Fritz Demopoulos on new frontiers in travel and beyond

Where others see bad traffic and chaos, this entrepreneur sees opportunities. It was with this thinking that Fritz Demopoulus fearlessly co-founded the first travel metasearch company in China in 2005, Qunar, which is now part of the Trip.com Group. Since his exit, he’s been keeping a watchful eye on travel tech investment opportunities – he is an early investor in GetYourGuide, the tours and activities unicorn. Other than venturing into new frontiers in travel, he is also curious about other worlds – he’s on the board of SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). In this one-on-one at WiT Africa, we find out how he’s thinking about investments and startups, the balance between humans and AI in the future of travel and beyond.

You were a big believer in metasearch, starting Qunar in 2005, exiting in 2021 to Baidu. What do you think of how the whole space has evolved – the blurring of lines between meta and online travel agencies, the dominance of Google. What’s the future of metasearch?

Customers don’t care about business models. They only want to meet their needs, i.e. discovering and booking travel services. If it means doing more in the value chain, i.e. move beyond the business model, so be it. That’s why we see a blurring.

It is true that some business models are better at scaling, others at meeting customer needs, and others at generating more favorable margins. Meta search is well suited to meeting customer needs and scaling.

Would you advise anyone now to do a metasearch in China? Or indeed, any other online travel business there? 

China presents opportunities, for sure. But we’ll need to be more thoughtful.

In any opportunity, we need to consider how big it is, how difficult it is, and how crowded it is. During the most recent go-go period, China was big, but it was very difficult and very crowded. Today, China is still big but has slowed, its increased sophistication has made it less difficult, and it is less crowded. So overall, it could be interesting for the right entrepreneur or investor.

You were also a big believer in tours and activities, one of the early investors in GetYourGuide back in 2009. That whole space is now on fire, and is said to be a $250 billion market. What did you see that others did not? 

I wish I could say I had some strategic insight. That’s what we’re supposed to say at conferences. The reality is I was impressed with the founding team – they were all ethical, smart and willing to learn. That really convinced me.

You were also an early investor in Travelperk, which recently raised over $100 million for a valuation of $1.3 billion. What did you see in Avi Meir that you perhaps also saw in Tao Tao and Johannes Reck, co-founders of GetYourGuide?

They are always curious, always asking questions. I remember meeting Brian Chesky [Airbnb co-founder and CEO] for the first time and he had a whole list of questions to ask me.

How do you see the tours and activities space evolving? Will it be like OTAs where there are two to three B2C giants – who will they be – lots of B2B players and lots more niche sites in the longtail? 

We’ll have only a few mega-scale platforms that aggregate multiple supply and demand markets. GetYourGuide will be one of them. It is hard to do.

However, we’ll see many local players aggregating local supply for their own demand market. That supply will include all sorts of services, including travel.

As an investor now, do you still like markets with bad traffic and chaos? What are you invested in, and what are you keeping your eye on?

I like education and the future of work. Of course, I’m invested in a number of travel companies.

Which is your best investment? The worst? 

The best investment of my time was moving to China, getting involved in startups and focusing on travel and tourism. The best investment of my money was GetYourGuide.

You had time after Qunar to get into other interests, starting a science fiction event in Hong Kong, Melon, for a few years. It is an amazing event that brings together scientists with artists, creating a magic combination of thinking power.

One of the privileges of success is you get to revisit what you were passionate about as a 9-year-old. I guess I’m revisiting those.

Isacc Asimov had “Three Laws of Robotics.” A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Do you think AI will change those laws?

Some argue AI is an amplification of our values. We as humans have a history of not being nice to each other. I’d be worried that AI embeds those negative values.

Space tourism. We have Space Perspective offering space balloon flights, six hours to the edge of space at 100,000 feet, so far 1,650 people have purchased tickets priced at $125,000 each. First flight possibly at the end of 2024. And Virgin Galactic sub-orbital flights at $450,000 each, possibly 2026. What are your thoughts?

Some opportunities are big, some are cool and some are cool and big. Metasearch is big. Space travel is cool, but it isn’t big. I’m a mass market type of guy.

You sit on the board of SETI – Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. Tell us something we don’t know about life out there.

This is the best time to be a SETI researcher. We have more advanced instruments, such as James Webb and the VLA [Very Large Array telescope]. There is lots of funding. Today, there are roughly 8,000 full-time astronomers. In 10 years, we should know if we are alone in the universe, or if it is filled with all sorts of sentient beings.

If AI amplifies our values, how do you thinking finding other life out there will help that?

Well, perhaps if we find out we are not alone, we might be humbler and nicer.

Other than travel, tech, sci-fi, SETI – what else makes your heart sing? 

Of course, seeing my kids grow and develop.

*This article originally appeared in WebinTravel.