Laffitte Conseil

The Indian Internet

India is booming.

The South Asian country has acquired de facto membership in the elite club of acknowledged nuclear powers, created more billionaires than any other country in Asia and become one of the world's most dynamic and fastest-growing economies.

India's economic boom is forecast to moderate in the next two years, with GDP growth slowing to 8.4% in 2007 and 2008 and to 7.9% in 2008 and 2009, from a record 9.4% in 2006 and 2007.

Online, the Indian government declared 2007 the "Year of Broadband," setting a goal of 20 million broadband users in 2010.

However, according to the new India Online Overview report, eMarketer expects India to reach 10.5 million broadband households, or just over one-half the target, by 2011.

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Marriott Seizes Bookings From Expedia to Boost Share Price

Marriott International Inc., the world's largest hotel operator, has battled back against online travel agents such as Expedia.com to become the eighth-biggest Internet retailer by sales. That's one of the reasons investors should buy the stock even after a 10 percent tumble this year.                

Through Marriott.com, the Bethesda, Maryland-based lodging company sold $3.7 billion worth of rooms in 2006, more than doubling revenue from the site in 2004. For the first half of 2007, Web sales for Marriott hotels, which range from luxury Ritz-Carltons to lower-priced Fairfield Inns, were up almost 25 percent.         

``You're looking for efficiencies any way you can, and this is a terrific place to find them,'' said Joseph Betlej, who manages $1.2 billion including Marriott shares for Advantus Capital Management in St. Paul, Minnesota. ``A room that they sell on their own Web site is the cheapest way they can sell a room.''

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Travel 2.0 In China: Sina and Qunar jointly launch travel blog platform

The two companies will launch "Free Talk Travel", a blog publishing platform that will allow Chinese travelers for the first time to share their travel experiences in an innovative and interactive way.

Sina.com, China’s largest portal with over 100 million monthly unique visitors, announced a strategic cooperation with Qunar.com, China’s largest travel search engine and second largest travel media with over 8 million monthly unique visitors.

The two companies will launch “Free Talk Travel”, a blog publishing platform that will allow Chinese travelers for the first time to share their travel experiences in an innovative and interactive way. “Free Talk Travel” is expected to be one of China’s most popular blog platforms and an asset to online travelers everywhere in China.

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Web Reputation Monitoring Tools

Several vendors have recently launched “Web Reputation” monitoring tools for hotels. The cost ranges from the absurd for more enterprise-level applications, and some come at a cost of about $150+/month. Supposedly these new tools automate the process of monitoring who says what about the hotel on as many as 25 million consumer-generated sites, plus they claim to automate the hotelier's response to such postings (e.g. negative customer reviews on TripAdvisor).

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Web 2.0 vs. Search Engines: Are Search Engines Becoming Obsolete in the Web 2.0 Frenzy?

Web 2.0 continues to generate much attention in the online travel industry. Inquiring hoteliers want to understand the status and future of search engine marketing and other Internet marketing formats in this new Web 2.0 environment. Are search engines becoming obsolete? Are Web 2.0 sites going to replace the search engines as an advertising media? Will online travel consumers abandon Google as a travel planning and research tool and shift their attention to Web 2.0 sites such as TripAdvisor.com and social networks like YouTube.com? Must a hotel engage in such strategies?

Web 2.0 is the second-generation of web-based communities and hosted services (Wikipedia). Web 2.0 reflects a utilization of the Web in a new way, by both developers and Internet users. Especially of interest to hoteliers is the Internet user aspect of Web 2.0—also known as Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) or User-Generated Media or Social Media. CGM is online content created by Internet users and made available to other Internet users via Web 2.0 interactive technology applications. 

This new dynamic has caused a degree of confusion and many hoteliers are unsure about the implications of Web 2.0 on more "traditional" Internet marketing formats such as search marketing, email marketing, and display advertising. This article details the roles of Web 2.0 and search engines and their significance, as well as supporting data and case studies on how search engines remain of strategic importance long-term in online marketing and distribution.

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Médias 2.0 : incontournables pour les marques

Les Européens sont de gros consommateurs de contenus en ligne, notamment de presse, contenus qu'ils préfèrent largement consommer gratuitement. Parmi les différents contenus disponibles, la vidéo, mise à disposition de tous, gratuitement, sur les sites de partage vidéo, suscite un réel engouement. Surtout de la part des moins de 35 ans.

