“In US, we think of desktop as legacy. There, they don’t even think of it.” That quote from Barney Harford, CEO of Orbitz, at Phocuswright probably sums up best how Asia has leapfrogged from offline to mobile. Here’s how.
After having completed what I call my conference trilogy – WIT, followed by Phocuswright and then CAPA in Antwerp, Brussels – one thing struck me more than anything else as I covered three continents in 12 days.
How far ahead Asia is in terms of mobile. Well, not only that but also in terms of infrastructure in its cities – broadband speed, wifi access, airports, airlines, hotels – and you realise how much the world has changed in the last decade or so.
The mobile-first panel: From left, Douglas Quinby, Phocuswright, moderating Sam Shank, Hrush Bhatt, Barney Harford and Yilu Zhao
At Phocuswright, Yilu Zhao, Chief Strategy Officer, Qunar.com, said, “In China, it’s not just offline to online, it’s offline to mobile. There are 500 million smartphone users and 600 million Internet users. In the lower tier cities, people have mobile.”
Qunar started investing in mobile in 2010, an investment that has obviously paid off. Up to 40% of its revenues comes from mobile, which accounts for 50% of hotel bookings and 40% of flights. Payments are fully enabled on its mobile platform, she said.
India is pretty much the same story. Hrush Bhatt, founder & director, product & strategy, Cleartrip said, “India has also made the leapfrog from desktop to mobile first.”
Mobile accounts for 45% of train bookings for Cleartrip and 30% for flights and hotels. “We have 55% new monthly average users with 45% returning. We don’t see mobile as a sales platform but as a companion product for users to carry across searches.”
Mobile-only customers form 22-25% of its customer base, said Bhatt. And Zhao said there was very little overlap between mobile and desktop customers at Qunar.
Mobile goes hand-in-hand with social which is huge in China and Zhao said that in one quarter, it collected two million reviews, 95% of which came from mobile. “Mobile takes you to new frontiers and that’s our priority now in product development.”
Mobile is also growing as a channel for Orbitz with CEO Barney Harford saying it accounts for one third of hotel bookings and one quarter for flights and cars. Fifty percent of bookings done on mobile are for same-day transactions. “It’s interesting. In the US, we think of desktop as legacy. In India and China, they don’t even think of it.”
Sam Shank, CEO & co-founder of Hotel Tonight, said, “We need to look at Asia very closely. There’s a reason Mark (Zuckerberg) bought What’sapp. We should look there and be inspired.”
Shank also shared his vision of how an OTA could become a MTA – Mobile Travel Assistant. Speaking of the customer journey – 1, research/plan, 2, book and 3, guest experience, he said OTAs do well in book but “none of us do a good job with 1 and 3. With mobile context, that changes.”
Sam Shank: Spotify for your personal playlist and Fitbit for your personal health information
“Ideas pushed to you, better relevancy than “friends”, contextually relevant ads, insight into past activity.”
Describing a hotel stay from the future, he said, “Spotify will play your favourite music in your room, you don’t even have to press the floor, the phone opens the door, and at night, it gives you recommendations for food. Fitbit tells me when you are going to wake up and when breakfast will be delivered.”
The hotel staff, “Mike”, becomes your “host” – “this will become more important than the hotel rating and Mike can take the rating with him,” said Shank.
“Some predictive technology could end our humanity but the real promise is, it liberates us and enables us to be more human and be better humans,” said the founder of Hotel Tonight who took the idea for the last-minute hotel booking app, which has since been copied around the world, from sketch to MVP in 10 weeks.
I don’t know about being “better humans” but it will make us better consumers, for sure.
Take me as an example. I tried looking for the iPhone 6 Plus in Los Angeles, New York and Antwerp and finally found it in a little store in a Taipei street market, a side trip I made after my round-the-world travels.
It was a Sony store and it had a sign advertising availability. The guy at the store said, cash only, and he had two 128GB versions of the Plus. I had to go to an ATM across the street to withdraw the funds, and then I waited 30 minutes for someone to deliver it by motorbike. That felt like an adventure in itself.
Just another reason why Asia will lead the way in mobile – we are an enterprising lot and we will do almost anything to get our hands on a new gadget, including travel the world.
