GigaOM » Wimdu

Holiday rental firm HouseTrip rakes in $40m as big backers multiply

David Meyer — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:01:25 +0000

HouseTrip, the holiday rental site that really doesn’t like being lumped in with Airbnb, has just raised a fresh round that takes in Accel Partners, as well as existing investors Balderton Capital and Index Ventures.

The $40m Series C round will apparently be used to help London-based HouseTrip grow market share, partly by expanding into new territories. The company’s competitors in this space include the aforementioned Airbnb, as well as more Europe-centric rivals such as Wimdu and 9flats.

“We don’t really look at our competitors,” HouseTrip CEO Arnaud Bertrand insisted to me. “We are pretty convinced about our own vision.”

That vision is pretty simple: make it as simple to book a rental property as it is to book a hotel room. As Bertrand notes, HouseTrip is “not very social” – unlike some of its competitors, the site eschews the setting-up of user profiles and the like.

Bertrand also notes the company’s relative focus on the high end. No guest rooms here; these are all proper rental properties. And, in a way, that makes up for the security boon that can come from forcing users to set up or link to social profiles.

“We have a pretty massive quality control team based in Lisbon,” Bertrand said. “They’re in charge of making sure that all new properties go through a pretty strict vetting process. We don’t go after primary residences because we think it’s simply too dangerous.”

HouseTrip also used the announcement to reveal some numbers – apart from the big ‘$60m’ number that now represents its total funding to date.

The site now has more than 130,000 properties listed in over 15,00 destinations, and it reckons it’s on track for more than three million nights’ bookings between its 2010 launch and the end of this year. Based on recent figures, and with local rival Wimdu having cut back its operations recently, that probably puts HouseTrip in second place behind Airbnb.

It may well be the case that the holiday rental market is not a winner-takes-all game, but that doesn’t stop it being fiercely competitive. With its growing collection of big-league backers, HouseTrip is certainly placing itself well for the next phase of the fight.

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Opportunities and risks in the share economy

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 06:55:27 +0000

Owning physical items — cars, apartments, office space — has both lost some of its luster and will be increasingly inefficient for a global market. It is shifts like these, combined with catalysts like mobile technology, that are driving a greater interest in the share economy, which can broadly be defined as a marketplace where business models are built around consumers choosing access rather than ownership. Key sectors in the share economy include car sharing, vacation sharing, office sharing, and ride sharing. Each has its own set of companies to watch, as well as its own opportunities and risks.

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Revealed: the full extent of the Rocket clone empire

David Meyer — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Updated: Rocket Internet, the Berlin-based clone merchant, is one of Europe’s most powerful internet businesses — and it’s growing all the time. With the recent news that the incubator-slash-accelerator is apparently now looking to copy Square, it’s worth examining how far the company has already come.

Plenty has been written about the Samwer brothers’ history, from early wins such as selling clones Alando and CityDeals to eBay and Groupon respectively, to more recent plays such as the Amazon knock-off Lazada.

But while many still think of Rocket as a European phenomenon that’s starting to break out elsewhere, the reality is that the company’s already running a vast number of properties all over the world.

It’s not easy to get a handle on all of Rocket’s babies, as the mothership doesn’t provide a comprehensive list. But this map shows all the countries where I’ve found Rocket to be either already operating or (in the cases of Slovakia, Hungary and Romania) about to open something.

We counted an astonishing 24 38 companies across 58 countries.

There are a couple of important things to remember here. Firstly, a huge amount of this expansion has only taken place in the last year or so. Secondly, there’s big money behind these operations – Zalando, for example, continues to pull in funding and is valued by some at around half a billion dollars. Thirdly, once Rocket has feet in a country it keeps using that infrastructure to swiftly roll out new services.

Not all countries have multiple Rocket operations. The map includes several countries where the only functioning Rocket offering I could find was the Airbnb clone Wimdu, namely Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

The map doesn’t include non-geographically-based Rocket products such as Pinspire (the Pinterest clone), or games operations Plinga and Panfu. I also left out Groupon, in which Rocket gained a stake through its CityDeals sale, but which could hardly be called a Rocket outfit.

Oh, and I also left out the Zalando redirect page in the Cook Islands, which I’m pretty sure is just there to rule out .co.ck jokes.

Here’s a breakdown of the operations shown on the map, in descending order of the number of countries in which each outfit is operating or about to open:

Wimdu (holiday accommodation, Airbnb clone): Italy, the UK, Germany, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, the U.S. and Uruguay.

Zalando (fashion, Zappos clone): Already open: Italy, the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and France. With holding pages: Poland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Australia, China and Romania (coming soon).

GlossyBox (cosmetics, BirchBox clone): Italy, the UK, Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Turkey, Israel, Australia, India (coming soon), Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Canada, Chile and the U.S.

Bamarang (designer goods, Fab clone): Italy, the UK, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Russia, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Turkey, Australia, India and Brazil.

eDarling (dating, eHarmony clone): Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Czech Republic and Turkey.

DropGifts (social gifting, Wrapp clone): Italy, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France, India (coming soon), Japan, South Africa (coming soon) and Brazil.

Zalora (fashion, Zappos clone): Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong

Lazada (general retail, Amazon clone): Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Egypt/GCC (as Mizado).

HelloFresh (food delivery, Middagsfrid clone): Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, France and Australia.

FashionForHome (furniture): Germany, the UK, Austria, the Netherlands and the U.S.

Betreut (classifieds for carers etc): Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria.

Foodpanda (food delivery): Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Dafiti (fashion, Zappos clone): Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia.

BillPay (payments): Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Enamora (underwear): Germany and Poland.

Lamoda (fashion, Zappos clone): Russia and Kazakhstan.

Immobilo (accommodation): Germany and Austria.

The Iconic (fashion, Zappos clone): Australia and New Zealand.

Zando (fashion, Zappos clone): South Africa.

5rooms (kitchenware): South Africa.

Home24 (furniture): Open: Germany and France. With holding blogs: Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Also coming soon: Malaysia.

Westwing (furniture): Germany, India, Brazil, France, Poland, Russia, Spain and Turkey

21diamonds (jewelry): Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Brazil, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Poland and Russia.

Dalani (furniture): The Netherlands, the UK, Australia, Italy, Sweden and Finland.

Tucany (fashion): Argentina, Chile, Colombia.

Mobly (furniture): Brazil.

Kanui (sports fashion): Brazil (with redirects coming from most other Latin American countries).

Airu (crafts, Etsy clone): Brazil.

Tricae (children’s goods): Brazil (with redirects coming in from most other Latin American countries, and from Canada).

Yepdoc (medical scheduling, ZocDoc clone): Brazil.

Zocprint (Vistaprint clone): Brazil.

Heaven and Home (furniture): India.

Zanui (furnishings): Australia.

Jabong (fashion, Zappos clone): India.

Toptarif, Wunderkarten, Netzoptiker and Ladenzeile, which are older Rocket operations, are only found in the company’s home country of Germany.

Update: This post was updated to add a number of companies that had been left off our initial survey.

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