April 24, 2007
Cheapflights gets its US wings
The list of British websites successful in the US cannot be a long one, but cheapflights.com says it figures right at the top.
David Soskin, chief executive, who is in San Francisco for the ad:tech conference, told us unique visitors had now reached around 3m a month, meaning the US site, less than five years old, was now as popular as cheapflights.co.uk, founded in 1996.
According to the Hitwise research firm, the price comparison service for flights and travel was number 13 in its Travel - Agents category for March in the US.
Mr Soskin and Hugo Burge, his vice chairman and head of international development, put cheapflights in the hot category of “vertical search”, as opposed to the horizontal, general search offered by Google.
They have hired a US manager and head of marketing from another vertical play – the Monster.com jobs site - and are working on a plan to rollout in every major flights market over the next five years.
“The UK has had the most competitive flights market in the world, the US has the most brutally competitive internet market on the planet,” said Mr Soskin.
“Our thought has always been: if cheapflights can grow in the US and be profitable – and we are extremely profitable – then other markets should be more straightforward.”
Cheapflights has a Google-style pay-per-click model that has put it consistently in the black since Mr Soskin took charge in 2000.
But 2007 could be a breakout year for a company that has lived within modest means to date. It is considering an IPO, which could value it at around $400m, and will also look at any investment interest from private equity.
The cash injection is necessary, the management team believes, to push cheapflights onto the even shorter list of British websites successful on a global scale.
