Mobile and Technology

In-Depth: Interview with Stephany van Willigenburg, business development manager, Mobile EMEA, Google

Published: 03 Sep 2010

In-Depth: Interview with Stephany van Willigenburg, business development manager, Mobile EMEA, Google

The more smartphones with full browsers come onto the market, the faster consumers will become accustomed to searching on the mobile web or use Apps for travel bookings.

There are various technologies driving consumers to use the mobile web to purchase or research travel products.

The number of European consumers accessing travel services via smartphones grew by 125% year-on-year to May 2010, according to comScore. The growth in highly capable smartphones in the market has helped to drive consumer interaction with travel services via their mobile phones: whilst accounting for only 25% of the installed base of active phones in Europe, 54% of consumers accessing travel services did so from a smartphone in May 2010.

EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta recently spoke to Stephany van Willigenburg, business development manager, Mobile EMEA, Google, about opportunities in this arena. Excerpts:

How do consumers wish to engage with travel companies via mobile in a market like Europe?

Stephany van Willigenburg:

We’ve seen smartphone penetration grow across Europe and this will be a key factor to enable consumers to search for travel products on their mobile phones. The more smartphones with full browsers come onto the market, the faster consumers will become accustomed to searching on the mobile web or use Apps for travel bookings.

It is being highlighted that the rise of smartphones with browsers which can both display desktop sites and make it easy for users to interact with them has been a significant development. Considering the latest gadgets and the number of options available on web for travel planning and booking, which according to you is the most significant development in terms of the way consumers consume content or engage for travel requirements?

Stephany van Willigenburg:

There are various technologies driving consumers to use the mobile web to purchase or research travel products. The first is that many smartphones are now enabled with full HTML browsers, this makes it a much richer experience and increases time spent browsing on a mobile device.

Advertisers are also embracing the mobile web and are including it in their web strategies by developing Mobile sites & apps. Consumers are becoming accustomed to getting information at any time in any location and this is mainly driven by the mobile web becoming easily available through smartphone devices.

We’ve seen that Mobile Travel Queries on Google are growing in the key European countries - for example in the UK it has grown at almost 200% Year on Year and 180% YoY in France (referring to data until June 30th 2010).

For long, the industry has indicated that that there are still two issues that need to change: There need to be more standards over the whole industry so that development is easier and faster, and the network providers need to reduce the data rates especially for roaming but also the flat rates in their home markets as the customers are afraid of unknown cost for the usage of mobile services. What do you make of the challenges as of today?

Stephany van Willigenburg:

There are many barriers to development as you point out, however much of this will be overcome by new technologies such as HTML5.

Three key factors have to be considered: Computing power and processor speeds are increasing exponentially. We see smartphones with 1GHz processor chips which means they are more powerful than the computer I used 10 years ago!

Secondly, connectivity, because there are almost four billion mobile devices worldwide, this drives users to ask more of their phones and expect it to be a tool beyond calling and texting.

Finally, because of the power of cloud computing, and exponential server power, Google can answer text-, voice-, or visual queries in a split second on a mobile device.

We see Google as being an enabler, for example, by allowing developers to user our APIs in their apps. Ocado has recently used our Voice search API to build into the Android App further driving adoption and ease of use for the consumer.

The European Union has finalised new roaming rules, putting a cap on mobile roaming charges. Travellers’ data-roaming limit will be automatically set at €50 excluding VAT (unless they have chosen another limit - higher or lower). How do you assess this move from travel industry’s perspective?

Stephany van Willigenburg:

It will continue to be important for consumers to be informed on their data plans whilst on holiday. It may impact travel companies as they can use mobile to reach out to customers ‘during the trip’ which continues to be a sought after use for mobile. It will be interesting to observe the differences in behaviour between leisure and business traveller roaming trends.

Location is the holy grail of the mobile experience. One of the major developments this year has been the availability of free navigation systems on mobile handsets. And the way applications are mushrooming around location-based services, one can only expect more excitement in this arena. What do you make of such developments from the travel industry’s perspective?

Stephany van Willigenburg:

Mobile devices are interesting from an advertiser’s perspective as you can reach customers whilst they are ‘on the go’. Once a consumer has opted in, the features such as GPS, network supplied IP and cell tower triangulation will be key qualifiers to deliver location based ads.

Several Google ad features for mobile, such as location extensions on Maps for Mobile, have just been released that could be interesting for the travel industry.

1 in 3 queries on mobile phones has local intent, indicating a powerful desire on the part of consumers for location-specific information. Has the industry realised that focusing on location is just one of the ways to best use mobile capability to drive optimal consumer response to your efforts?

Stephany van Willigenburg:

Location based content and user targeting is very exciting indeed. With the new technologies developing the opportunities are endless, especially now that we see smartphone penetration really taking off in most European markets. I would encourage advertisers to embrace the opportunities around location based services.

Recently, a travel guide publisher in the US introduced travel guides for iPhone, featuring Augmented Reality feature along side user-generated content and automated trip planner (the guide suggests the most personalised trip). How do you assess such developments related to applications for smart phones?

Stephany van Willigenburg:

Several augmented reality apps have come out in the past 12 months, including those from Layar, a Dutch company, which saw over 600 augmented reality layers created since last summer. Similar to this technology, a phone’s camera enables apps such as 'Google Goggles’, to identify land marks or translate text on a menu, information which is extremely useful to travelers on the go. In the end, as long as consumers find a site or app relevant and useful, they will engage and interact with the new technology.

It is being highlighted that customers will increasingly demand an end-to-end engagement across a range of platforms, and to be able to research, consume and share travel information on whichever device they find most useful at a particular stage of their decision-making process. How do you foresee mobile phones shaping as a channel for travel planning and booking going forward?

Stephany van Willigenburg:

The availability of the web via mobile devices is going to change the expectations that consumers will have of the brands they interact with. Something as simple as a strong mobile site as a destination URL for Mobile Ads can make a huge impact on ROI vs. sending users to the desktop site. It’s also very interesting to see how some apps such as ‘Trip It’ allow a user to interact on both desktop and mobile and even share their trip status via a social network such as Facebook.

We’re only scratching the surface of what is possible by combining social and the mobile web, so I look forward to seeing what innovative solutions come out.

Online Marketing and Social Media Strategies for Travel Summit Europe 2010

Stephany van Willigenburg is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming two-day Online Marketing and Social Media Strategies for Travel Summit Europe 2010 (5-6, October) to be held in Prague.

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Or contact:
Gina Baillie
VP Global Marketing & Events
EyeforTravel
London, UK: +44 (0)207 375 7197
gina@eyefortravel.com