Cette population est aussi celle qui produit le plus de contenu et utilise le plus Internet comme un réseau d'influence. La 15ème vague de l'observatoire européen NetObserver, réalisé par Harris Interactive, s'est attachée à analyser le comportement de cette cible et des internautes en général en termes de consommation des médias en ligne et de contenu généré par les utilisateurs.

Production de contenus, prise de parole en ligne, rôle de prescription... Le JDN a extrait les résultats de l'étude NetObserver, sur trois pays : la France, l'Allemagne et le Royaume-Uni. Découvrez ses principales conclusions.

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60 modèles de navigation pour satisfaire vos internautes

Un site Web, c’est comme un bâtiment. Il y a des règles à respecter. Mais cela ne doit pas conduire les fondateurs du site à dupliquer sempiternellement un seul et même plan, car il existe des nombreux modèles de navigation. Seule contrainte : que ces derniers soient adaptés à la nature et au positionnement du site et qu’ils aident les internautes à trouver ce qu’ils recherchent.

Telle est l’ambition de ce livre. Présenter 60 modèles de navigation, avec pour chacun, les bonnes pratiques à appliquer sur une double page. Un livre écrit non pas pour les techniciens mais pour des acheteurs et des constructeurs de site afin de leur donner, dès le début, les bonnes pratiques d’ergonomie, d’accessibilité et de référencement.

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Are Internet Television Ratings Low?

Only 9% of US adults have watched a full-length television program on the Internet, according to an August 2007 Ipsos Insight study conducted with Associated Press and AOL.

The estimate is not quite as bleak as it may appear, since Ipsos surveyed all US adults, not just Internet users or online video viewers. The US Census Bureau's mid-2006 estimate of the adult population was roughly 225 million. If 9% of the adult population has watched a full-length TV show online, that is over 20 million viewers.

"Rather than a wholesale shift in viewership from TV to the new-media channels, both media will actually grow in the next several years," said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst. "Internet video will entrench itself in the content mainstream, right alongside TV, albeit not in such pervasive numbers."

By 2011, eMarketer estimates that 86.6% of the US Internet population will view online video, up from 62.8% in 2006. This translates to 183 million viewers in 2011, up from 114 million in 2006.

A March 2007 Ipsos Insight study found that 26% of online video viewers age 12 and older had watched full-length TV shows online. Using the eMarketer 2006 online video population figure as a reference, that means that nearly 30 million people tuned in. That figure includes teenagers, which likely accounts for much of the difference.

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Selling TV to Teens

Online is an also-ran for promoting new shows.

A majority of teens learn about new television shows from TV ads and promos, according to an OTX-eCRUSH study.

Word of mouth, video sharing Web sites and blogs were far less influential, the study said.

"For all of the hype surrounding blogs and video sharing sites, it's important for networks and marketers to understand that a majority of teenagers still get information about new programming from TV ads and promos," said Bruce Friend, OTX president of media and entertainment insights, in a statement.

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More online consumers are consistently more receptive to behaviourally targeted ads than to contextual advertising, according to a new study

Sharing the results of a study on consumer receptivity to online advertising, Revenue Science, Inc. stated that the behaviourally-receptive audience is a higher-value than contextually-receptive consumers.

The study, conducted by JupiterResearch, found that more online consumers are consistently more receptive to behaviourally targeted ads, outperforming contextual by as much as 22 percent in some categories.

“We’re glad to see that the voice of the online consumer echoes our position that behavioural targeting is more effective—for advertisers, publishers, and for consumers—than contextual advertising,” said Marla R. Schimke, Vice President – Marketing, Revenue Science. “This study also reaffirms our belief that Internet users favour advertising relevant to them personally and that advertisers should employ behavioural targeting campaigns to maximise their return on investment.”

In April 2007, more than 2,000 people were surveyed on what types of advertising drive interest and action, as well as their receptiveness to different advertising. The responses revealed that, across all advertising, 14 percent more online consumers are more receptive to behaviourally targeted ads than to contextual ads, representing 63 percent of the total audience.

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