Uptake has been acquired by Groupon! We had been watching Groupon for some time, and admire how they created a powerful new business model, assembled a world-class team, helped consumers discover deals with increasingly tailored recommendations, and saw global, record-shattering growth along the way. Today, we’re delighted to announce that Uptake is now a part of Groupon.

Before we move on to this promising new opportunity with Groupon, we’d like to look back at what we’ve built and accomplished together – our tenacious and creative team, partners, blogger community, investors, advisers, and the 75+ million travelers that trusted our sites and recommendations so that they could enjoy amazing travel experiences.

Lasting more than four years, it’s been a phenomenal journey working hard to execute on our mission: to make it fun and easy for consumers to create and enjoy their ideal vacation. Our mission was rooted in the belief that consumers didn’t want to search for hours on end, but rather preferred a more thoughtful, interactive and personal way to discover and plan their travel – for example, to find the right hotel for the romantic escape or the best activities during their kid-friendly getaway.

Uptake was early to harness the Wisdom of the Crowd for online travel research and recommendations. Since the summer of 2008, Uptake has connected travelers with recommendations, driven by their preferences and intent, and drawn from the largest online travel library. En route, we developed patent-pending technology to aggregate, analyze and recommend reviews, articles and blogs from over 30,000 sites for activities, hotels and restaurants. And because travelers could discover recommendations based on their travel companies and preferences at Uptake.com, we became the third largest U.S. travel research site, behind only TripAdvisor and Yahoo! Travel.

In 2011, we discovered our technology also allowed us to uncover and organize the most valued source of recommendations – the Knowledge of your Friends. While reading reviews is helpful, whose opinions do you trust more than friends and family who have been there previously? While Facebook’s open graph initiative will structure your friends’ future travel history, Uptake was able to determine the past 8+ years of your friends’ travel histories to identify over a thousand destinations your friends have already been – without any additional work required!

All in all, we were able to combine the Wisdom of the Crowds and the Knowledge of your Friends – something no one else in the travel space has been able to cultivate to date.

Behind all of these amazing accomplishments was a stellar team of Crud-loving, problem-solving technology geeks who love travel, and travel junkies who love technology. Our new adventure at Groupon is possible thanks to the drive, energy and talent of the entire Uptake team.

We’re excited to jump in at Groupon right away – with our attention focused there, you may notice that some of Uptake’s features will slowly wind down. We hope you’ll use Groupon to continue to explore your city and fantastic places around the world.

We can’t thank you enough for all your support over the last four years! It’s been one heck-of-a ride.

All the best,
Gene & Yen

Tuesday, February 28th in the Year of the Dragon

Co-Founders Gene Mckenna and Yen Lee

Every company about to go public has to endure a fair amount of scrutiny, and there are always a few pre-IPO jitters. But what’s happening with Groupon is unprecedented, and the hits just keep coming.

Groupon

Back in June, when it was still the fastest growing company with a 2,241 percent growth in 2010, Groupon pocketed $950 million from private investors and filed for a $750 million public offering.

Given the company’s size ($713.4 million in 2010 revenue) and market reach (115 million subscribers as of Q2 2011; launched in 34 new countries and 500 new markets in 2010), that is impressive.

But then the hits started coming in, including accusations of creative accounting, a growth slowdown, lack of cash on hand, a privacy inquiry from lawmakers, a false ad lawsuit, a whole bunch of fired employees in its China partnership, and lastly—a wobbly valuation that swung wildly from $15 billion to $25 billion, then $30 billion and back down to $16 billion.

Most companies would be unable to respond adequately to such a barrage of serious accusations and negative publicity. But it is even more difficult for Groupon given that SEC regulations make it hard for companies that have just filed for an IPO to disclose new information to the media that is not disclosed in its filing.

This basically means that anytime Groupon feels like it has to refute an allegation, it would have to go back to the SEC with an amended filing. This is why the company has been mostly quiet while the media has had a field day with all the “Groupon is in trouble” stories.

Groupon did make a few quick changes, such as bringing in executives from its German acquisition Citydeal to manage sales. Citydeal was previously used by Groupon to kick off its international operations.

Now, Groupon CEO and co-founder Andrew Mason has had enough and penned a long memo to employees wherein he tackles the allegations head-on. There’s a lot to digest in the letter, but as far as the Groupon IPO and the travel industry are concerned, the following excerpts should be enough.

“For now we must patiently and silently endure a bit more public criticism as we prepare to birth this IPO baby — a breed for which there are no epidurals. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that we’re almost on the other side, and the negativity leaves us well-positioned to exceed expectations with an IPO baby that, having seen the ultrasound, I can promise you is not one of those uglies.”

And this: “Groupon Getaways will do $10M in its first calendar month — which you might think is awesome, but we’re actually disappointed with those results because we know how much better we’ll be doing soon.”

Once it gets past the IPO, things will indeed be a lot easier for Groupon. Given the performance of the Groupon Getaways partnership with Expedia, Groupon now has a firm foothold in the travel industry, regardless of its overall growth slowdown and other problems.

Photo - wovox

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Groupon Getaways Looms Over Travel Deals Sector

Groupon has started offering the first live deals on Groupon Getaways, with its new partner Expedia. From all indications, Groupon Getaways looks like it is going to swamp all the existing travel-deals providers.

