Decoding Yanolja Cloud and Its Hotel Software Strategy
Skift Take
Yanolja Cloud is the world's largest seller of hotel software whose strategy you don't understand. Here are a few "cheat codes," courtesy of the brand's chief strategy officer.
Travel Tech Briefing
Editor’s Note: Exclusive reporting on technology’s impact on the travel industry, delivered every Thursday. The briefing will guide executives as they decide if their companies should “build, buy, or partner” to stay ahead.Yanolja Cloud has scorching growth plans for hotel software sales, fueled by Softbank's $1.7 billion investment in its parent company, Yanolja, last year.
Yanolja Cloud sells "global" hotel solutions, meaning ones built primarily for outside of Korea, as a division Yanolja, a Seoul-based startup that runs hotels and a travel and lifestyle booking app. Since 2019, Yanolja Cloud has increased the number of hotels that license at least one of its "global hotel solutions" by 60 percent, to 43,000 hotels.Yanolja Cloud appeared to have boosted its business, as measured by absolute customer count, more than any other maker of software for hotel operations during the past two years. Many of its clients are in the Middle East, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia.Softbank, the world's largest venture capital investor, often invests in startups with a go-big-or-go-home approach. Names include office-space provider WeWork, mob
