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PhoCusWright recently released a landmark study on the travel agency channel – PhoCusWright's Travel Agency Distribution Landscape: 2006-2009. At the end of a Webinar this week where we presented some of the findings from the research, one attendee asked a great – and greatly obvious – question: “so what happens to travel agents after 2009?” (As you might gather from the report title, our projections for the market only extend through next year.) The question may be simple, but not necessarily simple to answer. Our research found the traditional agency landscape, while still accounting for a significant share (38% in...
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I had the opportunity to attend the Dow Jones Wireless Innovation Conference last week in Redwood Shores, CA. The event is primarily designed to connect new mobile start-ups with funding, but the show had some interesting panels where today's hot mobile topics where debated (e.g. open systems, Internet devices, LBS). More on panel discussion coming soon in later blog entries . There were some interesting companies showcased at the event. I had the pleasure of meeting Patrick Payne CEO of a new Vancouver BC start-up called Quickmobile. The company has developed a mobile marketing platform specifically designed for the global...
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Yesterday's disclosure that Microsoft had acquired Farecast was a surprise to many in the travel industry. Is this a new online travel initiative from the original creators of Expedia? Will Farecast be integrated into Microsoft's Live Search? First a bit of background. I was first introduced to Oren Etzioni through my client Fetch Technologies (client of Travel Tech Consulting). This was back in 2002 when the company was called Hamlet. The founders of Fetch are well recognized experts in AI as is Oren Etzioni . I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical during my initial discussion with...
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I am often asked to contrast and share my perspective on two of the most exciting markets in the world - China and India. So whenever there is an event that occurs which highlights the variance, it brings a wry smile. Last week, The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) which regulates all content and media in China banned 25 video sharing website for "irregular content" and gave a stern warning to the market leadar Tudou ( the youtube of China). Now in the country with the largest broadband users in the world ( as per latest stats)...
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From Dow Jones Venture Wire: With the private-beta launch of Yahoo Inc.'s new FireEagle location application, mobile start-ups are hopeful the product will bring them closer to the "holy grail" of handheld computing. FireEagle, which allows users to update and share information on their whereabouts, will be an open platform, and location updates will be entirely in the hands of users. It was created to freely share information with applications such as Facebook and Twitter, giving social networks another dimension. When combined, for example, with an application like Facebook, a location application can give a mobile user who is traveling...
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Yesterday's announcement concerning the availability of the iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit) is significant for potential travel application developers. The iPhone has shifted the focus from cell phones to mobile Internet devices with the first full function mobile Web browser. Applications written for the iPhone can be downloaded directly from the Internet bypassing the traditional walled garden of the wireless providers. The announcement specifically emphasized application development for the business market to compete with RIM's Blackberry, the leading corporate smartphone. Venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced it was creating the $100 million iFund to help new developers...
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I had a great conversation this morning with Jerome Thil the CEO of the French meta-travel search company Sprice. In Europe and other parts of the world purchasing static vacation packages has been the norm long before the advent of the Web. That buyer behavior has changed a bit with the concept of dynamic packaging, but roughly 80% of travel-related searches by European consumers still focuses on static packages. The Sprice meta-search capability is currently only available on the Spice French site. For those not up on their French the "Sejours" button starts the travel search for packages. The package...
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A new meta-search company, InsideTrip was mentioned today in Tech Crunch. The model is the now familiar multi-site airline search pioneered by SideStep, Kayak, Farecast and Mobissmo (not to forget the original pioneer, FareChase which only recently was put on the front page of Yahoo! Travel). The twist is a rating system that evaluates the quality of a given selection based on three specific categories - speed, comfort and ease and 12 so-called "pain points" such as number of stops, security wait time, legroom, aircraft type, connection time, and gate location. Users can indicate which of these pain points are...
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All our discussions on the Semantic web and next wave got me thinking when I was reading an article.I was browsing through Wired magazine at Istanbul airport enroute to Berlin and came across an engaging article on the race to build a recommendation engine that is 10% better than Netflix’s. Netflix has a sum of $ 1 million and race has narrowed to 5 teams, one of them being Princeton Alums, others are with AT&T. Anyway one of the more recent entrants is Maths Wiz living in England who is at the forefront of the quest. I am no expert...
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Sabre introduced a new enterprise level social networking application today. American Express was named as an initial distributor of the application expected out later this year. The announcement is important for a number of reasons. This is the first significant social networking application created by a travel organization targeted at the internal corporate community. The Cubeless application is a brand new platform developed by Sabre Studios designed to facilitate communication to and between travelers, travel arrangers and other key corporate stakeholders. Though the precise ROI may be difficult to calculate, one should not underestimate the value of this application. Frequent...
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