Tripconomics aims to make corporate travel less of a headache

April 26, 2013 by Terence LEE    

Travel startups have been unimaginative when it comes to how they want to disrupt the industry. Most of them are consumer-facing apps that help consumers discover, book, or search for deals — essentially variations on the ideal neighborhood travel agent.

In this vein, Tripconomics is doing something entirely different. Rather than targeting the crowded consumer market, this Singapore startup is hoping to uncover what it sees as a hidden gem: the world of corporate travel management.

As I understand from co-founder Keson Lim, a corporate travel veteran, the industry is dominated by large corporate travel agencies that handle global accounts on large retainers.

These companies, which have call centers around the world, typically service corporations with revenue above USD 1 billion (think brands like Energizer, HSBC, and Prada), handling flights, hotels, insurance, and visas.

For ‘smaller’ firms with ‘only’ tens of millions in revenue, they usually manage their travel arrangements and expenses in-house. That’s the crowd that the startup is targeting.

In a nutshell, Tripconomics is a web tool for corporates to manage the travel expenses and plans of their employees. The user can manage travel profiles for staff of different seniorities, setting useful details like budget limitations.

There’s also an instant search tool where users can instantly book a hotel in-app. Existing discounts arranged by the company and the hospitality provider can be logged, and the displayed prices will be updated appropriately. All of the inventory comes from Expedia.

Finally, Tripconomics has a rewards scheme targeted at secretaries, who initially resisted the product since they were already receiving kickbacks from hotels whenever they make bookings directly.

The genesis for the idea came about when Keson was working at SK International, a corporate travel agency. Then, he realized that the existing mode of operations lent itself to many errors.

Keeping track of negotiated rates between hotels and companies is tricky business, and outsourced call centers can be hard to manage. Labor was cheap, but quality was an issue. Accents can be difficult to understand, and one rep even once sent a letter in all caps to the customer for no apparent reason, a definite faux pas.

Toying with a startup idea is easy, but getting technical talent is tough. Keson initially thought about engaging developers to do contract work, and that was exactly what he and Calvin Cheng, now his fellow co-founder, had in mind when they met up after touching base at a panel discussion at Hackerspace Singapore.

But after about a month of meetings, both parties clicked, and Calvin came on board to work on the idea full-time last August.

The company generates revenue by charging customers USD 9.99 a month (free for first three users) and taking a referral fee of between 5 to 10 percent per transaction. The service has already been tested at a number of companies including 2359 Media, Ascendas, and Wikki Stix.

Besides its core product, Tripconomics is also working on a second idea, aptly named Tripevents. Yet to be launched, it solves a related but different problem facing corporate travelers: That of discovering an event venue near an industry conference.

Using one line of code, event organizers can integrate a Tripevents widget into their website, allowing site visitors to discover hotel locations near the conference location. Event organizers can even monetize from this by receiving a commission from the transaction fee.

While both Keson and Calvin have families to feed — Keson’s wife has also left her full-time job to start an online business — the team isn’t really in a hurry to raise funds at the moment.

They believe that the Tripconomics team is self-sufficient expertise-wise, and they hope to be able to bootstrap the startup to profitability as much as possible.

With much at stake for their personal lives, the team is aiming to make things work by the end of the year. Fundraising might come in at a later point should they need a final push towards sustainability.

Enterprise-focused ideas seems to be a popular pursuit for Singapore’s tech entrepreneurs, a natural choice considering Singapore’s small consumer market.

But while similar ideas have worked in the United States — Concur being an example — SMEs in Singapore tend to require a lot of handholding and phone-to-phone customer support, and that in turn raise business costs. This trait has ensnared at least two enterprise-focused startups — Chalkboard and Squiryl, and they eventually shut down partly because of the unexpected costs.

Tripconomics might find itself in a similar situation, so it’ll need to find an imaginative solution to overcome it in a way that its peers haven’t.

Find out more about SGE’s research arm: SGE Insights, providing customized in-depth research reports to help you navigate the business of technology in Asia.

About The Author

Terence LEE – Editor

Terence writes mainly about technology trends and startups in Asia. He believes in crafting smart content: Not just a regurgitation of text, but well thought-out pieces that serve the reader using a combination of data, design, narratives, analysis, and visual impact. His articles have been published on Venturebeat, Yahoo!, Straits Times, Today, and The Online Citizen. He also co-founded NewNation.sg, a satirical news site covering Singapore affairs. Engage him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Tripconomics aims to make corporate travel less of a headache