Close on the heels of the layoffs at Oyo, the online travel information providing company, TripAdvisor, is also planning to downsize. About 200 employees may lose their jobs, as the Company tries to cut costs. This means, about five per cent of TripAdvisor’s existing workforce will be asked to leave.
It is reported that the Company is facing stiff competition from Google, which has altered its search algorithms and has been strongly promoting its own products in the hospitality space. As a result, TripAdvisor as well as other travel information providers, such as Booking.com and Expedia have experienced a fall in the number of users. Google has been eating into the traffic of most travel-info sites so much that many are totally dependent on paid advertisements for better search results now. Quality consumers/surfers who would have otherwise ended up on the TripAdvisor site by clicking on free links are now being stolen by Google. This has led to a drastic fall in margin revenue for TripAdvisor, from hotel click-based auctions.
TripAdvisor will be reinvesting in its media advertising business, restaurant services, hotel business, and membership and loyalty initiatives.
Shares of TripAdvisor fell by 20 per cent in November, 2019, as it has been struggling in the face of Google aggressively trying to divert users towards its own advertisers. In the third quarter, the Company’s experiences and dining segment witnessed a 46 per cent drop in earnings, to $15 million.
