Online Travel Bookings

The latest Nielsen Global Online Survey was recently released. It provides insight to consumer's internet shopping habits. More than 85% of the world's online population has used the internet to make a purchase, increasing the market for online shopping by 40% in the past two years.

Take a look at what those consumers were purchasing:

Purchase - % of Online Purchasers:
Books - 41%
Clothing, Accessories, Shoes - 36%
Video, DVD, Games - 24%
Airline ticket, reservations - 24%
Electronic equipment - 23%
Music - 19%
Cosmetics, nutrition supplies - 19%
Tours, hotel reservations - 16%
Event tickets - 15%
Computer software - 14%
Groceries - 14%
Toys, dolls - 9%
Sporting goods - 8%
Automobiles & parts - 4%
Sports memorabilia - 3%
Other - 20%

More than 70 percent of Indians and more than 60 percent of Irish and UAE Internet users said they bought airline tickets/reservations on the Internet in the last three months, making travel the fourth most popular shopping category on the web. Travel is now one of the undoubted success stories of online, playing an integral part in the arrangements and experience of today's traveler.

Source: Nielsen, 2007/Marketing Charts, January 2008

Baidu Launches in Japan

Baidu has now launched its Japanese language service in Japan, its first overseas venture. It will be interesting to see if Baidu will manage to gain ground, as the two markets are very different, Japan being a mature market with internet browsing on mobile phones far more advanced than other countries.

Currently Yahoo holds about 50% share of searches, Google 40% and MSN 2%. About 70 percent of Japan's Web surfers use two or more search engines, and Baidu said that initially it will aim to become the second search engine users turn to. It will be difficult, but if they manage to partner with a large Japanese mobile carrier they stand a fair chance of cracking into the Japanese market, and find a way of differentiating their offering. Analysts seem however to be skeptical.

Baidu hold the lion's share of the share market in China, with around 55% of searches, with Google second with 18% of searches followed by Alibaba 9% and Yahoo 8% (Source: comScore qSearch). The name "Baidu" originates from a poem written more than 800 years ago during the Song Dynasty. The poem compares the search for beauty with the search for one's dream while confronted by life's many obstacles. "…hundreds and thousands of times, for her I searched in chaos, suddenly, I turned by chance, to where the lights were waning, and there she stood." Baidu, whose literal meaning is hundreds of times, represents persistent search for the ideal.

We use Baidu for search marketing campaigns in China for some of Bigmouthmedia's travel clients. The Chinese online travel market faces a lot of challenges and internet users are not used to buying travel online. Many OTAs have entered China with a hybrid model and some clients encourage offline bookings as well as online bookings, which they would not do in other markets.

It is going to be interesting to see if Baidu manages to maintain their market share in China as the market matures, or if they can successfully enter the Japanese market.

Personally I think its good that someone tries to take up a battle with the big players. Go Baidu!

Burj Al Arab - Dubai

Today I attended a guided tour of the Burj Al Arab, the world famous 7 star hotel in Dubai. The building resembles a sail is 321m tall and is a truly iconic landmark. The service and unseen luxury definitely makes it stand out from the crowed. Officially the hotel has a 5 star rating. The service includes private chauffeur with Rolls Royce or other luxury cars, private reception desk every floor, helicopter pad, top restaurants and amazing view on the city. A standard room has two floors and prices start from $1000. The hotel was made famous worldwide when Andre Agassi had a tennis game with Roger Federer on the helipad, and Ronan Keating shot parts of one of his music videos there too.

Check it out next time you are in Dubai, it's well worth a visit!