OperaMedia surveyed 1,000 mobile users in the U.S. across our mobile ad platform to find out. They found that Travel Research and Booking go Mobile as more Americans are using mobile to research and book travel. Here is the infographic of what else they found :Source: Mobile is #1 for travel research and booking [Infographic] |
Opera sees “mobile users shifting to spending more time in app vs. mobile web,” which is interesting as just a few months ago similar studies showed the opposite, with more travelers using mobile web to plan and book travel. At the same time we saw the Mobile apps replacing the web for many options. One needs to understand the data deeply. The apps are not what travelers look at for individual hotels- they look at 20 to 30 sites and are not going t download and app for every site.
Apps are great for comparing option and getting other services. The main apps i see travelers using are apps from OTAs like bookings.com etc. That makes sense as one app shows them pretty well all the hotels they might like, but many travelers still look at the hotel websites before they book. To compete in this landscape hotel need to beef up their direct booking benefits.
Opera sees more happening with apps in the future as they say what makes sense for hotels is Perhaps a mobile concierge app.”
“Similar to a real concierge, this hypothetical app would key into the traveler’s location, food preferences, interests, hobbies and more – essentially becoming the “one-stop shop” for all mobile travel activities. The app would provide suggestions for dining, entertainment and lodging, among other things. This could provide opportunities for other apps, such as Uber for example, to place an ad: “It’s almost time for dinner! Need an Uber?”
For more on how to boost direct booking on your website see
App. Bots and Mobile Web Will Dominate Information Distribution
In an age of apps, bots and platforms, Jon Lax, head of product design at Facebook thinks websites are a dying business. Designers who focus on website may be loosing out and becoming less reliant to what the market wants. It seem to him that they are the prerogative of Brands and are becoming less relevant in a world moving to a more utilitarian approach to communications. As he says “I think the trend of mobile has fundamentally changed the dynamics of how information is distributed. It turns out that people like feeds and it does a good job for them. That’s just what we’re experiencing right now.”
Website Design for Brands
Lax draws a line between Branding and product design saying that Websites are dominated by marketing and brands, where it is important to stand out and be different. Products, however, are designed to solves a problem. “You can do that aesthetically in different ways, but if you’re not solving a problem, especially in digital design, you’re really just creating art. ”
He feels a nervous that so many of his designer friends are “still focused building websites and I’m not sure that’s a growth business anymore.”
Mobile the new Frontier
On a more positive note for website designers he adds “The one thing about the web is that it is such a large system that it will take a long time for that energy to unwind”
Still one has to be aware of what is happening and its clear that its all moving to mobile. He says that in the future a smartphone may be the only computer that many consumers ever have and the movement is looking at designs that are simple, consistent and utilitarian. In this environment art tends to be more brutal.
Mobile Design CheckList
Keep an Open Mind
Facebook will naturally believe in its platform and for some time has wanted business to use its pages and build business services and solution within the Facebook environment. At AXSES we have always supported Facebook and suggest all our clients have a strong Facebook presence.
AXSES created the first Facebook booking Engine for small independent hotels and have a strong commitment to Facebook. We do believe in websites and think it is important that very business have one. It’s good for branding but it is also important to control your own destiny, to be independent and build direct bookings.
A recent Phocuswright study has shown that the use of apps by the study group of travellers was “light” (study of the mobile use of 1,000 European travellers).
Berlin, Gasdia of phocusright described the idea that apps are taking over the internet as “an illusion.” “The mobile web is thriving. Travellers may be spending a lot of time on apps, but not for travel.”
According to the study apps account for just 1% of the time travel consumers spent on mobile and far more time is spent on mobile web browsing. As the average traveller only takes two or three trips a year and will typically look at several hotels and up to 20 site in all while planning a trip. “There is not much incentive to download five to ten apps and keep them updated.”
“13% used a TripAdvisor app but 18% visited via the mobile web. Only 38% of TripAdvisor mobile visitors were app only. 11% used apps of an online travel agency (OTA) but 19% visited the same OTAs via the mobile web.
