Oh, the chaos.
The very recent growth of location-based services like foursquare and Gowalla, Google’s potential acquisition of ITA Software, and the introduction of Facebook’s social graph, with its universal website sign-in functionality and Like buttons, has the potential to shake up the travel business and the wider Web in really big ways.
How much? It’s anyone’s guess.
That was the theme of a PhoCusWright Town Hall at the Travdex trade show in Atlanta late yesterday afternoon as CEO Philip Wolf pointed to the disruption and led a discussion about the potential fallout.
Which will have a greater impact, he asked, a Google acquisition of ITA Software or Facebook’s social graph?
The views were mixed as Travdex attendees and analysts, sipping various libations in the exhibition hall at the Cobb Galleria Centre, chimed in with their opinions.
Wolf said Google’s acquisition of ITA Software could be “needle-moving” if it leads to “the best little app” for air search and Google “makes it open to the world.”
PhoCusWright analyst Norm Rose argued that both Facebook’s social graph — because its ripples will be felt way beyond the travel industry — and Google-ITA, which he says would bring travel metasearch into Google’s core search functionality, will both be big.
But, Rose argued that Google-ITA may be more impactful because there is so much push-back against Facebook out of privacy concerns.
Several Travdex attendees waded in with their views, with one arguing that Facebook’s impact would be larger than Google-ITA because of Facebook’s 400 million or so users, and another participant speculated that it would take Google a year to integrate ITA anyway.
As the town hall rolled on, Wolf came down on the side of the Facebook social graph having greater kapow than a Google-ITA mashup.
He said the impact of the Facebook social graph, with millions of consumers using its univeral log-in feature, could be “humongatory.”
With consumers signing-on across the Web with their Facebook screen names, bringing their personal information along with them, and with your social-network friends being able to rate hotels with the Like button, these kind of changes could be far-reaching, he argued.
“You don’t think that’s big?” Wolf said, referring to the universal log-in.
Rezgo CEO Stephen Joyce concurred, noting that the personal-data aggregation inherent in the social graph will bring game-changing delivery of pay-per click product advertising for travel and other businesses.
“This could be personalization on steroids,” Wolf agreed.
In fact, Wolf contended that the advent of the social graph’s universal log-in and the platform fragmentation inherent with the potpouri of mobile devices, are among factors leading to a conclusion that the “golden era of the Web is officially over.”
Well, that was fast.
Oh, the disruption.
And, the speed of change.
Wolf pointed to travel companies’ challenges these days when they have to optimize their offerings for the PC, disparate mobile platforms, including the iPad, as well as for YouTube and Flickr.
And etc. etc. etc.
There was much talk and debate at the Travdex town hall about the implications of other hot trends and and seemingly mind-numbing developments. Among them:
- Priceline’s overtaking Expedia in market cap.
- Online travel agencies on a growth path amidst the hotel industry’s worst year, and whether consumers would return to supplier-direct channels once travel rebounds?
- The explosive growth of foursquare and Gowalla “out of nowhere.”
- Apple’s acquisition of Siri and what that would do for Apple’s iTravel strategy.
- The impact of ancillary services and merchandising and the nature of the changes it would engender.
Amidst the discussion, an occasional smartphone would ring, a text message would ping, an iPad or two emerged out of their cases, and one attendee said he would never go back to booking his travel via fax.
Faxes were big in a seemingly less-chaotic time.
But, today faxes are so yesterday.
Thanks for the summary, Dennis. Unfortunately cannot be there this time.
I’d like to comment on the FourSquare / Gowalla / Whrrl element if I may, and apologize in advance for the length. I’ve been developing a social media intelligence platform for a software company – lots of potential applications for travel – and have been studying the 4Sq/Gowalla/Whrrl space.
The mobile footstreaming space is a tremendous opportunity for travel, but I do think travel companies – especially hotels and DMO’s at this point – need to take a peek behind the curtain of these hot companies before jumping in with them.
Full disclosure – Whrrl’s founder is a friend of mine and a former Amazon Sr Exec – so I hope this comes across objectively, but I’d like to point out a few differences simply as food for thought.
4Sq is definitely hot and has much potential for hotels, DMO’s, etc. If it were snapped up by FB, for example, and put some focus to travel, it could be impactful and quite scalable. However, when looking more closely, you might see it’s essentially just check-ins, badges, and “where are my friends?” elements.
These don’t create any community specific to a hotel or destination, there’s little influence concept at all, and “loyalty” can only be measured on a hotel-by-hotel-type basis by number of check-ins. Rewarding the “mayor” of a place means rewarding a single person. Gowalla is similar.
