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Internet entrepreneurs invest in German dotcom
HOWZAT media has invested in trivago, a German based pan-European internet media company.
It is the fourth dotcom investment by the internet investment fund, set up by entrepreneurs David Soskin and Hugo Burge and a small group of private investors in January 2007.
HOWZAT has already invested in the international social networking site Where Are You Now (WAYN.com), the UK vertical property search site Zoomf.com and TrustedPlaces.com, a social networking site with reviews of restaurants, cafes, bars and other lifestyle venues.
Founded in mid-2005, trivago has developed a 40,000 strong European-wide community which spends an average of 20,000 hours a month creating travel reports, guides, tips and reviews.
Users also contribute photos of hotels, sightseeing attractions or beaches.
The site currently stores 150,000 hotel reviews, 600,000 photos and information on 50,000 tourist attractions, generating 2.5 million visits and over 10 million page views a month.
Its bespoke hotel price search engine enables travellers to find ideal accommodation at the lowest available rate in 225,000 hotels worldwide.
Soskin said: “We are delighted to make our first investment in Germany.
“Trivago meets the growing demand for independent travel information and reviews based on first-hand insider information as well as for a great hotel search function.”
Sascha Hausmann, the German-based member of the HOWZAT media team, added: “In contrast to many other early-stage online travel dotcoms, trivago is already cash-flow positive at the operational level.
“HOWZAT looks forward to working with trivago to build upon its success in the German and other international markets.”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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