Expedia Group, Inc. (EXPE)

Expedia Group, Inc. is a global online travel marketplace whose stated purpose is to help travelers explore the world. It connects travelers, supply partners and advertisers through a portfolio of consumer brands, shared technology and first-party data. It began operations nearly 30 years ago as one of the first online travel agencies. In 2020 it moved to a platform operating model, and it has since unified its front-end technology stack and launched the One Key loyalty program across its core brands. For 2025 it reported total revenue of $14.7 billion. Merchant, agency, and advertising, media and other revenue accounted for 70%, 22% and 8% of the total, respectively.

The company reports three segments. B2C offers travel and advertising services through consumer brands: Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo (alternative accommodations), and other brands such as Orbitz, Travelocity, ebookers and Wotif Group. Most marketing effort goes to Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo. B2B provides travel technology and supply to airlines, offline travel agents, online retailers, corporate travel management companies and financial institutions through the Rapid API, white label or co-branded templates, the Expedia TAAP agent booking tool, and an optimized distribution product for hotel wholesale rates. The trivago segment is the majority-owned hotel metasearch business, based in Dusseldorf, Germany and listed on Nasdaq (TRVG), which earns advertising revenue by referring users to online travel companies and other providers. At the end of 2025 the company offered about 3.6 million lodging properties, including roughly 2.4 million online bookable alternative accommodations through Vrbo, plus over 500 airlines, packages, car rentals, cruises, insurance, activities and experiences.

Expedia sells to travelers worldwide and to business partners, and it also helps advertisers, primarily travel providers, reach a multi-platform audience. It estimates that its gross bookings are a single-digit percentage of global travel spending, which Phocuswright puts at over $2 trillion for 2026. Revenue comes from three models. Under the merchant model, Expedia is the merchant of record and travelers generally pay at booking, mostly for lodging. Under the agency model, it earns commissions or ticketing fees, mostly on air bookings. Under the advertising model, travel and non-travel advertisers buy access to traffic on its sites and on trivago. Travelers can also assemble packages at lower prices than booking components separately. The company markets through search, metasearch, social and digital media, brand advertising, loyalty programs, email and affiliates.

Operationally, Expedia sources products from hotel companies, property owners and managers, airlines, car rental companies, cruise lines and destination service providers. It uses the Amadeus and Sabre global distribution systems for air content. Its websites and apps run mainly on cloud platforms and, to a lesser extent, legacy company-owned data centers located mainly in the United States. Customer support operates around the clock through a virtual agent platform, phone, chat and email, using a mix of outsourced and in-house contact centers in several countries. Competitors include online and offline travel agencies, tour operators, supplier direct websites, consolidators and wholesalers, large online search, social media, marketplace and generative AI companies, alternative accommodation sites and B2B technology providers. The company relies on trademarks, patents, copyrights, domain names and proprietary technology, and it is subject to travel industry, seller-of-travel and insurance regulation.