Priceline talking Asia and growth but still quiet on Agoda results

Three articles/posts this week with information on Priceline's strategy for Asia. They are all good reads and I recommend them to you. Playing to my bias for comments on Asia/Australasia, I poured through the posts to look for details on Priceline's investment in Agoda and plans for Booking in the region. Unfortunately Priceline continue to closely guard the details on Agoda's performance.

The three posts are:

• Tnooz's Dennis Schaal "Priceline CEO on metasearch swan song, private sales, Expedia, Asia strategy";
• Reuters "Online travel bookings shift overseas"; and
• seeking alpha's "Priceline.com Inc. Q4 2009 Earnings Call Transcript"

Key extracts are:

• Priceline likes the dual strategy of brands in Asia - Agoda and Booking.com according to CEO Jeffery Boyd (Schaal's post)
• Two thirds of Priceline's bookings are non- US. "We expect to have higher growth in the international markets, from new markets like Asia that are less well-penetrated and are currently enjoying higher levels of economic growth," Boyd said. International bookings were up 81 percent in the fourth quarter compared to 20.6 percent in the US. (Reuter's story). In the same story Expedia's Khosrowshahi said that said he expects non-U.S. bookings to account for at least half of Expedia's business within five years, up from 37 percent currently. He went on "We're aggressively investing in China and Australia, India and Brazil,";

• There are lots of details on the quarter's numbers bu very slim pickings from Boyd in the earnings call on Agoda (seeking alpha) on Agoda. Boyd is very tight on the message of growth but will not be drawn on details.
  

1. "International gross bookings benefited from growth in new markets, growth in hotel supply and results from Agoda";
   

2. "Agoda also reported improving growth rates resulting in an improved merchant growth rates on a consolidated basis.";

3. "gross booking growth rates improved for Agoda"; and

4. "with respect to Agoda, we’ve consistently seen their business do well in Asian countries outside of China and India in particular, that’s been their focus. Thailand is a big market for Agoda."