TripAdvisor shows its old pal Expedia a clean pair of heels
TripAdvisor, a former subsidiary that still feeds Expedia many of its customers, has shot past its parent less than 20 months after being spun off.
TripAdvisor: fast progress
A year and a half later with a newly independent board, TripAdvisor redesigned its website to show shoppers more hotel options right there among its traveler reviews, rather than referring them to sites like Expedia's via pop-up windows, as it had in the past, said the Wall Street Journal.
Expedia reacted late to the shift, and its sales suffered this spring partly as a result.
TripAdvisor, meanwhile, booked its fourth-straight quarter of better-than-expected earnings.
The shift is evident in the two companies' stock market value, said the WSJ. At $6.9 billion, Expedia is now worth about 40% less than TripAdvisor, which is valued at more than $11 billion.
Earlier Expedia executives had spent months warning analysts and investors that aggressive marketing tactics from old rivals like Priceline.com Inc. could hurt profits this year. The unexpected sting came from their old ally,
Data from Google show that queries for "Tripadvisor" now surpass those for "Expedia" by nearly 50%. Less than two years ago, Expedia had d twice as many searches as its then-subsidiary.