Travel portal TripAdvisor continues to push ahead with its mobile and social acquisitions: today the company that it has acquired GateGuru, a mobile app that provides real-time information on airports, weather, and flights — much of it picked up from crowdsourcing, much like Waze does with road travel. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but we are trying to find out.

This is not an acqui-hire but a direct expansion of TripAdvisor’s services to its users. As more people take to mobile and social services, the company is looking to extend what it already offers online — a huge database of user-generated content giving reviews of destinations, hotels and other things travel-related. In the case of TripAdvisor, it’s almost certainly easier to acquire and tap into services that have already been built rather than create them from scratch themselves.


”Flying is often an essential part of a trip and we have continually developed our suite of flights products, from the pricing and availability search on TripAdvisor, to our award-winning SeatGuru.com, with seat maps and more” said Steve Kaufer, co-founder and CEO TripAdvisor, Inc., in a statement. ”GateGuru nicely complements our existing flights products and we look forward to working with the GateGuru team as they continue to manage the GateGuru app and add great functionality to the TripAdvisor mobile experience.”

GateGuru, founded in 2011, had raised at least $ 800,000 with backing from a pretty illustrious set of investors. They include Chamath Palihapitiya, the former Facebook exec who is now running the Social + Capital Partnership VC fund; Allen Morgan, the former MD of the Mayfield Fund; and Tom Glocer, the former CEO of Thomson Reuters.

This follows from the company’s acquisition of another mobile/social startup, TinyPost, in March of this year, followed swiftly by Jetsetter from Gilt weeks later.

The company says that GateGuru will continue to operate out of New York.

More to come. Release below.

LONDON, UK. June 19 2013 – TripAdvisor®, Inc., today announced it has acquired GateGuru (www.gateguruapp.com), the leading mobile resource for flight and airport information around the world.  Built on a mix of user-generated content and information from the airports, flyers can view detailed maps and insights on stores, restaurants, amenities and gate locations.  Combined with weather forecasts, estimated security wait times and real-time flight status information, the award-winning app aims to take the stress out of flying.

 “Flying is often an essential part of a trip and we have continually developed our suite of flights products, from the pricing and availability search on TripAdvisor, to our award-winning SeatGuru.com, with seat maps and more” said Steve Kaufer, co-founder and CEO TripAdvisor, Inc.  “GateGuru nicely complements our existing flights products and we look forward to working with the GateGuru team as they continue to manage the GateGuru app and add great functionality to the TripAdvisor mobile experience.”
The GateGuru team will continue to operate out of New York City, and report to Bryan Saltzburg, General Manager New Initiatives and leader of the TripAdvisor Flights product and SeatGuru brand.
Terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.
About TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor® is the world’s largest travel site*, enabling travellers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travellers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 200 million unique monthly visitors**, and over 100 million reviews and opinions covering more than 2.5 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions. The sites operate in 30 countries worldwide, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also includes TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to millions of monthly TripAdvisor visitors.

TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) manages and operates websites under 20 other travel media brands: http://www.airfarewatchdog.com, http://www.bookingbuddy.com, http://www.cruisecritic.com, http://www.everytrail.com, http://www.familyvacationcritic.com, http://www.flipkey.com, http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk, http://www.holidaywatchdog.com, http://www.independenttraveler.com, http://www.jetsetter.com, http://www.niumba.com,  www.onetime.com, http://www.seatguru.com, http://www.sniqueaway.com, http://www.smartertravel.com, http://www.tingo.com, www.travelpod.com, http://www.virtualtourist.com, http://www.whereivebeen.com, and http://www.kuxun.cn. 

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, worldwide, April 2013

**Source: Google Analytics, worldwide data, May 2013

©2013 TripAdvisor, Inc. All rights reserved. 

SOURCE TripAdvisor