Congratulations to Steve Kaufer and Tripadvisor for helping define, and ultimately winning, Web 2.0 as it relates to travel.
However, winning Web 2.0 doesn't necessarily put Tripadvisor in the best position to win the next challenge: Web 3.0.
Why? Web 2.0 was all about centralization, whereas Web 3.0 is all about decentralization.
Arguably, winning the second iteration of the web reduces the ability to win the next phase, as there will be too much corporate friction to make the necessary changes and take the necessary risks.
Now that Kaufer has announced his retirement, how does Tripadvisor look forward and hire a replacement to take the company through this next web era?
Firstly, a short primer on the background to the next edition of the web.
What is decentralisation?
Phocuswright has a new report on the topic - The Decentralized Computing Future Of Travel - that outlines some of the key elements:
- Airlines: In a peer-to-peer environment, greater customer intimacy is possible as barriers created by intermediaries are removed, delivering on the promise of NDC.
- Hotels: Decentralization will bring faster settlement and commission tracking for hotels, especially for boutique properties, lessening the power of the online travel agencies.
- Corporate travel: Greater transparency, accurate rate usage and simpler, faster settlement.
- Ground transportation: Uber and Lyft do not own fleets. They are tech providers that connect large fleets with customers. What if these fleets could connect directly with customers?
- Tours and activities: Market access of the entire long tail of activities is possible with decentralization, facilitated through the blockchain. This can reduce the control of large tour and activity aggregators and empower smaller providers.
What would I do as the incoming CEO of Tripadvisor?
This change isn't going to be easy. Web 3.0 will gain consumer and industry traction precisely because it is NOT Tripadvisor. In other words, decentralization is challenging for centralizers like Tripadvisor and the other OTAs.
I would, therefore, propose two core strategies:
1. Reviews
Reviews are the goose that lays the golden eggs for Tripadvisor and from what all subsequent successes flowed.
However, it is clear that post-trip reviews, in text format, are overdue for some form of change. The goose is, to continue the narrative, cooked.
Move from post-trip to in-trip
Post-trip reviews do not give any benefit to the consumer writing the review. If you bring these reviews forward in time (e.g. into the experience in a natural way), the provider has the opportunity to address concerns at that point, during service delivery.
This also means that reviews are likely to be quicker to create, more frequently provided (e.g. multiple reviews during a trip experience) and more social (e.g. a review can be multimedia).
Move to verifiable stay
If you are following what the Hospitality & Travel SIG from the Decentralized Identity Foundation has in mind, decentralized verifiable reviews are high on the agenda.
For example, Alice often writes reviews on TripAdvisor for the hotels she frequents. With her verified stay credential, she is able to provide proof when she posts a review that she actually stayed in the hotel on specific dates, meaning that TripAdvisor can identify the review as “verified” and users can have more confidence that it is a credible review.
2. Attractions and restaurants
Tripadvisor needs to move down the stack, not necessarily in terms of tech, but in terms of customer experience.
Instead of being useful at discovery, it need to be useful at discovery and delivery.
This will also help with moving reviews forward to the delivery stage as Tripadvisor will have digital engagement during delivery so it can naturally elicit real-time reviews.
Project selection
The "how" will be defined by the internal teams involved within the context of the rapidly changing Web 3.0 marketplace.
Proposed projects needs to be scored against:
- sustainability
- decentralized Web 3.0 (either natively, or at least working alongside Web 3.0)
- personalized service
- ability to create a moat (similar to the existing reviews-based moat)
- work with, rather than clash with, local partners such as tourist boards and destination marketing organizations
Who is ready to lead?
One additional challenge will be who will make the best Tripadvisor CEO?
The risk is selecting someone (internally or externally) based on their Web 2.0 track record. Will that mean that Web 3.0 is ignored or deprioritized as people focus on what they are familiar with?
However, if they hire for Web 3.0, no one has any credentials on this yet as there have been few launches, let alone exits.
As such, the company probably needs to hire a pair of leaders - an older executive with proven credentials to act as the new CEO of a public company, managing their current Web 2.0 interests and workforce, and a younger executive to drive Web 3.0, who can be lined up for the CEO role when Web 3.0 becomes the dominant force in the company.