Why does TripAdvisor keep buying small startups?

The companies are tiny. They're usually not integrated into the TripAdvisor juggernaut. So what's the point?

Steve Kaufer
(Image credit: REUTERS/Toby Melville)

As large travel booking giants like Priceline and Expedia continue to do big-ticket digital acquisitions, the hotel reviews giant — and now-trying-to-become-hotel-metasearch company — TripAdvisor continues with its curious strategy of picking up tiny travel companies that have little apparent effect on its topline, and surely nothing on its bottomline.

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