News Digital Media invests in Bezurk
Investment comes as the Asia Pacific online travel market is estimated to currently be worth more than US$25 billion, and growing
Singapore, 15 January, 2008 – Bezurk.com, Asia Pacific’s leading travel search engine, today announced that it has received investment from and sold a minority stake to News Digital Media, the digital media arm of Australia-based News Limited.
Headquartered in Singapore, and one of the fastest growing online travel aggregators on the internet, Bezurk.com is a quick and easy-to-use travel search engine that empowers travellers based in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand to search real-time price and availability information from more than 80 partner travel websites in one go.
Chief executive officer of Bezurk.com, Martin Symes, today welcomed News Digital Media’s investment saying, “To have the backing of such a major player is recognition of our success to date and will accelerate our product development and international expansion plans.”
“Our position in the Asia Pacific region will be further strengthened through the vast promotion, business development and integration opportunities available to us through News’ investment.”
Bezurk.com’s revenue model is based on “Pay Per Click” and other performance-based commercial agreements. News Digital Media’s investment in Bezurk.com comes as the Asia Pacific travel region is estimated to currently be worth more than US$25 billion and growing (source: PhocusWright “Asia Pacific Online Travel Marketplace” Second Edition).
News Digital Media chief executive officer, Richard Freudenstein said, “This strategic investment is significant for us as we continue to identify new commercial opportunities locally and overseas.”
“Bezurk.com makes it easy for the traveller by empowering them to compare travel information and choose the best possible deal.”
“We look forward to working with Bezurk.com to ensure it becomes the authority travel search engine throughout the Asia-Pacific region,” Mr Freudenstein said.
Founded in 2005, Bezurk.com employees more than 20 staff and will continue to operate separately to News Digital Media, which will be represented on the Bezurk board.
In a separate transaction concurrent with the News Digital Media investment, Singapore based firm OWW Capital Partners also acquired a stake in Bezurk and will also be represented on the Bezurk board.
Relevant information on the online travel industry for editors
A recent survey of more than 2,500 people in Australia conducted by News Digital Media in partnership with CoreData found:
- Nine out of ten respondents use the internet to search for travel information or prices when planning for their holiday.
- 72% of respondents would go online to research where to go next after coming home from a vacation.
- 85.8% of respondents have travelled for holiday or business within the past year
- More than 60% would be interested in seeing price comparison tools or maps/guides on a travel website
- Less than half of people surveyed go to travel agents for information.
About Bezurk.com
Bezurk.com is a comparison-shopping web site that helps travellers from the Asia-Pacific region search for flights hotels and other travel products across multiple travel websites. Bezurk searches airline and hotel chain websites directly and also hotel aggregator and online travel agency sites. Searching is done in real-time so that results show only the latest pricing and availability. Bezurk links travellers directly through to partner websites to book. Bezurk, headquartered in Singapore, was founded in 2005 by former executives from Intercontinental Hotels Group, Yahoo!, Priceline and ZUJI. Business 2.0 magazine recently named Bezurk as one of “31 of the world’s hottest international web startups”. For more information, please visit www.bezurk.com.
About News Digital Media
News Digital Media, News Limited’s digital business, is Australia’s fastest growing digital media publisher. Its operations include digital properties, NEWS.com.au, truelocal.com.au, CareerOne.com.au, CARSguide.com.au, moshtix, Learning Seat and related activities involving News Limited newspaper websites, including dailytelegraph.com.au, theaustralian.com.au, heraldsun.com.au, couriermail.com.au, perthnow.com.au, adelaidenow.com.au, themercury.com.au and magazine websites, including, vogue.com.au, taste.com.au and notebookmagazine.com. News Digital Media also has investments in shopping comparison website, Getprice and web-based recruitment solutions company Recruitadvantage. News Digital Media informs, entertains, empowers and connects millions of people through compelling and highly engaging digital media properties.
For further information, please contact:
Sue Lynn Goh at Text100 on +65 6557 2717, or at SueLynn.Goh@text100.com.sg
