Preview of New Stocks in US Stock Market | Revenue Increases, Profits Decrease, Losses Decrease, Why Can Ke.com Travel (KLK.US) Attract Sequoia and SoftBank to "Stand By"?

The largest pan-regional experiential platform in the Asia-Pacific region, KLOOK Travel, has embarked on its journey to go public in the United States. After submitting a confidential filing on July 18th, KLOOK Travel submitted its IPO application (F-1 document) to the SEC on November 10th, with plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "KLK", with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley as its lead underwriters. As a leading travel platform focusing on destination experiences in the industry, KLOOK Travel has completed 9 rounds of financing. After completing a $100 million financing led by Vitruvian Partners in February 2025, KLOOK Travel's total financing amount has exceeded $1 billion. Prior to the IPO, KLOOK's institutional shareholders included several top-tier investment institutions, with Sequoia Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and SoftBank holding approximately 15.5%, 12.3%, and 11.1% of Class A common stock, respectively. While attracting favor from numerous well-known investment institutions, KLOOK Travel has achieved sustained high growth. According to the prospectus, from 2022 to 2024, KLOOK Travel's revenue was $129 million, $335 million, and $417 million respectively, with a staggering compound annual growth rate of 79.72%. By the first 9 months of 2025, KLOOK Travel's revenue had increased by 43.5% year-on-year to $407 million, continuing its high growth trajectory. Additionally, the company's adjusted EBITDA continued to reduce losses, recording a profit of $6.28 million in the first three quarters of 2025. With endorsements from well-known investment institutions and impressive performance, the speculated $3 billion valuation of KLOOK Travel after going public raises expectations for another leap in value. Through the company's prospectus, one can explore the details. Scale effects driving profitability improvement, continued reduction in adjusted EBITDA losses Although also a travel platform, KLOOK Travels business model differs significantly from that of a one-stop online travel agency (OTA). While OTAs integrate vast standardized travel product libraries to attract users through scale effects and strong brand appeal, KLOOK Travel's entire business logic revolves around the core need of "what experiences users should have at destination." KLOOK Travel integrates non-standardized, low-information, and extremely diverse destination service resources through localized operations and guarantees service quality and uniqueness based on the unique "Travel Experience Officer" mechanism (pre-experiencing and screening products) to meet the real-time and personalized needs of independent travelers at the destination. To ensure platform service diversity, KLOOK Travel has connected numerous businesses around the world, from tourist attractions operators like theme parks and museums to small and medium-sized enterprises specializing in activities, sightseeing tours, and other travel services, with the majority located in the Asia-Pacific region. As of September 30, 2025, KLOOK Travel has established partnerships with approximately 4,200 destinations and merchants, offering about 310,000 experience projects. Furthermore, to provide high-quality travel experiences to global travelers, KLOOK Travel has built an active community of over 30,000 creators who create authentic social media content to inspire travelers. About 13 million validated reviews on the platform serve as strong endorsements for selected experience projects, allowing users to confidently book instantly. Notably, in 2024, over 70% of traffic on the KLOOK Travel platform came from organic sources, reflecting the company's strong brand influence and high user engagement. KLOOK Travel's continued high revenue growth since 2022 can be attributed to three main factors: strong travel demand, expanded experience product offerings covering more travel scenarios, and continuous optimization of cross-selling strategies. Through the combined effects of multiple dimensions, KLOOK Travel has maintained a continuous high growth trend. However, in 2024, experience product sales revenue accounted for 98.4%, while advertising revenue accounted for only 1.6%, indicating the company's relatively single monetization model. Following a significant increase in gross profit margin, KLOOK Travel's adjusted EBITDA loss has continued to narrow. According to the prospectus, from 2022 to 2024, KLOOK Travel's adjusted EBITDA (mainly excluding depreciation and amortization, as well as the impact of stock-based compensation expenses) was -$86.409 million, -$53.47 million, and -$22.932 million respectively, showing a continuous reduction in losses and successfully turning profit to $6.28 million in the first three quarters of 2025. This means that KLOOK Travel is getting closer to achieving annual profit-loss balance. Continued industry growth benefits, while OTA competition remains a major challenge Over the past two decades, spurred by innovations