Groupon Getaways

The deals follow the Groupon model, in which customers have a limited time to buy a discount voucher good for future travel. But instead of the usual daily-deal format, these travel deals are being kept open for six days.

Deals currently on offer include a 50 percent discount on a $1,000 vacation package in Tahiti, and a whole bunch of hotel deals for different destinations offering discounts of around 50 percent or more. The initial response in the first 24 hours seems enthusiastic, with hundreds of buyers for each offer.

As of now, an $89 deal (value $199) for the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas has 820 buyers. A $79 deal (value $169) for the Pointe Hotel in Cavendish, Vermont, has attracted 428 buyers.

Once a customer purchases a voucher, there’s no pressure to book immediately, as they can redeem anytime within the one-year expiration period.

“This site combines Expedia’s relationships and Groupon’s expertise in delivering unbeatable value to curate unforgettable experiences,” said Aaron Cooper, senior vice president of new business, Groupon. “Groupon Getaways celebrates the fun and adventure of travel. We’ll introduce subscribers to interesting places at prices they won’t expect.”

Groupon and Expedia are late entrants to a crowded market filled with travel-specific players like the Gilt Groupe’s Jetsetter and Travelzoo’s Local Deals, and competitors like LivingSocial Escapes and Overstock Vacations.

But Groupon Getaways can still leverage the two companies’ massive reach. Groupon brings more than 50 million subscribers to the table. On the supplier side, it can offer to connect more than 135,000 hotels listed on Expedia to this huge 50 million member bloc. Looking at these numbers, Groupon Getaways could easily swamp the travel0-deals sector due to its sheer size and reach.

Groupon, which launched in November 2008, has since expanded to 43 countries. Groupon grew an astounding 2,241 percent in 2010, and launched in 500 new markets.

It doesn’t have much to show in the way of profits, but the company did save consumers more than $1.5 billion in 2010 alone. Earlier this year, Groupon raised $950 million in financing and filed for a $750 million IPO.

With all this cash in hand, its expansion into newer markets will be even more meteoric, and Expedia-listed hotels are going to find it hard to resist the lure of a Groupon Getaway.

Photo – Groupon Getaways snapshot

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Jetsetter Brings Daily Deals to Gilt-Edged Upscale Travel

Groupon

Feature 1: The much-awaited Groupon IPO is here, and Wall Street got blown away by the numbers. A registration statement filed with the SEC shows a $750 million public offering. Groupon posted a stunning 2,241 percent growth last year.

Groupon also announced the launch of a deals site with Expedia: “Groupon Getaways with Expedia” will allow more than 135,000 hotels listed on Expedia to offer deeply discounted travel deals.

They plan to start with Canada and the United States, and then expand to other countries and include package deals, airline tickets, car rentals, cruises and destination activities.

Groupon files for $750 million IPO - Washington Post (video, pr)
Groupon’s revenue grew 2,241 percent last year - WSJ
Groupon and Expedia partner to launch travel deals site – Expedia.com
Funny or die: Groupon’s fate hinges on words - NYT

Airbnb

Feature 2: Airbnb also created quite a stir this week, with a funding round that reportedly exceeded $100 million at a $1 billion valuation, including a large investment by Ashton Kutcher. Detractors followed the fame and fortune.

Instead of basking in the glow of investors’ confidence, Airbnb found itself at the wrong end of a sting with accusations of farming Craigslist to boost vacation rental listings.

Airbnb has arrived: Raising mega-round at a $1 billion+ valuation - TechCrunch
Airbnb’s soaring valuation a wake-up call to independent hotels - TechCrunch
Airbnb farmed Craigslist, says competitor - SF Chronicle
The price of success – Portfolio.com

Here’s the rest of the week’s interesting news:

HomeAway books first-quarter profit ahead of IPO – AllThingsD
Hawaiian beach vacation sparks Urbanspoon co-founder to start Dwellable - GeekWire

Waikiki Edition vs. Marriott/Ian Schrager lawsuit filing – Bickel & Brewer (pdf, see pr)
Marriott content with Edition’s slow growth - HNN
Ian Schrager speaks out on ‘frivolous’ lawsuit - HotelChatter

Pierre, Sofitel hotels in NYC to give maids panic devices - NBC New York
Toronto hotel workers need panic buttons too, union says - thestar.com
GWU study: Hospitality management grads earn less than all other business majors – Georgetown.edu (pdf)

Google finds Canadians ignoring travel apps - thestar.com
Smart phone app for high-tech grilled cheese in Silicon Valley - BusinessWeek
Smart beach trash cans debut in Santa Monica with social photo sharing - smdp.com

Airline fuel bills today are anything but peanuts - AP
Airline fee revenue soars to $21.5 billion - UpTake

Comcast to pay $1 billion for Blackstone stake in Universal Orlando - The Wrap Media
EU clears Axa, Permira online travel agency venture - WSJ

CMO Strategy: Q&A with Homewood Suites VP global marketing Carla Raynor - AdAge
Social CMO series: How JetBlue’s social media strategy took flight - Mashable

Photos - wovox; Airbnb

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Vacation Rental Business Improving in 2011