Part Three of Four: TripAdvisor boss sees competitive advantage growing

How long can TripAdvisor remain on top? TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer sees the company's competitive advantage growing -- not shrinking -- in the global markets it already dominates.

"In the markets where we are number one, I see our competitive advantage growing, not shrinking," Kaufer says. "We continue to grow faster than the other guys."

TripAdvisor, which currently has a presence in more than 20 countries, benefits from the eBay Effect, Kaufer claims.

"Buyers wanted to shop where all the goods were and sellers wanted to sell where all the buyers were," Kaufer says. "Well, it's just about the same for TripAdvisor and travel. You want to go read reviews where there is the most. When you want to write a review to share your comments with everyone else, you want to write it where people are reading the most."

Asked about new strategic directions for TripAdvisor, Kaufer cites Trip Friends "as the next revolutionary concept that we are bringing to the table."

"Again, it is another area where I don't see how any other travel site is going to be able to compete because we have the installed base on TripAdvisor and we've got content," Kaufer says. "The integration is powerful and simple, and I don't have to bet on Facebook staying popular. That's a given."

So, did the TripAdvisor-Facebook mashup require Kaufer and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg getting together over lattes to sort things out?

"It's using their API with helpful [technical and product-related] conversations from time to time," Kaufer says, dismissing the notion that the two CEOs needed to hash things out.

He adds that TripAdvisor didn't develop any proprietary technology for Trip Friends.

"We don't want to use anything special," Kaufer says. "They can break."

Kaufer, though, sees some weaknesses in TripAdvisor's global position and regrets that the company didn't expander internationally sooner than it did.

"In the markets we aren't in, Russia, for example, there is an opportunity for someone to get out ahead of us," Kaufer says. "The more data we get, the better our recommendations can become, the more personalized it can become, so there are tremendous benefits to the sheer scale."

He cites the German and Japanese markets, too, as countries with established players where TripAdvisor needs to play catch-up.

TripAdvisor plans to launch four new country websites this year, including sites in South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, Kaufer says.

In addition to Trip Friends and expansion into new countries, Kaufer sees Business Listings and vacation rentals as key expansion arenas.

On the other hand, one area, hotel metasearch, which would seemingly be a natural fit for TripAdvisor, is not on the agenda, Kaufer says.

He argues that hotel metasearch does not provide a great consumer experience and hotels don't like price comparisons because of the apples to oranges nature of comparing different room types and brands.

TripAdvisor launched flight metasearch in 2009 and recently began integrating it into hotel reviews by showing the best fares to a given city like this:

Kaufer says flight metasearch isn't as good as TripAdvisor's hotel advertising business, but flight metasearch is valuable because it attracts new shoppers.

"Hotels rock," he adds.

Sitting at a table in a conference room at TripAdvisor headquarters in Newton, Mass., Kaufer plays with a large roll of tape in his hands. It may be an appropriate metaphor for the way TripAdvisor is helping to shape the global expansion of Expedia's media business, picking this market or that for a new sales office or website.

Thus, Kaufer seems to be sitting on the top of the world, so to speak.

Kaufer's concerned -- but not overly so -- about a potential Google expansion into travel, he regrets not expanding into some international markets sooner, and he knows he faces a formidable competitor in HomeAway in the vacation rental business.

But, the top guy at TripAdvisor sounds confident and relaxed about the business, as if he hasn't lost one night's sleep since TripAdvisor almost tanked in 2002 -- before it seriously began scaling its hotel reviews.

What about the former Expedian's at TravelPost, who got $10 million in funding and are said to be cooking up some kind of New Age travel-planning business. Perhaps a TripAdvisor killer?

Kaufer says TravelPosthas a website and "some old reviews," but he hasn't been able to confirm what TravelPost's plans are.

The founder of TripAdvisor, referring to TravelPost, adds: "People aren't going to go to a site because of the name of the founder."

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