With the Amazon background as merchandising and recommendation experience, Whrrl allows hotel chains or properties, for example, to create their own real-world communities, e.g. a hotel chain can create a Society for its customers, recommend specific things to do, and importantly, make offers to whole segments of their community.
As Society members level-up by making their own recommendations that other members find compelling, the offers get more potent — businesses can reward loyalty and influence directly – perhaps even tie into their own loyalty programs.
As the review / recommendation content fills in around the backbone, you’ve got a potentially powerful mobile commnunity, review and recommendation, merchandising, and loyalty structure – potentially more powerful than a TripAdvisor.
A specific hotel could create a check-in, merchandising and loyalty community, a DMO could create one for visiting travelers, even an airline could create specific in-flight communities traveling to a particular destination, and those fliers could exchange ideas and offers supremely targetd to their destination experience.
Again, this is a nascent area, and all three competitors have tremendous potential. 4Sq gets a lot of buzz, though I’m aware of a few of its partnerships that haven’t met the promise and expectations.
Whrrl actually also has a great photo story-telling backbone as well – perfect for travelers to share across their social networks.
Travel cos need to look at this space and look at all three – just look before they leap!
As an occasional Whrrl user I tend to agree with Jonathan about the opportunities this app presents for travel. One major roadblock is usually the lack of urgency on the part of established travel players, especially DMOs to embrace these types of start-ups and integrate their apps into their own sites. Their mindset is still that the website is this “huge investment and let’s not mess with it” thing and often they are not able to change anything without (expensive) external assistance by equally protective web development firms. This lack of flexibility often inhibits innovation on their sites.
Jonathan and Joe: Thanks for the well-thought-out comments.
Joe: Given that the “golden age of the Web is officially over,” by the time the DMOs get around to thinking about the foursquares, the Web will be gone:)
maybe he forgot to say the Platinum age has now begun
Too bad I missed the context.
Hi Jonathan,
The context was related to the idea that you used to be able to simply produce a web site in the golden age, but now you also need a version for the iPhone, Mobile Web for BB, Android, iPad, optimize for YouTube, Facebook, future connectivity to your HD TV, cars, etc, etc. This is one of the five tenets that makes up the theme: Chaos Calls, Navigating the New – for this year’s PhoCusWright Conference in November.
-Bruce
Thanks for the summary, Dennis. Unfortunately cannot be there this time.
I’d like to comment on the FourSquare / Gowalla / Whrrl element if I may, and apologize in advance for the length. I’ve been developing a social media intelligence platform for a software company – lots of potential applications for travel – and have been studying the 4Sq/Gowalla/Whrrl space.
The mobile footstreaming space is a tremendous opportunity for travel, but I do think travel companies – especially hotels and DMO’s at this point – need to take a peek behind the curtain of these hot companies before jumping in with them.
Full disclosure – Whrrl’s founder is a friend of mine and a former Amazon Sr Exec – so I hope this comes across objectively, but I’d like to point out a few differences simply as food for thought.
4Sq is definitely hot and has much potential for hotels, DMO’s, etc. If it were snapped up by FB, for example, and put some focus to travel, it could be impactful and quite scalable. However, when looking more closely, you might see it’s essentially just check-ins, badges, and “where are my friends?” elements.
These don’t create any community specific to a hotel or destination, there’s little influence concept at all, and “loyalty” can only be measured on a hotel-by-hotel-type basis by number of check-ins. Rewarding the “mayor” of a place means rewarding a single person. Gowalla is similar.
With the Amazon background as merchandising and recommendation experience, Whrrl allows hotel chains or properties, for example, to create their own real-world communities, e.g. a hotel chain can create a Society for its customers, recommend specific things to do, and importantly, make offers to whole segments of their community.
As Society members level-up by making their own recommendations that other members find compelling, the offers get more potent — businesses can reward loyalty and influence directly – perhaps even tie into their own loyalty programs.
As the review / recommendation content fills in around the backbone, you’ve got a potentially powerful mobile commnunity, review and recommendation, merchandising, and loyalty structure – potentially more powerful than a TripAdvisor.
A specific hotel could create a check-in, merchandising and loyalty community, a DMO could create one for visiting travelers, even an airline could create specific in-flight communities traveling to a particular destination, and those fliers could exchange ideas and offers supremely targetd to their destination experience.
Again, this is a nascent area, and all three competitors have tremendous potential. 4Sq gets a lot of buzz, though I’m aware of a few of its partnerships that haven’t met the promise and expectations.
Whrrl actually also has a great photo story-telling backbone as well – perfect for travelers to share across their social networks.
Travel cos need to look at this space and look at all three – just look before they leap!