User:Claresayasronning/draft
Website where tourists can book activities
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GetYourGuide is a private company based in Berlin, Germany.[1] It develops and operates an online marketplace for things to do, excursions and tours.[1] It is one of the largest marketplaces for activities.[2] GetYourGuide was founded in 2008 by college friends, initially as a way to connect volunteer student guides with foreign tourists in Beijing, China.[3] It shifted to professional tours and grew internationally over time.[3] The company had several funding rounds, leading to a $2 billion valuation in 2023.[4]
Type of site | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Available in | 25 languages |
| Founded | 2008 in Zurich, Switzerland |
| Headquarters | , |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Founders |
|
| Key people | Johannes Reck (CEO) |
| Industry | Tourism |
| Products | Online marketplace |
| Employees | 800+ |
| URL | www |
History
The idea for GetYourGuide was conceived of in 2008 by college roommates attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.[5] The students were lost in Beijing, until Tao Tao, who grew up there and speaks Mandarin, arrived to guide them.[3] An early version of the site was released before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[3] It was focused on a peer-to-peer model[6] that connected tourists with local students that guided foreigners as a way to practice their English.[3] Only five events were booked in the website's first two years.[5] The initial idea failed and the founders shifted in 2009 from untrained volunteer guides to more professional tours.[3][5]
The company was officially founded in 2009 in Zurich, Switzerland by four friends: Johannes Reck, Tao Tao, Martin Sieber, and Tobias Rein.[7] Initially, the founders earned less than minimum wage. They were funded by friends and family members.[3] The founders moved from Zurich to Berlin in 2013, in order to raise venture capital, but ended up getting a lot of their funding from American investors.[3] GetYourGuide raised $500,000 in pre-seed investments in 2009.[8] GetYourGuide raised $2 million in seed funding in January 2012.[8]
The seed funding was followed by a $14 million Series A funding in 2013,[1][9] with a $4.5 million series A add-on,[8] a $24 million Series B in 2014,[8] a $50 million Series C, and a $75 million Series D.[10] Another $484 million was raised in a 2019 Series E round, valuing the company at $1 billion.[11] This was one of the largest-ever funding rounds for a European startup.[11] Then, in June 2023, GetYourGuide raised $194 million in venture capital, valuing the business at about $2 billion.[4]
In January 2013, GetYourGuide acquired competitor Gidsy.[9] Gidsy was similar to GetYourGuide, but more focused on a crowd-sourced model for activities.[9] By 2017, GetYourGuide was not yet profitable, but was rapidly growing. It sold 5 million tickets that year, compared to 5 million since it was founded in 2008.[10] This grew to 25 million total tickets sold by 2019.[11] For part of the COVID-19 pandemic, GetYourGuide's revenues was $0, as it had to shut down activity booking.[4][12] It introduced virtual events during the COVID-19 Pandemic.[4] After travel restrictions were lifted, activity on the site rebounded[4] with the volume of bookings on the site quadrupling from 2019.[12] GetYourGuide started selling activities in the United States in 2021.[13]
Services
GetYourGuide is an online marketplace for leisure activities.[4] It contains tours and attractions, like guided sightseeing, helicopter rides, and snorkeling excursions.[14] As of 2023, it had about 118,000 activities from 18,000 businesses.[15] Generally, the activities are operated by third-parties that pay GetYourGuide a commission for each booking.[4] However, the company started selling GetYourGuide-branded events called "Originals" in the 2020s.[4] GetYourGuide removes activities that consistently get negative reviews.[1] The first GetYourGuide mobile app was released in October 2013.[8] As of 2023, GetYourGuide is investing heavily in expanding in the U.S. market and integrating artificial intelligence into the site.[4] ChatGPT was integrated in 2023.[12]