TripAdvisor 2013 Annual Report Download - page 17

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 17 of the 2013 TripAdvisor annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 184

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124
  • 125
  • 126
  • 127
  • 128
  • 129
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 138
  • 139
  • 140
  • 141
  • 142
  • 143
  • 144
  • 145
  • 146
  • 147
  • 148
  • 149
  • 150
  • 151
  • 152
  • 153
  • 154
  • 155
  • 156
  • 157
  • 158
  • 159
  • 160
  • 161
  • 162
  • 163
  • 164
  • 165
  • 166
  • 167
  • 168
  • 169
  • 170
  • 171
  • 172
  • 173
  • 174
  • 175
  • 176
  • 177
  • 178
  • 179
  • 180
  • 181
  • 182
  • 183
  • 184

increasing worldwide online penetration, particularly given the capabilities that the Internet provides travelers,
including the ability to refine searches, compare destinations and view real-time pricing.
Online Advertising
According to the IDC New Media Market Model, the global online advertising market is growing and is
projected to exceed $165 billion by 2016, as more and more advertisers continue to shift their spending from
offline to online channels, mirroring the trend in consumer media consumption generally. Given the size of the
online advertising market, we believe that travel providers and travel related advertisers are, and will continue to
be, motivated to devote significant resources to advertise their travel products and services. In addition, as more
and more travel transactions are conducted online generally, we believe that an increasing amount of travel
advertising spending will migrate from traditional offline advertising channels to online advertising
opportunities.
Our Key Strengths
Prior to 2000, travel research and planning was largely conducted with the assistance and guidance of a
personal travel agent or advice from friends and family. Consumers had no single resource to access recent and
comprehensive destination, lodging, restaurant and attraction feedback and information. We were founded with
the goal of providing an online resource based on user-generated content to prospective travelers. We have
democratized the travel research and planning process by using the power of the Internet to create transparency
in the travel planning process with a comprehensive online resource for travel information. We provide the
ability and information to plan and have the perfect trip for any customer with access to the Internet, whether
through their desktop, smartphone or tablet devices.
In order to achieve our goals, we leverage our key assets—a robust travel community, rich user-generated
content, continuous technological innovation and global reach—as follows:
•Robust Travel Community. We believe that we have the largest breadth of content in our markets, and
that, because of this breadth, travelers gravitate to TripAdvisor-branded websites to research their
travel plans. By providing an interactive forum to share travel experiences, we allow the voice of our
large and highly engaged community of travelers to influence decision-making during the travel
planning phase. To facilitate planning, we enable consumers to research pricing and availability from
third-party travel booking sites. To encourage better travel experiences for consumers and to create a
feedback loop between the hospitality industry and individual travelers, we allow hospitality
management representatives to respond to reviews of their properties on our website. After completing
their trip, consumers can return to our websites to write reviews to give back to the community that
helped them plan their trip. Through this cycle, more content is generated, which drives community,
traffic, loyalty and higher search engine rankings, all of which lead to further content creation. We
believe that the volume of reviews generated on TripAdvisor-branded websites and the robust feedback
loop created on TripAdvisor-branded websites provides us with a significant advantage over our
competitors.
•Rich User-Generated Content. We believe that the best travel content comes from the wisdom and
insight of a robust community of travelers. We leverage user-generated content to power travel
planning by allowing members to create reviews and share opinions on hundreds of thousands of
accommodations, destinations, attractions and restaurants. As evidenced by the growth of our business,
this type of travel planning has been embraced by travelers. To promote an enthusiastic reviewer
community and brand affiliation, we have launched several programs to recognize reviewer
contributions, including site badges, helpful vote recognition, and other community-focused features,
all of which highlight the current and helpful reviews and opinions available throughout the
TripAdvisor community and promote brand affiliation.
7