Skyscanner announced a fairly sizable shift in its business model and user experience earlier this month.
The U.K.-based travel brand introduced what it calls a "marketplace" approach to the business, ending 17 years as one of the most successful search engines in online travel.
It is now offering a three-pronged approach to connecting users with air tickets: book with Skyscanner; secure the fare through its existing direct-booking service; and a third option to go through the traditional list of partners that a user is passed over to online in order make the booking.
One of the reasons to move away from the old metasearch-only model, despite the introduction of a direct-booking facility a few years ago for some airline partners, is the continual frustration that many mobile users have with being offloaded to the partner site to secure the booking.
CEO Bryan Dove joined us in the PhocusWire Studio during The Phocuswright Conference 2019 to discuss the move in further detail and share some of the early feedback to its decision.
Skyscanner's Bryan Dove on being a new type of brand (PhocusWire @ Phocuswright Conference 2019)