Airbnb has the largest share of voice on both news and social media channels in Asia, trumping other hotels including legacy brands that have been in operation for much longer, a study by Meltwater shows.
This data was uncovered by tracking the total mentions of brands online, including ASEAN’s top five hotels, sharing economies such as like Airbnb and Homeaway, and Online Travel Agents (OTAs) like Expedia and Agoda.
Mimrah Mahmood, regional director, media solutions, Meltwater Asia-Pacific, said: “According to our research, Airbnb, the pioneer of the sharing economy, has stayed ahead of its competitors with its first mover advantage in Asia, led by a focus on digital strategy and localised content. This has brought increased engagement from customers, which has corresponded to its position as the market leader.
“The hospitality industry has seen significant transformation in recent years. Brands that are navigating this disruption need to understand technology has redefined the customer experience,” added Mahmood.
Other key findings
- In the hotel industry, Sheraton dominated share of voice in news (32%) and social (28 per cent) of earned media, with Shangri-La (27 per cent) and Marina Bay Sands (27 per cent) coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively for news channels, and 3rd (24 per cent) and 2nd (27 per cent) respectively for social channels. Marina Bay Sands tops both news and social for positive sentiment, followed by W Hotels and Ritz-Carlton. Although both Shangri-La and Sheraton had the highest SOV in news and social media among the hotels analysed, both brands have a lower percentage of positive mentions, with a bulk of the sentiment being neutral.
- In the sharing economy, Airbnb has the largest news (12,637) and social media (68,056) volume on earned media, making the brand the undisputed market leader for the sharing economy in ASEAN, as well as globally.
- In OTAs, Agoda dominates the social media sphere, capturing just over 60% of the share of voice, followed by TripAdvisor at 30.46 per cent. On Twitter, TripAdvisor has the largest share of followers (89.57 per cent) whilst Expedia has a larger share of the interactions (51 per cent). TripAdvisor is the King of Instagram among the OTAs, having 15 and 33 times more interactions as compared to Expedia and Agoda respectively.
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