Expedia 2012 Annual Report Download - page 10

Expedia websites contributed to the joint venture are no longer consolidated within Expedia’s results of
operations as of the joint venture’s launch. AirAsia owns the remaining 50% interest and contributed its
AirAsiaGo and GoRooms businesses.
Hotels.com Worldwide. Hotels.com stands as a pure-play business focused entirely on marketing and
distributing hotel rooms. Hotels.com, with more than 85 localized sites worldwide, offers travelers a broad
selection of hotel properties. Because of its single product offering, Hotels.com is often our first entry point into
a region allowing us to evaluate the market opportunity prior to adding additional brands and product offerings.
The Hotwire Group. Hotwire offers a travel booking service that matches flexible, price-sensitive travelers
with suppliers who have excess seats, rooms and cars they offer at lower rates than retail provided their brand is
presented “opaquely” until after the customer books. Hotwire travelers may enjoy significant discounts by
electing to book travel services without knowing certain itinerary details such as brand and exact hotel location,
while suppliers create value from excess availability without diluting their core brand-loyal traveler base.
Through its U.S. and international sites, Hotwire partners with leading hotel companies worldwide, brand-name
domestic and international airlines, and major car rental companies in the United States. Hotwire also operates
CarRentals.com™, an online car rental marketing and retail firm offering a diverse selection of car rentals direct
to consumers.
Expedia Affiliate Network. Our private label and co-brand programs make travel products and services
available to travelers through third-party company-branded websites, including some of the leading regional
online travel companies. The products and services made available through EAN are substantially similar to
those made available on Expedia-branded and Hotels.com-branded websites. We generally compensate
participants in co-branded and private label programs on a revenue-share basis. We also leverage private label
platforms to make Expedia and Hotels.com-branded sites available in certain international points of sale.
Egencia. Our full-service travel management company offers travel products and services available to
corporations and corporate travelers. Egencia maintains a global presence in 55 countries across North America,
Europe and Asia Pacific. Egencia provides, among other things, centralized booking tools for employees of its
corporate customers, unique supply targeted at business travelers, and consolidated reporting for global, large
and “SME” (small and medium size enterprise) business segments. Egencia charges its corporate clients account
management fees, as well as transactional fees for making or changing bookings. In addition, Egencia provides
on-site agents to some corporate clients to more fully support the account. Egencia also offers consulting and
meeting management services. We believe the corporate travel sector represents a significant opportunity for
Expedia through Egencia’s compelling technology solution for businesses seeking to optimize travel costs and
improve employees’ travel experiences by moving the focus of the corporate travel program online versus the
traditional call center approach. We intend to continue investing in and expanding the geographic footprint and
technology infrastructure of Egencia as evidenced by the acquisitions of VIA Travel, a travel management
company in the Nordics, during 2012 as well as Travelforce®and Traveldoo™ during 2011.
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 and 24-hour call centers to provide consumers with the ability to
make hotel reservations at almost 39,000 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 2012,
Expedia and eLong entered into an expanded agreement aimed to improve consumers’ global hotel booking
options and increase Expedia’s visibility to consumers in the Chinese market. The enhanced partnership also
provides an increased level of strategic cooperation between Expedia and eLong. eLong, Inc. is a listed company,
with American Depository Shares which trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “LONG.”
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