Expedia 2009 Annual Report Download - page 11

account management fees, as well as transactional fees for making or changing bookings. In addition, Egencia
provides on-site agents to some corporate clients to more fully support the account. Egencia has also begun
offering consulting and meeting management services.
eLong. Our majority-owned online hotel and air travel service company, based in Beijing, China,
specializes in travel products and services in China. eLong uses web-based distribution technologies and a
24-hour nationwide call center to provide consumers with the ability to make hotel reservations at more than
10,000 hotels in over 450 cities across China and more than 100 countries worldwide. eLong also offers air
ticketing and other travel related information and services. Travelers can access eLong travel products and
services through its websites, including www.elong.com and www.elong.net. eLong, Inc. is a listed company,
which trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol “LONG.”
Business Strategy
We play a fundamental role in facilitating travel, whether for leisure, unmanaged business or managed
business travelers. We are committed to providing travelers, travel suppliers and advertisers the world over with
the best set of resources to serve their travel needs by leveraging Expedia’s critical assets — our brand portfolio,
technology and content innovation, global reach and breadth of product offering. In addition, we intelligently
utilize our growing base of knowledge about destinations, activities, suppliers and travelers and our central
position in the travel value chain to more effectively merchandise our travel offerings.
A discussion of the critical assets that we leverage in achieving our business strategy follows:
Portfolio of Travel Brands. We seek to appeal to the broadest possible range of travelers, suppliers and
advertisers through our collection of industry-leading brands. We target several different demographics, from the
value-conscious traveler through our Hotwire brand to luxury travelers seeking a high-touch, customized
vacation package through our Classic Vacations brand.
We believe our flagship Expedia brand appeals to the broadest range of travelers, with our extensive product
offering ranging from single item bookings of discounted product to dynamic bundling of higher-end travel
packages. Our hotels.com site and its international versions target travelers with premium hotel content about
lodging properties, such as 360 degree tours and hotel reviews. In the United States, hotels.com generally appeals
to travelers with shorter booking windows who prefer to drive to their destinations, and who make a significant
portion of their travel bookings over the telephone.
Through Egencia, we make travel products and services available on a managed basis to corporate travelers
in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Further, the TripAdvisor Media Network allows us to
reach a broad range of travelers with travel opinions and user-generated content.
We believe our appeal to suppliers and advertisers is further enhanced by our geographic breadth and range
of business models, enabling them to offer their products and services to the industry’s broadest range of
travelers using our various agency, merchant and advertising business models. We intend to continue supporting
and investing in our brand portfolio, geographic footprint and business models for the benefit of our travelers,
suppliers and advertisers.
Technology and Content Innovation. Expedia has an established tradition of technology innovation, from
Expedia.com’s inception as a division of Microsoft to our introduction of more recent innovations such as
Expedia’s introduction of its “Expedia Easy Manage” program, offering smaller properties in secondary and
tertiary markets in Europe and Asia Pacific through an agency model hotel program, Media Solutions
introduction of rich media display ads called StorePoint Expandables, TripAdvisor’s launch of its Family
Vacation Critic, which offers reviews of kid-friendly and parent-tested hotels, resorts, attractions and destinations
to help parents select the best family vacation, and FlipKey’s launch of self-service listings for vacation property
owners to merchandise their offerings.
We intend to continue innovating on behalf of our travelers, suppliers and advertisers with particular focus
on improving the traveler experience, supplier integration and presentation, platform improvements, search
engine marketing and search engine optimization.
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