TripAdvisor's high-margin advertising and media business is on a tear and now accounts for nearly 10% of parent company Expedia Inc.'s revenue.
During the second quarter of 2010, TripAdvisor's revenue climbed 55% to $82 million, compared with the same period a year earlier.
In fact, when you look at Expedia Inc.'s overall advertising and media revenue -- including revenue from ads on transaction websites such as Expedia.com and Hotwire -- it now accounts for 13% of revenue, even higher than air, which came in at 12%.
Among the highlights for TripAdvisor in the second quarter, it had 15,000 hotels signed up for its subscription product, Business Listings, which was launched in January. That's up from nearly 12,000 in late April.
Expedia Inc. President and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, speaking during last week's second-quarter earnings call, characterized TripAdvisor's organic and international growth as a "great combination."
"TripAdvisor is growing in Europe on a country basis anywhere from 50% to 100% ..." Khosrowshahi said. "It's going very aggressively to the Asia-Pacific regions. We’re losing a lot of money in China, [but] that's a good thing because that means we’re investing more aggressively in China than anyone else, we believe."