in accommodation and flight booking methods, the travel industry has undergone significant digital transformation, giving rise to several large OTA platforms that connect supply and demand and drive online transactions. The online penetration rates for accommodation and flights were 66.2% and 80.9% respectively in 2024, reaching relatively high levels. However, the online penetration rate for destination travel experiences in 2024 was only 34.2%, significantly lower than accommodation and flight penetration rates, laying the foundation for rapid growth in the destination travel experience market. With consumers increasingly valuing travel experience services and AI technology helping small and medium-sized long-tail businesses gain higher visibility, the destination travel experience market has experienced continuous rapid growth. According to Euromonitor International, the global destination travel experience market was estimated at $318.1 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $512.8 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 10%, making destination travel experiences the fastest-growing travel vertical, surpassing accommodation and flight growth rates of 6.1% and 8.5% respectively during the same period. The Asia-Pacific region serves as the core growth engine of the global destination travel experience market. According to Euromonitor International, the market size in the Asia-Pacific region was $102.5 billion in 2024, accounting for 32.2% of the global experience market. It is expected to grow to $197.9 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.1%, far exceeding other major regions. As a leader in the Asia-Pacific region, KLOOK Travel will continue to benefit from industry development. According to Euromonitor International's data for 2024, based on GTV calculations, KLOOK Travel ranks first in market share in the Asia-Pacific region, with 87% of its users coming from the Asia-Pacific region. Leveraging the high growth in the Asia-Pacific region market, KLOOK Travel is poised to further solidify its leading position with scale and first-mover advantages. Notably, while deepening its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, KLOOK Travel has also accelerated its globalization expansion. In 2024, KLOOK Travel's GTV contributed by non-Asia-Pacific region users was $337.2 million, a significant increase from $29.7 million in 2022. By the first three quarters of 2025, this figure had further increased to $400 million, indicating the effectiveness of KLOOK Travel's global expansion efforts. For KLOOK Travel, the company's growth logic is clear: deepen its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, accelerate global expansion, accumulate a larger user base on the platform, explore diversified monetization channels, and tap into user value. Thus, on a medium to long-term basis, KLOOK Travel's revenue growth exhibits high certainty. However, KLOOK Travel faces significant challenges as well. Firstly, extensive capital expenditure is required for global expansion. The destination travel experience market requires strong local capabilities to provide quality services to travelers, and global expansion necessitates KLOOK Travel's continuous establishment of localized operational teams in various countries and regions, forcing the company to choose between global expansion and current profit performance. There is a possibility that KLOOK Travel might prioritize seizing market share over current profits. Secondly, major online travel platforms (OTAs) have begun to accelerate their entry into the destination travel experience market. As traditional growth in airline and hotel bookings plateau, and young independent travelers show increasing demand for personalized, fragmented, and immersive destination activities, OTAs' attitude towards the destination travel experience market has evolved from tepid experimentation to a clear strategic focus. They aim to cultivate this area to find new growth points, posing future competition for KLOOK Travel. Moreover, ensuring continuous improvement in brand building, customer service, and user experience is crucial for KLOOK Travel. Given that KLOOK Travel's core products are fragmented services at destinations, there are high demands for supply chain management, quality control, and post-sales processes. Mishandling customer service and user experience risks could affect the company's brand building and business operations. Quality customer service and user experience are key dimensions for KLOOK Travel to build core competitive advantages. In conclusion, based on the continued rapid growth of the global destination travel experience market and KLOOK Travel's leading market position in the Asia-Pacific region, the company is expected to maintain high growth in the short to medium term, with the continued reduction in adjusted EBITDA losses as a noteworthy positive factor. If the IPO valuation pricing is reasonable, KLOOK Travel is likely to attract funding after going public. However, the company also faces potential operational challenges such as balancing global expansion, OTA competition, and improving customer service.