Expedia Group Inc. - Enterprise Tech Ecosystem Series

Expedia invests in and supports innovators and entrepreneurs to nurture ideas and solutions into full-fledged business concepts. It also supports startups financially through its innovation programs to nurture ideas into full-fledged business models.

The company opened an Innovation Lab in Asia to develop and deploy multiple technology solutions to understand customer behavior. The lab will work on scientific techniques to drive customers online by analyzing the online travel search and booking patterns

Expedia is hyper-personalizing the customer travel experience through big data and analytics and has over 2,000 engineers and 700 data scientists. Expedia has made $1.2 billion in technology investment in 2016 and since then has been improving its technology architecture and infrastructure to improve its access to data sources, and capture valuable customer information from their digital footprint like online transactions, and the use of smartphones and wearable devices. Expedia proactively analyzes this data to understand customers’ unique needs and preferences, and uses such data insights to personalize their services and offerings to them

Expedia’s Best Fare Search solution for instance uses machine learning algorithms to provide best fares for customers for their flight bookings. The algorithm filters from millions of options to about 10,000 most likely booked flights, then pins down to about 1,500 most pertinent options in seconds.

The report provides information and insights into Expedia's activities, including:

• Insights of its digital transformation strategies and digital innovation programs
• Overview of technology initiatives covering strategic partnerships, investments and acquisitions
• Insights on each technology initiative including technology theme, objective, and benefits
• Details of estimated ICT budgets and major ICT contracts

Scope

• Expedia is exploring and utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, e-commerce, big data, alternative reality, digital assistants, and apps to achieve operational efficiencies and enhance the customer experience.
• EPS, the B2B partnership brand of Expedia Group, integrated a virtual agent technology into ‘Expedia for Partners’ and ‘Expedia Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP)’ templates. The technology enables travelers effectively resolve requests on amenities and cancellations and let's travel agents easily cancel bookings or check the status of a traveler’s refund.
• The company collaborated with AI Singapore (AISG) to develop an AI solution to enhance online ecosystem for Asian travelers.
• Expedia adopts a cohesive and programmatic approach towards digital media in order to engage with its customers and expand its reach. To achieve this, it rolled out a documentary-style video that aims to understand the needs of the travelers and make travelling more accessible.
• The company introduced a Online Travel Friction Index, in collaboration with Magid for customers and partners to minimize travel friction and to offer enhanced customer experience.

Reasons to Buy

• Gain insights into Expedia's travel operations.
• Gain insights into its digital strategies and innovation initiatives.
• Gain insights into its technology themes under focus.
• Gain insights into various partnerships of Expedia.