TripAdvisor 2012 Annual Report Download - page 19

Strategic Relationships
Click-Based Advertisers
We have click-based advertising relationships with the vast majority of the leading online travel agencies
globally as well as a variety of other travel suppliers pursuant to which these companies purchase traveler leads
from us, generally on a CPC basis. For the year ended December 31, 2012, approximately $204 million, or 27%,
of our total revenue was derived from Expedia businesses. At the time of the spin-off from Expedia, or the Spin-
Off, new commercial arrangements with Expedia-owned brands, including Expedia.com and Hotels.com were
implemented. For a discussion of these commercial arrangements, see “Note 16—Related Party Transactions”in
the notes to our consolidated and combined financial statements. For the year ended December 31, 2012, our two
most significant advertising customers accounted for a combined 48% of total revenue. These and our other
click-based advertising relationships are strategically important to us and most can be terminated by the
advertiser at will or on short notice.
Content-Related Partnerships
We have a content licensing program utilized by over 575 partners across the world, including hotel chains,
online travel agents, tourist boards, airlines and media sites. TripAdvisor also distributes its content through self-
service HTML widgets, which are used on the websites of hotels, restaurants, attractions and destination
marketing organizations. These products, which are available at no cost in the TripAdvisor Management Center,
allow businesses and destinations to promote themselves by displaying their TripAdvisor ratings, reviews and
awards. TripAdvisor widgets are presently found on more than 70,000 unique domains around the globe,
reaching over 300 million people per month. Partners benefit from our user-generated content, such as reviews,
ratings, photos and traveler forums. In addition we power review collection for a growing number of partners
such as Accor Hotels, Wyndham Hotel Group and Easytobook.com, enabling them to proactively collect reviews
from their own customers post-stay in their own branded environment. We have also developed partnerships with
mobile carriers and device manufacturers.
Syndication Partners
We also syndicate our click-based advertising to third-party websites. The largest such syndication
relationship is with Yahoo! Travel Guides, pursuant to which we provide “show prices” advertising on the
Yahoo! Travel Guides’ hotel pages.
Marketing and Promotions
Our marketing programs are intended to build and maintain the value of our brands, promote consumer
engagement and contributions, drive qualified clicks to our partners and strategically position our brands in the
market. Our long-term success depends on our continued ability to maintain and increase the overall number of
consumers flowing through our brand in a cost-effective manner, as well as our ability to attract consumers who
will share their own content from their trips. Our marketing channels include SEM and search engine
optimization. We also utilize customer relationship marketing in which we send relevant and engaging traveler
communications to our members via email. We have a robust global public relations program that yields
placements on a constant basis in major print and online publications. We continue to look for new ways to build
brand awareness and expand new channels, which may include traditional media and social media channels
including Facebook and Twitter to deepen customer engagement. We syndicate our content so that other sites can
feature TripAdvisor branding and content. Lastly, marketing and product development initiatives are closely tied.
We are constantly creating helpful features and functionality so that our consumers can discover more relevant
travel and review content that they want to talk about and share with their friends.
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