TripAdvisor 2011 Annual Report Download - page 11

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Table of Contents
Our Strategy
In expanding our global reach, we leverage significant investments in technology, operations, brand-building, and advertiser and other
partner relationships. For example, we are able to aggregate a large base of consumer reviews, in a variety of languages, across our global core
platform. We expect to continue leveraging this investment when launching additional points of sale in new countries, introducing new product
features and adding new business model offerings.
7
•
Global Reach
. We maintain a global presence both through the reach of our global portfolio of 30 websites and through our in
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market staffing in more than ten countries. During the year ended December 31, 2011, we added points-of-sale in Taiwan, Malaysia
and Egypt, bringing our total flagship TripAdvisor branded websites to 30 countries in 21 languages, including in China under the
brand daodao.com. We have over 40 million review translations, and we are committed to improving the in-country user experience
and the local feel for all of our points-of-sale. As of December 31, 2011, we had approximately 510 employees based outside of the
United States. We believe that our core TripAdvisor platform and many of our other brands are uniquely positioned to appeal to
travelers globally, in that they strive to provide universally
-
relevant content and community.
•
Investment in Technology
. We believe that our ability to continue to innovate by providing additional functionality to our main
Internet sites, while at the same time extending that functionality to various platforms such as mobile and tablets, will enable us to
continue providing an industry-leading user experience. We have a strong culture of speed-to-market with our innovations. By
innovating and releasing updates quickly, we believe that we can continue to grow our site visitors and over 60 million reviews and
opinions, increase revenue and effectively compete with our competitors.
•
New Social Sharing Tools
. We intend to continue to expand our integration with social media, including Facebook, Twitter and
other social sharing platforms. We believe that this integration will be critical to continuing to grow and maintain engagement with
our user base and increase our content. For example, by tapping into Facebook’s rich social data, TripAdvisor connects users to their
friends and shares helpful content about where their friends have traveled and where they would like to visit in the future. While on
the TripAdvisor website, friends can discuss their travel plans and recommendations and build out personal profiles of places they
have been. As of February, 2012, TripAdvisor has offered more than 100 million users (according to Facebook Insights) a
personalized and social travel planning experience that enables travelers to engage first with their own Facebook friends’
reviews and
opinions when planning their perfect trip on TripAdvisor.
•
Investment in Search Engine Marketing
. One of the ways that we look to penetrate new markets is to leverage our expertise in
search engine marketing, or SEM. SEM is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their
visibility in search engine results pages through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. In certain
markets we may bid on keywords to break even or at a loss in order to drive traffic, build our brand, gain more users to our product,
collect content and scale more quickly. We think SEM is an important channel because it delivers a significant number of brand
impressions and can be a cost
-
effective method to get people to try our sites.
•
International Expansion
. We are focused on expanding our footprint globally. We are continuing to expand in Europe, Asia and
South America, especially in emerging markets, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. During 2011, we added new points-of-sale
in Taiwan, Malaysia and Egypt, bringing our total TripAdvisor-branded websites to 30 countries and 21 languages. These and the
other newer sites in Asia-Pacific represent a longer-term opportunity for us. We believe that China represents a large international
opportunity for our business. We currently have two lead product offerings in the Chinese market—DaoDao and Kuxun—both
headquartered in Beijing. We had 220 employees in China as of the end of 2011 and we continue to invest heavily and operate at a
loss in the China market.