TripAdvisor: The Online Travel Community: How a crowdsourced review website transformed an industry

By 50minutes

Find out how TripAdvisor revolutionised tourism in just 50 minutes!

TripAdvisor has become one of the world’s most popular websites, with millions of travellers visiting it every month to leave reviews, hunt for cheap deals on flights and accommodation, or simply to check whether or not the restaurant down the street has a high enough rating to be worth a visit! Despite recent accusations of unfair business practices and a lack of transparency, the website remains one of the most lucrative companies in the tourism industry. In this concise and accessible guide, you will find out how TripAdvisor hit upon the winning formula for online success, and discover how its competitors in the tourism sector are fighting back.

In 50 minutes you will:
• Learn about TripAdvisor’s history, from its launch in 2000 right up to the present day
• Understand the site’s innovative business model
• Discover the ways TripAdvisor’s success has impacted the travel and tourism industry

ABOUT 50MINUTES.COM | BUSINESS STORIES
The Business Stories series from the 50Minutes collection provides the tools to quickly understand the innovative companies that have shaped the modern business world. Our publications will give you contextual information, an analysis of business strategies and an introduction to future trends and opportunities in a clear and easily digestible format, making them the ideal starting point for readers looking to understand what makes these companies stand out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 50Minutes.com
• Release date: Nov 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9782808002363

Book preview

TripAdvisor: The Online Travel Community

Key information

Founders: Stephen Kaufer (software engineer educated at Harvard University, born in 1963) and Langley Steinert (educated at Dartmouth College, born in 1963).

Founded: February 2000 in Needham, Massachusetts (USA).

Sector: tourism, travel, new technology.

Marketing area: TripAdvisor is available in 45 countries worldwide, including China under the name daodao.com.

Number of users: TripAdvisor has purchased 31 brands since it was founded, enabling the company to attract 415 million unique users per month in what has become the world’s largest travel community, which comprises the following brands: AirfareWatchdog, BestTables (now TheFork.com), BookingBuddy, Couverts, Cruise Critic, Dimmi, EveryTrail, Family Vacation Critic, FlipKey, GateGuru, Holiday Lettings, Holiday Watchdog, Iens, The Independent Traveler, Jetsetter, Kuxun, La Fourchette, Mytable, Niumba, OneTime, Oyster, Restopolis, SeatGuru, SeatMe, SmarterTravel, Tingo, TravelPod, TripAdvisor, Tripbod, VacationHomeRentals, Viator and VirtualTourist (now closed).

Key figures:

2008: annual turnover of $298 million.

2014: annual turnover of $1.25 billion.

2015: annual turnover of $1.49 million.

2016: annual turnover of $1.48 million.

Key terms:

Web 2.0: this term was coined in 2007 to refer to the evolution of the internet towards greater interactivity with the emergence of social networks, blogs and crowdsourcing, the most notable example of which is the creation of the collaborative encyclopaedia Wikipedia in 2001.

Geographic Information System (GIS): this is a database system which is used to gather spatial and geographical data. This has allowed new features to be developed, such as dropping virtual pins on a map, route planning, and close-proximity searches.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): this process aims to make websites more visible and more relevant to internet users. In practice, this involves attracting search engine hits by adopting an effective referencing policy so that individuals who are searching for a particular product or service can find it. The optimisation process is based