TripAdvisor is delighting in their 20% increase in earnings for its 2012 fiscal year when compared to 2011 benefiting from their partnership with Facebook.
When TripAdvisor joined forces with Facebook and commenced its Trip Friends service nearly three years ago more than a few pondered if the ability to use an individual's social graph to obtain more information would actually be a feature that members would really want.
When the message from inside the organization changed to "wisdom of friends" from "wisdom of crowds", it became apparent that Trip Friends would definitely become an intrinsic component of TripAdvisor's new strategy.
The organization stated that just in 2012's last quarter, over 40 million visitors visited their website by way of their Facebook accounts, as well as by using the social network's associated app, which let them see if their "friends" also had visited a destination or hotel.
But are the users really doing anything? It certainly looks like it – about one billion "open graph share actions" have occurred on the website throughout 2012, which means users are definitely connecting with their buddies on TripAdvisor to talk or ask about a service, location or property.
TripAdvisor says over one third of all new reviews that are posted on their website now come by way of Facebook-connected users.
In the meantime, TripAdvisor confirmed its plans to commence its new hotel metasearch service throughout all platforms this year, the program was first tested on mobile users and then on some desktop users.
The company's financial results for last year revealed a jump of 20% in earnings to $763 million (up 23%, year-over-year, to $169.4 million, Q4). Profits rose to $33.6 million in the fourth quarter (up 52% year-over-year) and for the total year profits increased to $194.1 million, a 9% year-over-year improvement.
