Seven years ago, Kiwi.com was one of many startups in the Czech Republic. Today the company operates worldwide and aims to become the first Virtual Global Supercarrier.
What happened along the way? How did Kiwi.com come to where it is now? And what is there to expect in the future?
I asked these questions to Oliver Dlouhý, the co-founder and CEO of Kiwi.com.
From punk to grown-up: The history of Kiwi.com
It all started somewhere. The story of Kiwi.com started while booking flights.
Back in 2011, Oliver wanted to travel to Portugal for holidays. However, he struggled to find cheap tickets to get there. Direct flights were quite expensive. He started to check different connections and finally found the best and cheapest route. It took a lot of time, dozens of open web pages, and some nerves. But it was a light-bulb moment.
Soon an idea became a reality. In 2012, Dlouhý and Jozef Képesi, current chief technology officer at Kiwi.com, together founded the company. They started developing a unique flight combination algorithm.
Back then the office was a flat with two rooms and 10 people. Now Kiwi.com has more than 2600 employees and is present worldwide; from offices in Brno and Prague, the Czech Republic and Barcelona, Spain to customer support centres in Bogota, Colombia to Manila, the Philippines.
In seven years Kiwi.com managed to acquire WhichAirlines, sign a deal with Amadeus to create the largest local flight database, implement ground transport content, and integrate into Google Flights. In 2019 General Atlantic invested in Kiwi.com and supported Oliver with his vision for the future. The vision to become the first Virtual Global Supercarrier.
Kiwi.com as the first Virtual Global Supercarrier
Every year The PhocusWright Conference brings together travel experts, innovators, and disruptors. The last conference became a launchpad for Kiwi.com to officially announce the Virtual Global Supercarrier vision. But what does this mean?
Travel is the largest online market in the world, and it’s still extremely fragmented. There are airlines, buses, trains, taxis, bikes, and scooters. On the other hand – there are online travel agencies, meta searches, and review sites.
Customers visit hundreds of different websites and use dozens of different apps to research, book or figure out what to do at the destination.
Dlouhý says: "Nowadays, everything — not only the travel sector — is moving fast and the customers are becoming more demanding. And it will continue in the future."
“The most fundamental change will be on how people are making their decisions. Now we see that trips are being planned weeks and months in advance - they have to, in order to find good prices and to plan their vacation at work.
"In the future, jobs will look different, allowing more and more people to work as digital nomads from anywhere in the world, including onboard planes thanks to the high-speed in-flight Internet. They will want to have a platform to be able to book any kind of transport, be it air, ground or sea on an on-demand basis. And this is exactly what we are building with the Virtual Global Supercarrier."
Kiwi.com’s new vision plans to boost the connectivity to the next level. With an average of 100 million searches daily, Kiwi.com connects more than 750 carriers worldwide.
Transforming into a Virtual Global Supercarrier, Kiwi.com will become the ultimate provider of transportation content, regardless of mode of transport, that will always find the best options to take the travelers from any A to any B, anywhere in the world.
Features and products that have been transforming Kiwi.com
How did Kiwi.com get from offering flight connections to becoming a Virtual Global Supercarrier? All features and products that Kiwi.com offers to the customers support this vision and bring the company one step closer to this vision becoming reality.
First of all, the Kiwi.com Guarantee covers transfers between different transport operators. In case of any disruptions, such as a delay or cancellation that results in missing a connection, Kiwi.com covers the expenses of a new ticket as well as hotel and food depending on the case.
Kiwi.com offers MultiCity itineraries enabling the traveler to book different destinations within one itinerary. In addition to that, the company built Nomad – a revolutionary new way to travel.
With Nomad, the traveler only picks the desired destinations and the time when the journey should end. Nomad shuffles the results in order to get the cheapest and the best possible route.
The company also created Tequila – a portal for Kiwi.com’s partners of all sizes. Partners can start selling Virtually Interlined flights, buses, and trains from Kiwi.com almost immediately, and benefit from having all the tools in one place.
Last year Kiwi.com introduced Virtual Fare Types, which unified 750+ carriers under the same change and cancellation rules. And all these features and products combined to create one unified vision – Kiwi.com as the first Virtual Global Supercarrier.
Dlouhý concludes: "Here in Kiwi.com we like innovative ideas. I believe this is the recipe for our success. The thought that there are no limits and we can do anything we can imagine, excites us. And we believe that becoming the Virtual Global Supercarrier is just a start for us."
* Check out these two clips from The Phocuswright Conference 2019 in Florida, U.S.
Kiwi.com - Launch - The Phocuswright Conference
Kiwi.com interview (PhocusWire @ Phocuswright Conference 2019)