TripAdvisor 2014 Annual Report Download - page 3

April 2015
Dear Shareholders:
2014 was an important year for TripAdvisor. Our global community of travelers contributed their reviews,
opinions, photos and tips at an impressive clip, helping us reach more than 200 million reviews and opinions.
Last year also represented the beginning of an exciting new chapter for our brand, as we added the ability for
users to book many aspects of their trips directly on TripAdvisor.
Our unique understanding of travelers
I want to thank all the TripAdvisor members who contributed more than 70 million reviews and opinions to our
site. Your devotion enriches the entire TripAdvisor community and reinforces our place as a pre-eminent brand
in travel and leisure. We ended the year with more than 200 million reviews and opinions in 28 languages on
more than 1.6 million listings of places to stay, 2.4 million restaurants, and 500,000 attractions around the globe
and content is continuing to grow at an accelerated pace. Our content attracts a massive global travel audience, as
more than two-and-a-half billion users visited TripAdvisor sites during the year. User-generated content from our
robust travel community is the lifeblood of our brand. We will continue to build on this asset in 2015, making it
even easier for more users to share their experiences.
Our content gives us a unique understanding of travelers, whose needs are nuanced, contextual, and episodic.
Last year we launched Just for You, a personalized, highly adaptive recommendation engine that delivers better
travel advice for every user. We want to be every user’s personalized travel guide, whether someone is looking
for a place to stay, a place to eat, or something to do while on a trip and today we believe we are only scratching
the surface of what is possible.
The next chapter: Book on TripAdvisor
In 2014, we also kicked off a major initiative that enables users to plan and book their perfect trip on
TripAdvisor. Here are some highlights:
• Hotels: As previewed in last year’s shareholder letter, in 2014 we introduced “Instant Booking,” an
exciting new feature that enables users to book directly on TripAdvisor. Users can move seamlessly
from room selection, to credit card entry, to booking confirmation, all without leaving the TripAdvisor
experience. This means less friction, no confusing hand-offs and a much more enjoyable hotel shopping
experience.
• Attractions: Another exciting development of the year was our acquisition of Viator – the global leader
in online tours and attractions bookings. Viator has listings in more than 1,500 destinations and in 10
different languages, and this acquisition allows our users to find and book the best things to do on their
trip. The combination of Viator’s transaction capabilities with TripAdvisor’s media assets gives us a
strong leadership position in what PhoCusWright estimates to be an $80 billion annualized market
opportunity. Whether you are interested in booking a balloon ride in Cappadocia or a Segway tour in
Barcelona, you’ll be able to check availability, see prices, and complete your booking, all on
TripAdvisor.
• Restaurants: In May we acquired LaFourchette (French for “The Fork”) – the leading mobile restaurant
reservation business in Europe – which helps restaurant owners manage tables and fill their restaurants
with both travelers and local diners. This acquisition has provided a nice jump-start to our restaurant
reservations business, and our product and engineering teams worked quickly to improve the restaurant
planning and booking experience on TripAdvisor. LaFourchette also became the foundation for our new