How can Hopper become the first travel and fintech super app in the west?

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Sanjeev Arora

5 min readMay 29, 2022

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer or any other institution.

What is Hopper?

Launched in 2015, Hopper currently offers travel booking for flights, hotels, homes, and cars. Apparently, the app has been downloaded 70 million times and according to crunchbase, Hopper has raised over $630m in funding. Currently, the customer base is mostly made up of millennials and Gen Zs. Website — www.hopper.com
Hopper is most frequently described as a travel-booking app but it also qualifies as an online travel agency (or OTA), a term that applies to any company selling travel on the internet. OTA classification is important as it is different from numerous brands in the travel space, including TripAdvisor, Kayak, and Google as they mostly focus on lead generation.
Launched by Frederic Lalonde, Hopper’s founder & CEO has been in the travel industry ventures since 1997. He cofounded Newtrade Technologies, a platform to connect hotel reservation systems and electronic distribution channels. He then spent time as a VP at Expedia, which acquired Newtrade in 2002, before starting work on the big-data-for-travel project that turned into Hopper.

Hopper — book flights, hotels, homes, and cars

What is Hopper’s competitive advantage?

Data on price prediction — Hopper’s technology was mainly built as “big data for travel”. Using this big data and machine learning, Hopper’s main purpose is to help travelers figure out the best time to book a flight or accommodation to get the best deal.

Why do I think Hopper has the characteristics of a potential super app?

Some of these current services & fintech add-ons can be extended to other related services (see more on that below) —

Get notifications on pricing changes and freeze prices
Cancel or change for any reason
Flight disruption guarantee
Flash Deals
Carrot cash — discounts and extra savings on top destinations

What is the main reason for the growth of super apps in China?

Historically, in Southeast Asia the use of credit card has been low, so eCommerce or marketplace apps like WeChat, Pinduoduo had to invent digital wallets. According to Frederic Lalonde, the super-app is an accidental by-product of the Asian evolution of e-commerce.

Which other apps could enter Hopper’s super app space?

Google search, assistant app
Bing search (Microsoft)
Uber
Expedia
Airlines
Lemonade insurance — yes…why not, leveraging big data & machine learning is in their DNA
Car rental companies — hmm…unlikely

How can Hopper become a super app (travel, tickets, fintech) and get ahead of its competitors in the west?

Hopper founder and CEO Fred Lalonde’s friend once said to him — “There are two ways to make money, bundling and unbundling.” So, here are some suggestions on bundling to make Hopper more valuable for its customers.

Think of a super app with an exceptional, frictionless user experience that could kill the need for apps like StubHub, Ticketmaster, OpenTable, etc., and offers financial services.

1 — Bundle complementary products, services, and add-ons —

Sell event tickets — for sports, concerts, theater, and other live entertainment events. Hopper customers could buy tickets for an event in the city they are traveling to or book an airline or hotel because of the event they want to attend.
Electric vehicle (EV) chauffeur service — book the service for transfers or to places of interest and meet the needs of its environmentally-conscious customer base (75% millennials and Gen Zs). See example — Beat Tesla ride service is the largest private fleet of Tesla cars in Latin America.

2 — Bundle cultural experiences via local partnerships —

Local symphony orchestras and theatres
Local art and history museums
Guided tours — historic sites and cities
Contemporary entertainment — Cirque du Soleil

3 — Bundle food & drink experiences —

Visits to specialty, local food restaurants, cafes, farms, etc. Allow users the ability to simply book these locations from within the app like OpenTable. I would recommend adding reasonably priced local historic, artisanal locations and expanding into high-end Michelin-star restaurant experiences like Blue Hill Farms, upstate New York with famous Chef Dan Barber.
Visits to regional unique distilleries, craft breweries, and wineries. See example — Niagara Tours (Wine, Beers, Cider tours)

4 — Bundle Hopper Wallet rewards (carrot cash, vouchers) with a multi-currency debit card (Visa or Mastercard) —

Extend Hopper Wallet into a fintech app by allowing customers to load and spend money abroad with no fee, multi-currency debit card with exchange rates that are lower than the financial institutions. See example — WISE Card

5 — Bundle exceptional, 24/7 chat and video-based customer service —

Reduce travel anxiety for most travelers by offering friendly, always-available customer service support.
Create instant chat and video channels (like Discord) with advice, and tips for top destinations or travel needs. By adding partnerships with experts like Sherpa, Hopper could offer value-added services like e-visas, entry requirements, and travel restrictions (such as Covid-19).
Customers could pay a one-time fee for specialized chat and video support before or during their travel or pay a bundled price during booking depending on their travel needs.