2009, the year after SEP invested in the business, Skyscanner reported its first profit. [8]
In 2011, Skyscanner acquired Zoombu. [9] Skyscanner opened an office in Singapore in September 2011, which is headquarters for its Asia-Pacific operations. [10] In 2012, a Beijing office was added, as Skyscanner began a partnership with Baidu, China's largest search engine. [11]
By 2013, the company employed over 180 people. [12] In February 2013, Skyscanner announced plans to open a United States base in Miami. [12] In October 2013, Sequoia Capital purchased an interest in Skyscanner that valued the company at $800 million. [13] In June 2014, Skyscanner acquired Youbibi, a travel search engine company based in Shenzhen, China. [14]
In October 2014, Skyscanner acquired the Budapest-based mobile app developer Distinction. [15]
By February 2015, the company employed 600 people, double the employment of 18 months earlier. [16]
In January 2016, the company raised $192 million based on a $1.6 billion valuation for the company. [17]
In November 2016, a Chinese company Trip.com Group (formerly Ctrip) bought Skyscanner for $1.75 billion. [18] Following the sale to Ctrip, Skyscanner's largest shareholder, SEP, completed its exit from the business. [19]
In 2017, Ctrip bought the Trip.com domain and launched Trip.com. The original platform became a subsidiary of Skyscanner. [20]
In 2020, after COVID-19 rocked the travel industry, the company announced that it would lay off 300 employees (20% of its staff). It was likely to close two offices in Budapest, Hungary and Sofia, Bulgaria. [21]
In 2022, Skyscanner partnered with Huawei to bring various travel services Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) and Petal Search and Petal Maps. [22]