Comment by Jeremy Skidmore: Tough future for third party websites

Several years and billions of pounds of investment on from the dotcom boom, it’s worth taking a step back and pondering the future of third party websites. For most of us, it’s now second nature to buy goods and services over the Internet. A little like the mobile phone, we wonder how we managed before it was invented. Holidaymakers feel increasingly comfortable booking flights and basic packages on the web. This isn’t, though, necessarily good news for all travel websites. Tour operators and agents that already have highly recognised brands have spent the past few years developing their own sites and are keen to push more product through them. Why should they give holidays to third party sites that often provide relatively little business because they haven’t developed their brands? Of course, there will be some winners. Lastminute is one because it has a name that everyone knows and, importantly, the site delivers. Ebookers has also developed its brand and Expedia, with its huge resources and advertising muscle, is a winner. Elsewhere, ifyouski is gaining a reputation among winter sports enthusiasts as having good deals and information, while cheapflights does what it says on the tin. But those which fail to capture the public’s imagination face a tough future. Spending money is no guarantee of success. The jury is still out on the curiously-named Opodo, for example. A sizeable fortune has been spent promoting the name, but does the average person on the street know it? If you want a British Airways flight off the website, would you go to the BA website, Opodo or elsewhere? I’m not party to Opodo’s booking figures and it may well be that the nine airlines which own the company are happy with its progress. But it’s a fair bet that unless sites like Opodo can make a bigger impression on the public, they face a tough future. As in any developing market, new entrants will find it increasingly difficult to establish their brands and offer the public a wide range of products. How long before the internet retail market mirrors the package market with lots of consolidation, a few big players and the others fighting for scraps?