Articles tagged “airasia”

In an intensifying superapp rivalry in Southeast Asia, Gojek handed its Thailand business to AirAsia Digital in the face of competition from Grab. While these leading superapps battle, AirAsia Digital is being taken more seriously. After all, it has airplanes and a profitable logistics business to add to the mix.

Did Airbnb, Booking Holdings, Tripadvisor, Oyo, and Marriott, among others, squirm a bit upon learning of Chinese regulators' latest antitrust crackdowns, this time against ridesharing giant Didi and food-delivery and hotel booker Meituan? If not, they should.

Airbnb seemed to be disciplined about its marketing spend during the first quarter, and didn't return to the bad old days of 2019 in terms of freewheeling spending. The true test will be this summer when rivals crank up their performance marketing campaigns.

Running an airline isn't easy, and neither is launching ridesharing, financial services, and delivery businesses from scratch. AirAsia has its work cut out for it in terms of the required investments and trying to be everything to everyone in Southeast Asian markets with entrenched incumbents.

The pandemic has been devastating for the world's airlines, forcing some to think outside the box to stay afloat. Is this a gimmick for coping with the times, or the renaissance of a more diversified airline industry?

Airlines all over the world to varying degrees are pursuing direct-booking strategies. Is JetBlue's decision to remove its flights from CheapOair and OneTravel an isolated dispute or are Expedia and Priceline next on JetBlue's target list?

Stay deep or go wide? Online travel companies from Expedia to Airbnb and Booking.com are grappling with these issues. Focusing on core products can clearly be a winning formula, but when you are a public company, pressure to generate growth from new areas is a constant conundrum.

Latin America's Rappi now offers business travel alongside things like takeaways, pet food and furniture. It doesn’t sound like a winning combination, but different parts of the world have different appetites for digitization.

Skeptics are nothing new for AirAsia. So when it announced it was going to become more than just an airline but a superapp, executives ignored the critics. Karen Chan makes her case on why this strategy makes perfect sense.