The Phocuswright Conference 2019 preview – Google’s time has come

Is Google there yet? Yes – at least in terms of its almost complete dominance of the top end of the funnel for search in a dizzying number of markets around the world.

That apparent stranglehold on consumers as they start their travel search splits opinion, as you would expect.

For many brands, whether they publicly agree with it or not, Google is actually a handy customer acquisition partner, whether its through the free route of search engine optimization of web pages, or the path of placing relevant advertising against keywords or browsing patterns.

Both cost varying degrees of money, of course, with the latter approach giving some brands the chance to spend billions of dollars on an annual basis.

But the industry knows that the passing time hasn’t been, some might say, kind to them – at least when it comes to Google’s role further down the search and booking path.

The company’s ambition for the travel sector has shifted slowly over the years into a so-called “meta-book” strategy, with some hotels and airlines now allowing that option, pitting against the online travel agencies that feed its financial coffers.

Yet this isn’t the boldest idea that Google has had for the travel sector. There is a much more fundamental one than that.

Perhaps it’s a gradual evolution of its own strategy or maybe the smart folk that combine across the product and commercial departments have taken note of how things are developing in Asia.

The “Super App” concept is not particularly new but it’s clearly now part of the Google agenda for travel and a myriad of other services that have an impact on the lives of its users.

The axing of the Google Trips app over the summer of 2018 was a headline-grabber of sorts, primarily because when Google shuts something the immediate reaction is to think that it’s given up on a particular strategy.

In that case, the answer was both yes and no.

Google had decided after almost three years that it would forget the idea of a standalone app just for travelers.

Instead, throwing everything into the Google Maps app, alongside the far broader Google.com/travel area, was a far bigger signal of what it’s trying to do and one that makes perfect sense for the brand.

Closing the app allows Google to concentrate on a web-based service with no need for updates for a standalone app (although there will be updates to the Google Maps app, for example) and ability to collect a user’s data for reservations not limited to that held on a smartphone.

Whilst branding is rarely a consideration when it comes to Google, at least in terms of name recognition, having everything under one roof (Google Travel, rather than Google Travel and an app called Trips) will help channel users into a single place for search, shopping for travel products, itinerary management and information.

Google Travel obviously holds the specific travel service but it is Maps where there is now an equal amount of action.

Putting every search result, every ad, every feature in a destination and, crucially, details of price and links to buy a service on hugely popular app gives Google a massive advantage over those that are simply owning one element of the search, shop and booking journey.

And then consider that the same app is again used through the actual trip (with all the associated data collected along the way to help “refine” the results) and it’s no wonder that some in the industry are perhaps more nervous about Google than they have been before.

The industry has (hopefully) moved on from the “Will Google become an OTA?”-type questions that have been thrown at the company for years.

Fans and critics should now be wondering how the Super App concept evolves and how does the rest of the industry fit in.

* Check out The Phocuswright Conference 2018’s interviews with Google’s vice president for product management, Richard Holden.