Phocuswright chat shop buy executive summary_4.29.16

Chat, Shop, Buy:
Messaging as the New Traveler Medium
Researched and written by Douglas Quinby
April 2016
A new report of the rise of messaging in travel from
Phocuswright, the travel industry research authority

© 2016 Phocuswright Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2
About Phocuswright
Phocuswright is the travel industry research authority on how travelers,
suppliers and intermediaries connect.
Independent, rigorous and unbiased, Phocuswright delivers qualitative and
quantitative research on the evolving dynamics that influence travel,
tourism and hospitality distribution. Our marketplace intelligence is the
industry standard for segmentation, sizing, forecasting, trends, analysis and
consumer travel planning behavior. Every day around the world, senior
executives, marketers, strategists and research professionals from all
segments of the industry value chain use Phocuswright research for
competitive advantage.
The company is headquartered in the United States with Asia Pacific
operations based in India and local analysts on five continents.
Phocuswright is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northstar Travel Media, LLC.

Copyright
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The Rise of Messaging
1. https://blog.whatsapp.com/616/One-billion
2. http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/01/heres-to-2016-with-messenger/
3. http://www.statista.com/statistics/255778/number-of-active-wechat-messenger-accounts/
4. http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/02/what-is-this-a-gif-for-brands/?ncid=rss
5. Snapchat users June 2015: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/snapchat-is-the-fastest-growing-social-network-infographic/624116
The growth of mobile messaging has been
remarkable, and certainly undeniable. In
addition to the widespread use of traditional
SMS or text messaging, Internet-based mobile
chat apps have become default means of
communication among billions around the
world. According to Internet Trends 2015
from Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield
Byers, six of the 10 most used mobile apps
worldwide are messaging apps.
1 billion
use WhatsApp1
800 million
use Facebook Messenger2
700 million
use WeChat (Weixin) 3
275 million
use kik4
200 million
use Snapchat5
Chat Apps & Their Users
Messaging is also evolving rapidly. While mobile
chat apps emerged as free, Internet-based
alternatives to comparatively expensive text
messaging, numerous apps have introduced
a range of innovative features and functionality
to include pictures and video, commerce, brand
marketing, customer engagement and more.

From Messaging to Medium
More Than Just Chat
Image: WeChat
*Connie Chan, “When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China” (August 6, 2015).
Source: Phocuswright’s Chat, Shop, Buy: Messaging as the New Traveler Medium
Perhaps the most cited example of chat moving
beyond just messaging is China’s Weixin, or
WeChat. Its growth in China has been particularly
remarkable. The widely popular app has evolved
as much into an ecosystem* for commerce,
payments and other services, and is widely hailed
as a model for what the future of messaging apps
could become in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.
WeChat enables third parties to build applications
and services within its platform, a model that
others, such as Facebook Messenger, are also
pursuing. The most robust apps are becoming
operating systems within the dominant mobile
platforms of Apple and Android.
The results view of China
Southern’s voice recognition
flight search within WeChat

Chat, Shop, Buy:
Messaging as the New Traveler Medium
This report examines the rise of messaging and the opportunity
for travel brands to leverage chat-based services for customer
engagement. Phocuswright’s Chat, Shop Buy addresses the following:
• The use of text and messaging apps among U.S. travelers;
• The growing ecosystem of chat-based travel planning services;
• The target traveler segments for chat-based travel planners and
the challenges in winning them over;
• The use of chat in hospitality for guest service and engagement;
• The role of bots, artificial intelligence and people in powering chat;
• The future of chat and how it will – and will not – impact travel.

Terms and Methodology
This study focuses on mobile messaging, including
text messaging (SMS) and Internet-based instant
messaging services for mobile devices. This report
uses “messaging” and “chat” interchangeably to
refer to Internet-based mobile apps for instant
messaging. It does not directly address all forms of
messaging, such as in-app and mobile OS push
notifications, email and other asynchronous
communication services.
Chat, Shop, Buy includes new consumer research
of 1,904 U.S. travelers on their use of messaging,
based on Phocuswright’s U.S. Traveler Technology
Survey 2015. Phocuswright also conducted interviews
across a range of startups offering messaging
services within travel, as well as established travel
companies introducing chat-based services.

What’s Covered in Chat, Shop, Buy:
1. The Rise of Messaging
2. U.S. Travelers & Chat
3. Chat, Shop, Buy
• Four Key Themes Behind
Chat-based Travel Planners
• Will Travelers Chat?
(And if so, Which Ones?)
• The Frequent Traveler
Challenge
• Ten Chat-based Travel
Planner Startups
4. The Guest Experience:
Getting the Message
• Hotel Help via Chat
• The Hotel-Guest Messaging
Startup Ecosystem
• Guest Requests: What They’re
Chatting About
5. The Next Message
• AI, or Scaling Humans
• Beyond the Message
• How Chat Will – and Will Not -
Change Travel
• Further Reading

Charts Included in Chat, Shop, Buy:
Figure 1: Traveler Use of Media for Sharing Trip Experiences
Figure 2: Traveler Use of Media for Sharing Trip Experiences by Age
Figure 3: Traveler Use of Messaging Apps
Figure 4: Traveler Use of Messaging Apps by Age and Income
Figure 5: How Travelers Approach Trip Planning
Figure 6: Annual Trip Frequency of U.S. Travelers
Figure 7: How Travelers Approach Trip Planning, by Trip Frequency
Figure 8: Nine Chat-Based Travel Planner Startups
Figure 9: How Hotel Guests Use Messaging (Checkmate)
Figure 10: How Hotel Guests Use Messaging (GoMoment)

Startups Discussed in Chat, Shop, Buy:
Hotel-Guest Messaging
Alice
Checkmate
GoMoment
GuestDriven
Kipsu
Moncierge
Whistle
Zingle
Chat-Based Travel Planners
30SecondsToFly
Assist
Emma
ETA
GoButler
HelloGbye
Hyper
Lola
Operator
Pana
Scout

Messaging & Travel
With the growing popularity of
chat apps, traveler use of mobile
messaging has risen dramatically,
and the impact on travel – from
shop and book to experience and
share – will only grow. Nearly
half of U.S. travelers used text
messaging and more than three in
10 used chat apps to share their
travel experiences in 2015
(see Figure 1, next slide), up
significantly from previous years.

Figure 1: Traveler Use of Media for Sharing Trip Experiences
* Messaging apps not asked in 2012 and 2013.
Base: U.S. Online Travelers (N=1,904)
Source: Phocuswright’s U.S. Traveler Technology Survey 2015
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
2012 2013 2014 2015
Text Messaging
Email
Messaging apps*
2015 saw a
big jump in
traveler use
of text and
mobile
messaging.

Read more from
Chat, Shop, Buy:
Messaging as the New Traveler
Medium
Get the full report here.
Researched and written by Douglas Quinby
April 2016
Phocuswright Inc.

Phocuswright chat shop buy executive summary_4.29.16

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