Expedia 2013 Annual Report Download - page 11

eLong. Expedia’s majority-owned online hotel and air travel service company, based in Beijing, China,
specializes in travel products and services in China with a particular focus on driving online hotel bookings.
eLong uses web-based distribution technologies, mobile apps and websites, and 24-hour call centers to provide
consumers with the ability to make hotel reservations at more than 70,000 hotels in China and, through Expedia,
hotels in countries worldwide. eLong also offers air ticketing and other travel related information and services.
Travelers can access eLong travel products and services through its websites, including www.elong.com and
www.elong.net. During 2013, eLong shifted the focus of its distribution strategy to better address China’s rapidly
expanding mobile travel market. The mobile hotel strategy involves continual upgrades to eLong’s mobile user
experience in an effort to encourage traffic to that channel. eLong, Inc. is a listed company, with American
Depository Shares which trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “LONG.”
Venere. Our Venere website, www.venere.com, lists hotel properties in hundreds of locations around the
world and provides hotel partners with geographically diverse sources of demand. Venere primarily uses direct
agency-based relationships with hotels worldwide ensuring it can offer customers best-value rates.
trivago. trivago is our majority-owned hotel metasearch company, based in Dusseldorf, Germany, featuring
price comparison from more than 750,000 hotels on over 200 booking sites worldwide. Officially launched in
2005, trivago is already one of the best known travel brands in Europe operating in 40 different countries serving
more than 45 million visitors each month.
Classic Vacations. Classic Vacations offers individually tailored vacations primarily through a national
network of third-party retail travel agents. Classic delivers a full line of premium vacation packages — air,
hotels, car rentals, activities and private transportation — to create customized luxury vacations in Hawaii, the
Caribbean, Mexico, Costa Rica, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tahiti. Travel agents and travelers can
preview our product offering through our websites, www.classicforagents.com and www.classicvacations.com.
Expedia Local Expert. Our Expedia Local Expert network offers online and face-to-face personalized
recommendations and assistance in booking events, activities, tours, attractions and other services that travelers
seek in their destinations. With access to a rich portfolio of thousands of tours and adventures, LX can be found
on 27 Expedia-branded websites, and operates more than 100 concierge and activity desks in major resort
destinations.
Expedia CruiseShipCenters. Expedia CruiseShipCenters is a leading seller of cruises and vacations. The
franchise company has 180 retail locations across North America, a team of nearly 4,000 professionally-trained
vacation consultants and a searchable online database of more than 50,000 staterooms.
Growth Strategy
Product Innovation. Each of our leading brands was a pioneer in online travel and has been responsible for
driving key innovations in the space over the past two decades. They each operate a dedicated technology team,
which drives innovations that make researching and shopping for travel increasingly easier and helps customers
find and book the best possible travel options. In the past several years, we made key investments in technology,
including significant development of our technical platforms that makes it possible for us to deliver innovations
at a faster pace. For example, we launched new global platforms for Hotels.com and Brand Expedia, enabling us
to significantly increase the innovation cycle, thereby improving conversion and driving faster growth rates, for
those brands. Most recently, Expedia signed an agreement to power the technology, supply, and customer service
platforms for Travelocity-branded sites in the United States and Canada, enabling Expedia to leverage its
investments in each of these key areas. We intend to continue leveraging these investments when launching
additional points of sale in new countries, introducing new website features, adding supplier products and
services including new business model offerings, as well as proprietary and user-generated content for travelers.
Global Expansion. Our Expedia, Hotels.com, Egencia, EAN, and Hotwire brands operate both domestically
and through international points of sale, including in Europe, Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America. We own a
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