Yapta to rattle rivals
The Seattle startup plans to reveal on Tuesday its online travel service, which has received unanticipated news when its Pioneer Square head office building caught fire early Monday morning.
The incident might postpone major cash-burning start-ups. However, the company, composed of seven people, is pushing through the online service introduction that will aid people in receiving refunds from airlines and track airfares once ticket prices drop under the original purchase cost. Today, it is already included in the list of Seattle Internet startups, along with TripHub and Farecast, which are attempting to make it cheaper and easier for consumers to acquire airline tickets.
Who knows?” said Tom Romary, Yapta’s Chief Executive, who is working on the downtown Seattle’s investor’s office.
Yapta actually stands for ‘Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant’, which joins the online travel market with a novel technology that one analyst says could set conventional business models on fire.
Forrester Research Vice President Henry Harteveldt said Yapta is a potential troubling technology, which could boost travel agencies’ fury online.
Once it catches on, the service of Yapta could shake-up the industry, Romary admitted.
“Any time there is a consumer opportunity and a consumer pain point in a big market, it means there is a chance to disrupt the market and provide an innovative solution,” Romary said.