Can you guess which global travel website has over 600 million reviews and opinions; contains 60 million photos from travelers worldwide; and includes more than 7.5 million hotels, bed and breakfasts, specialty lodging, vacation rentals, restaurants, and attractions in 136,000 destinations? It's TripAdvisor—and this travel review and booking site is one of the most recognized names in the global travel industry.

The Needham, Massachusetts–based company began in 2000 when its co-founder and CEO, Steve Kaufer, underwent the process of planning a trip to Mexico. During the planning process Kaufer's wife realized her husband's frustration with unbiased hotel reviews and the lack of user-generated information and feedback from travelers.

Sure, plenty of beautiful pictures, well-heeled brochures, and online information with carefully selected testimonials were available. This ultimately led Kaufer to create an authentic, firsthand, user-generated feedback system and platform. Leveraging technology, today the TripAdvisor site attracts over 300 million users a month in search of firsthand travel research and experience.

During TripAdvisor's startup stage, in addition to offering edited content, the company added a button that allowed users to provide their own reviews. To the surprise of Kaufer and his team, user-generated content—primarily about hotels and restaurants—expanded-exponentially and soon replaced the edited content upon which the company had sought to establish itself. Today, TripAdvisor operates 25 travel brands, including TripAdvisor, Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy, Cruise Critic, Family Vacation Critic, and FlipKey, to name just a few. The company operates websites internationally in 48 markets and 28 languages, in places such as Australia, China, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States.

International expansion for TripAdvisor didn't happen overnight—and it was not without its challenges. However, because travel is inherently a global business, TripAdvisor's global reach and international scope have been a natural extension of its business.

Since its users are moving all around the world, the company wanted to achieve a very global perspective by delivering the best, most accurate travel research to people regardless of where they live.

Today the majority of the company's traffic comes from outside the United States, so the vast majority of features developed for the site are translated into over 30 languages.

TripAdvisor employs a multidomestic business strategy that allows the company to treat each foreign market in a unique way to appeal to the customs, tastes, and buying habits of each particular national market. Its 3,100 employees include those in the local community and time zone who understand local culture and traditions. This also allows customized marketing appeals for individual cultures or parts of the world. The company admits that it is a challenge to stay relevant to each local audience and to deal with local competition that exists in each market. With its user base in excess of 300 million and weekly software releases in a variety of languages, making sure the site feels relevant and local to each market is critical.

The external environment—which includes technology, politics, and the economy—has impacted TripAdvisor's business. In fact, concerns about the global economy, political differences, and acts of terrorism have impacted the near-term prospects for online travel. In addition, technology, including online travel agents (OTAs) and travel supplier websites, has forever changed the global travel industry. When aviation became more common in the mid-1920s, travel agencies and private retailers providing travel- and tourism-related services to the public on behalf of suppliers such as airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, and package tours began to flourish. Today, TripAdvisor utilizes a technology platform to bring about easy access worldwide to leading online travel agencies, including Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Priceline, Booking.com, and more.

Kaufer agrees that the biggest change impacting his business is the way in which people use technology. Because a lot of Internet usage has moved to a mobile device, TripAdvisor has invested in indestination functionality for its products so that people can use the application not just to plan their trip but also in short bursts while they are moving around and using their mobile phones. Kaufer's goal is for his global customer-base to bring the TripAdvisor experience with them on their trip.

TripAdvisor's comparative advantage lies in what Kaufer refers to as its universal value proposition—which allows travelers the ability to share their opinion, thereby helping other travelers to make their decisions based on those opinions. By learning the truth about where to go, where to stay, what to do, and even what to eat, Kaufer hopes that people worldwide will plan and book a trip that results in lifetime memories.

Questions for Critical Thinking

1. Kaufer agrees that the biggest change impacting his business is the way in which people use technology. Consider virtual reality and virtual tours, where travelers can experience places before they even go there. Discuss ways that technology such as this will continue to impact TripAdvisor's business. In what ways can TripAdvisor continue to utilize technology to benefit both the company and its user base of travelers?

2. TripAdvisor recently introduced an airline reviews platform to include all major airlines across the globe, to include pricing and service and overall quality experienced by travelers. What other platforms such as these could TripAdvisor capitalize upon?

3. As hotels try to get customers to book stays directly and Google enhances its own travel products, who are additional TripAdvisor competitors? How does TripAdvisor differentiate itself?

4. Have you ever used a travel site to help plan a trip? If so, discuss your experience. If not, discuss your thoughts about websites that provide user-generated content. Is the content accurate? Credible? What are the pros and cons?