Hopper is building its ‘super app’ origin story now
Hopper CEO Frederic Lalonde said he expects ecommerce in North America to follow the pattern of Southeast Asia, where mobile purchases dominate over desktop purchases. Photo Credit: Hopper The bargain-travel shopping app Hopper has risen from relative obscurity to prominence over the past two years: In 2021, its 15 million downloads trailed only Uber, Google Maps and Lyft in the U.S. travel market, according to Apptopia.
But Hopper CEO Frederic Lalonde has a far more ambitious goal: to emerge as the primary travel “super app” in North America.
“We think that there is no good North American travel app that is designed to exist as a starting point,” Lalonde said during a recent interview. “And we think that the core thing you need to offer is not necessarily discovery or all these weird theories that have been tried and failed, such as more social network connectivity. It’s that when you use this app, you know you get the lowest price all the time. So, we are building a full ecosystem where our customers can just launch the app and do everything they need there.”
Super apps, which offer a single entry point to a wide range of services, got their start in the Asian market with such major players as WeChat, Alibaba and Grab.
Hopper has begun moving along such a course within the travel space by offering bookings for air, hotels, vacation rentals and car rentals, all via app only. The company also acquired the digital tours and activities marketplace PlacePass last fall and is aiming toward integrating tours content into the app sometime this year.
But what especially excites Lalonde is the company’s suite of unique technical solutions. Hopper is well-known for its price-predicting algorithm, which advises travel shoppers on the best time to purchase airline tickets. More recently, the company has […]
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