Expedia Inc. Analysis
Introduction
The given report provides an analysis of Expedia Inc., by applying common marketer’s techniques in order to reveal main strategic strengths and weaknesses. In addition, the given report analyses the company’s market presence, services, and provides with further recommendations.
Expedia Inc. Analysis
Expedia Inc. is an American company that owns and operates several international global online travel brands, including Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, trivago, Egencia, and else. Expedia Inc. operates more than 100 branded sale points in more than 50 countries. Expedia also provides travel bookings for 10,000 partners including airlines, hotels, consumer’s brands and high traffic websites (Driving real-world enterprise & B2B results with APIs, n.d.). Expedia targets many different types of travelers as customers, from families booking a summer vacation to individual travelers. Expedia offers a service that helps to search, compare and book travel products and services, such as airline tickets, car rentals, cruises, lodging, tours and else. Expedia renders a highly diversified portfolio of traveling services. Classic Vacations service, for instance, offers individually tailored vacations, that are provided through a national network of third-party retail travel agents. Another example is Hotwire.com, a discount travel website that offers available airline tickets and hotel rooms with an applied significant discounts ("Expedia (EXPE) Divisions, Quarterly Segment Results - CSIMarket", n.d).
The revenue model originates from Expedia Affiliate Network. Expedia Affiliate Network process more than 146 million room nights every year, with more than 250,000 hotels and properties across the globe. The company offers a “powerful merchant” to companies, on the basis of Cost Per Sale affiliate model. Once the visitor completes the purchase on the official website, EAN credits owners account with the commission, ranging from 25% to 35%. At the same time, the service offers to customers an ability to compare service and choose the most suiting in terms of price. In fact, Expedia has recently introduced the facility, using Expedia API integration, that allows customers to pay at the hotel, instead of paying in advance on the website. In addition, Expedia offers the Quick Travel Affiliate framework to the businesses, that provides an analysis of travel business performance and the help of an expert team ("Expedia Affiliate Network", 2017).
A SWOT analysis can be applied to identify and evaluate company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and to monitor the current external and internal marketing environment (Kotler, 2000).
The following table presents an Expedia SWOT analysis:
Strengths
Weaknesses
An existing broad range of hospitality service.
Strongly diversified portfolio
Strong brand name
10000+ partners
Acquisition of smaller competitors
Intense growing competition
Providing undifferentiated product
Opportunities
Threats
Possibility to expand globally
Improving customer service for traditional travelers
An increasing, highly diversified competition
Weak internet penetration
SWOT analysis allowed to reveal major concerns in the internal and external environment.
Naturally, the company has already managed to create a worldwide brand with more than 10000 partners and suppliers across the globe. Expedia service offers a highly diversified product and service portfolio, allowing to …
