Expedia Group had a big second quarter of growth, recording
an 11% year-over-year revenue increase to $2.88 billion from $2.59 billion.
The online travel giant saw gross bookings rise 13% to $25.9
billion from $22.84 billion.
Expedia released its
second-quarter financials Thursday after the market had closed. On Friday
morning, its stock was up around 10%.
Expedia said its revenue growth was primarily driven by
growth in Brand Expedia, Hotels.com, HomeAway and Expedia Partner Solutions.
HomeAway's gross bookings grew 33% and its adjusted earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization grew 98% to $78 million
from $39 million.
Costs and expenses increased 10% to $2.6 billion from $2.4
billion.
Expedia's net income fell 98%, from $57 million to $1
million.
On the earnings call, CEO Mark Okerstrom said Expedia has a "voracious
appetite" for developing marketplaces for travel products beyond hotels
and alternative accommodations.
One example: Expedia saw 16% revenue growth in travel
insurance.
Also during the call, CFO Alan Pickerill fielded a question
about whether the recent World Cup in Russia had any impact on Expedia.
"When you have big events like this -- it could be the
Olympics, it could be the World Cup, sometimes it's natural disasters -- there
are changes in travel patterns," he said. "We do think when you have
an event as large as the World Cup, you do see a situation where a decent
percentage of the population is preoccupied with that event, and so you may see
overall bookings slow a bit."
But typically, bookings pick back up after the event due to
pent-up demand, Pickerill said.
"And I should say, too, when you have the event in a
particular region or country, in this case Russia, you do see a pickup in
travel into that location," he said.