Kayak downplays threat from Google Travel in IPO materials
Skift Take
Expect Kayak to increase its leave of absence from the classic metasearch approach and to expand into new travel verticals with its Kayak booking path. Others, including Room 77, already are following Kayak's lead.
Kayak, in finally getting its entire IPO story, replete with video, out into the public, says there has felt "no material impact" from Google's introduction of flight and hotel search.
Those were the words of co-founder and CEO Steve Hafner, decked out in a sports jacket to impress investors, as he used the video to address the big rhinocerous in the room -- Google's acquisition of ITA Software and Google's increased activity in travel in the form of Google Hotel Finder and Google Flight Search.
Hafner emphasized that Kayak obtains less than 10% of its traffic from Google, an
