TripAdvisor 2014 Annual Report Download - page 17

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x Investing in Traffic Growth. Attracting more visitors to our sites is at the core of our strategic plan and we dedicate
significant time and financial resources towards amplifying our global brand. We do this through online and offline
marketing channels to maximize the number of users who navigate to our site either directly, also known as domain direct
traffic, or from the marketing channel directly. Offline advertising channels we have used in the past to amplify our
brands include: permanent branding campaigns such as TripAdvisor-branded travel awards, certificates, stickers and
badges and television advertising. Online advertising channels we have used in the past to amplify our brand include, but
are not limited to: customer relationship management email campaigns, or CRM; social networks; organic search through
search engine optimization, or SEO; paid search through search engine marketing, or SEM; and referrals from partners
whose sites contain links to TripAdvisor content, badges or widgets. At approximately 11% of global online travel unique
visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix, we believe that we have a large opportunity to continue growing
visitors. In order to achieve this objective, we intend to invest in the aforementioned channels, as well as any new
channels that we may identify in the future.
x Enhancing International Offerings. We are focused on strengthening our broad global footprint as we believe that
international markets represent a long-term strategic opportunity for us. We are continuing to improve localization and
grow our user base in Europe, Asia and South America, especially in emerging markets, such as Brazil, Russia and China.
In addition, we currently have two lead product offerings in the Chinese market—DaoDao and Kuxun—both
headquartered in Beijing. We continue to invest in the Chinese market, despite operating at a loss, and will continue to
increase our international offerings.
x Growing through Strategic Acquisitions. We have a history of successfully acquiring and integrating companies that
expand our footprint either geographically or in market sectors that are complementary to our flagship properties. We
intend to continue to grow our business and expand our product and service offerings through acquisitions that either
complement our existing businesses or provide additional resources, products and/or services that will improve the user
experience. A few recent examples include; Lafourchette, the leading online and mobile reservation platform for
restaurants in France, Spain and Switzerland, with a network of restaurant partners in Europe and Viator, the leading
online resource for researching and booking destination activities around the world.
Our Strategic Relationships
We have a number of relationships that are strategically important to the success of our business. These relationships are
memorialized in some form of agreement, although many of these agreements are for a limited term or are terminable at will or on
short notice. As a result, we work hard to ensure the mutual success of these relationships.
We have advertising relationships with the vast majority of the leading OTA’s 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, 2014,
our two most significant advertising partners, Expedia and Priceline (and their subsidiaries), each accounted for more than 10% of our
total revenue and combined accounted for 46% of our total revenue.
We have a content licensing program utilized by over 1,000 partners around 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 150,000 unique domains around the
globe, reaching over 800 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, Best Western 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.
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. Other syndication
partners include Bing and Axel Springer.
Marketing and Promotions
We have established widely used and recognized brands through marketing and promotion campaigns. We continue to
aggressively promote our brands, particularly our flagship brand TripAdvisor. 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