Expedia Struggles to Move Beyond Its U.S. Dependence
Expedia Group wants to become less U.S.-centric, but change is coming slowly. Trivago’s troubles are partly to blame.
When Mark Okerstrom became CEO of Expedia Group in September 2017, he said he wanted the company to become more global. In September 2018, Okerstrom repeated the ambition, noting that one of his priorities is for the conglomerate to become more locally relevant worldwide.
But the change is coming slowly, as new revenue numbers revealed on Thursday with Expedia's fourth quarter and full year earnings release. During 2018, Expedia earned internationally only 44.73 percent of its $11.2 billion revenue, revealing a slight decline in the company's international share of revenue versus the prior year.
In 2016, the Expedia Group booked 42.59 percent of its revenue outside of its U.S. home base.
Since then it has become slightly, though not dramatically, more global.
