Latest Internet Mobile Stats Trends

Latest Internet Mobile Stats Trends

share of web traffic by device

web trafic by device

Based on the latest Internet Mobile Stats Trends, digital trends reports by “We are Social” shows that mobile has now reached the pivotal point and accounts for 55% of all web access.

Smartphones and Tablets combined account for 55%. That is more that a 30% increase in mobile usage year-on-year. At the same time desktop and laptops fell by 20% and now account for only 45% of web traffic. This is good news for travel websites that are mobile optimized for bookings.

The information is provided by TheNextWeb – It also noted that Social media has grown by eight percent year-on-year and now has a total penetration of 37 percent. That means that 2.539 billion of all 2.789 billion social media users came from mobile.

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For those who are interested in statistics on the world wide use of the internet by country, distribution of population user population see Internet Trends 2017. Stats & Facts in the U.S. and Worldwide

Of particular interest in this report is the smartphone penetration. It is 57% in North America. All other region in the chart outpace the US and Canada by a significant margin.Smartphone penetration worlwide

Hotel Distribution: Tech Giants May Change Everything

Hotel Distribution II: Will Tech Giants Change Everything?.

“In the past 11 years, the landscape has changed. There has been a huge evolution on the part of OTAs. The elements of that evolution include the development of loyalty programs by OTAs themselves.” John Burns, president of Hospitality Technology Consulting. He adds “And now we have alternative distribution in the form of metasearch engines like Kayak and TripAdvisor and the ever-changing capabilities of Google.”

Some like Bonnie Buckhiester, president of Buckhiester Management, think that the OTAs will be the “little guys” as even bigger forces emerge that may well replace traditional OTAs like Orbitz, hotels.com and booking.com with ‘metamediaries’ – like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. These are the new technology giants who are entering the travel marketplace creating a new category of intermediary.”

Buckhiester also point out that other forces like TripAdvisor (TA) are also contenders for disruption. In fact TA is already just that with 200 million visitors a month and over 100 million reviews that people trust.

“They have a very strong consumer franchise with almost nine of 10 travelers saying that a review on TripAdvisor helps them feel more confident. Change will be coming from these metamediaries.”

Fpor more on how Gllogle and Other Metamediaries are changing travel see – How Googles Carousel is changing Travel This link will also link to other related topics.

Metasearch Websites: Opportunity or Threat?

Metasearch websites: opportunity or threat? | El blog de Mirai para hoteleros.

In this article the author, César López Business Development manger at Miria in Spain, says “Your website will sell increasingly less” This is apparent already as we see trend across media for travelers to look at many websites. While many like to do business directly with the hotel, there are many other options and often better prices and incentives on site that are not the hotels own website. César López syas however that “if you do not connect it to the meta-search websites” you will loose bookings. As he puts it: “If the three large platforms gain prominence for the final client and become decisive when diverting traffic to certain providers, it will be these providers who will benefit from it. If your website is not part of them, you lose the battle”.

The 3 platforms he is referring to are the new hotel metasearch options. Google (especially Hotel Finder), Tripadvisor and Trivago.

Also see How travellers Shop and book hotels

How TripAdvisor Wants to Own the Travel Cycle

TripAdvisor Roadmap: How it Wants to Own the Travel Cycle – Skift.

According to Kaufer Stephen TripAdvisor CEO TA is only serving about 10% or 11% of travelers who are online monthly so that is 90% who aren’t visiting TripAdvisor. TA has a lot of room to grow!
Smartphones a major grown area.

“When you think of how smartphones are changing the way we do things, it’s that device, it’s that computer in your pocket, it’s that map in your pocket, and we think it [TripAdvisor] will be the personal travel assistant in your pocket in part for planning, but very much so in-market,” Kaufer says.

Fighting hotel commoditisation in a digital age

Fighting hotel commoditisation in a digital age.

88% of people in the UK will have mobile internet access by 2017. Mobile hotel bookings are now overtaking ‘traditional’ web-based booking,

In This article the case is made that Travel is driving technological change as travelers expect seamless connectivity to content and services and they want it across all platforms. It is also a fact that the tourism product is in jeopardy of being commoditised by heavy reliance on OTAs. The articles points out ways to adjust the marketing mix and profit from changes taking place right now!

Read the article for full details>>>