– See more at: http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2015/03/05/11800/itb+2015+travel+apps+fail+to+grab+mobile+users+research.html#sthash.vqUUBFxe.dpuf
More about Travel apps.. see mobile travel report –
Its an interesting and maybe accurate prediction that the advertsing business model will not work on Mobile. To some extend we are seeing it fail even on the d4esktop as travelers just are not click on links, banners and ads like they used to. They want value added. Not a list or an option to go to another site like Booking.com.. They know about them already.
So TA is putting bookings on its own site. The question is “Is that a value adds” The answer is no. Travelers want help in making decisions – like Visual Travel Planning and Visual Bookings technology.
TripAdvisorss CEO Stephen Kaufer believes Instant Booking will help. TA wants to offer the best experience, particularly on the mobile, which accounts for 40 percent TAs traffic today and that is growing. It used to be TAs mission of offer the best trip planning now it is moving to offering both planning and bookings. He says: “On the desk top it is a reasonable experience. It’s what all of our customers have been doing for years and years and years. On the phone it is certainly more painful because you’re clicking off onto someone else’s site and how do you get back? It’s not easy. There’s more friction in the process.”
TAs Booking was launched in May 2014; it will be fully implemented on mobile and partially on desktop early in 2015, TA visitors will still have meta-search options “because booking on TripAdvisor is just one option.”
As Kaufer says” “We have the most lodging choices of anyone , the most reviews to help you select which is the best property for you. We have the best price comparison. And then with Instant Book, we will offer the traveler the ability to finish the booking on TripAdvisor. But hey if you found a better price somewhere else, you are certainly welcome to click on that and book it somewhere else.”
With the launch of ApplePay there was a lot of buzz that it was setting a new standard for mobile payment that would determine the future of eCommerce on all platforms. Not a moment too soon! Merchant accounts and integration into shopping carts is a real problem for travel and may backs just don’t support online transaction. This is especially true of the Caribbean, where banks are way behind in building their own online transaction and not open to working with international gateways.
The Mobile Potential to Lead the Way in Transaction Processing
“Anyone who has seen any science fiction film or television show has seen characters who pay for everything from lattes to fusion reactors simply by having a device scanned — whether that device is implanted in their corneas or brain stem or strapped onto the side of their blaster. Mobile money has the potential to eliminate the bulk and time consumption and waste of physical money, and the benefits shouldn’t be overlooked as trivial. A cash economy cost Americans $200 billion per year, to say nothing of spreading diseases and mitigating economic gains when sat upon. A digital economy can help developing nations, furthermore, by facilitating payments in areas where cash is less efficient or less prevalent.” Jayneel Patel, Openxcell.
Jayneel goes on to describe who the players are in this new momentum and to predict the future:
The Future Leaders
“The forerunners in the tech world are Apple Computers, leader of seemingly all digital innovation in the world today, announced they would create a pay system for their iOS platform before the end of 2014; Facebook acquired WhatsApp for a twenty-billion-dollar figure (that’s billion, with a B) and is believed to be turning it into their own pay platform. Google actually hit the bricks first with a mobile payment system called Google Wallet nearly four years ago,to give mobile payments to the masses. Smaller companies like mPesa have changed the way that millions of people around the world can transfer money on their mobiles: mPesa transfers more money across the globe each day than 34 different banks.”
Jayneel points out that even Bill Gates believes Apple Pay will be the effort that gets mobile payments to critical mass. Although Google Pay doubled has grown rapidly it still has less than 20 million users. It along with Apple and others are in the game to find the perfect formula. Clearly it will impact all forms of eCommerce!
This article is a bit of a departure for us at MarkHat.com, but we do cover mobile technology in travel and marketing (see our mobile traval report), and its interesting to see what is happening on the phone supply side.
It seems Windows phone is rather insignificant in the US and it has not got the connectivity or apps of other phones. Other supplier platforms, notable Apple and Android, have larger market share and far better connectivity. Only Verizon is carrying the Windows phone on their network and that it seems is a big problem for Windows.
Read more at http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-verizon-convinced-me-to-give-up-my-windows-phone
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