ByteDance is Tearing Up the Online Travel Playbook
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In an age where social media has become pervasive, it seems inevitable that holiday bookings would eventually join cat videos and influencer selfies in the endless scroll of your feed. Yet even the most seasoned industry observers might be surprised by the speed at which social commerce has turned from a peripheral curiosity into a core driver of bookings, potentially reshaping how the travel sector reaches – and converts – its audience.
TL; DR
Social media, especially ByteDance’s Douyin and TikTok platforms, is fast becoming a major channel for travel bookings.
Currently, social commerce is limited to simple transactions rather than complex travel itineraries.
This isn’t an existential moment for OTAs that embrace the shift towards social commerce – but they can’t ignore it.
The Marketing Funnel is Becoming a Pancake
Until quite recently social media's role in travel marketing was as a top-of-funnel showcase – beautiful beaches, luxurious hotels and aspirational adventures designed to captivate, but seldom to directly transact. Now Chinese giant ByteDance and its social media platforms Douyin and TikTok are blurring the line between inspiration and booking, with the traditional booking funnel rapidly condensing into a seamless, instantaneous experience that can be delivered by a few thumb-swipes.
TikTok has rapidly established itself as a powerful sales channel for the travel and tourism sector. Launched in 2016 by ByteDance as Douyin in China before expanding internationally under the TikTok brand, the platform which started life as a lip-sync and dance video platform has since evolved into the most influential short-video app, shaping digital trends, consumer behaviour, and even commerce. Now millions of active users across the globe use the platform to discover destinations, plan trips and make bookings.
The Numbers are Staggering
Analysts estimate that Douyin had 1bn monthly active users (MAUs) in 2024, generating around $21bn in revenues, and that TikTok had 1.5bn MAUs, generating around $23bn in revenues. About three quarters of total platform revenues across the two companies are believed to come from advertising, with the rest from Commerce (which is growing fast). At around $500bn in 2024 GMV, this is possibly the fastest growing scaled ecommerce player ever!
Of TikTok’s 1.5 billion users, around 40% are Gen Z (aged 18-24), 35% are Millennials (25-34), and 20% are Gen X (35-54). The average TikToker (is that a word?) spends around 90 minutes per day on the platform, with around 40% of TikTok’s Gen Z cohort already doing their travel search via social media instead of search engines. According to a 2023 Expedia survey, 60% of travellers discover their next destination through social media, and probably via TikTok. The hashtag #TravelTok has recorded nearly 30 billion views. With nearly a third of TikTok users booking a trip within 6 months of seeing travel content they like; the power of the medium is clear.
Douyin’s travel vertical is well-formed, with more than 100,000 hotels and 14,000 attractions flocking to the platform for self-broadcasting, often offering exclusive deals. Livestreaming is now estimated to account for ~70% of Chinese travel TTV, with influencers hosting virtual tours and flash sales. The platform’s pricing is sharp relative to other channels like OTAs. Douyin set a cat among the pigeons by undercutting Meituan's commission rates and offering 4.5% (versus the 10–26% going rate) to attract merchants. It’s not clear you can put that genie back in the bottle…
What’s the upshot of all this? Analysts estimate that travel commerce on Douyin generated up to $40bn in total transaction value (TTV) in 2024. While we don’t yet have hard numbers on TikTok’s travel revenues, we think it’s going to follow a similar pattern.
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TikTok is Going Global
TikTok must be salivating at the prospects, with the global online travel market valued at >$600bn per annum, mobile bookings accounting for at least $220bn, and such a huge percentage of travellers aged under 35 using social media for trip inspiration.
Our sources believe TikTok is chasing up to 5% of the market. Piecing together the company’s plans for travel commerce outside of Mainland China isn’t easy, but there are enough breadcrumbs in place for us to suggest that TikTok is indeed going hard.
TikTok is actively recruiting travel industry managers in the USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America to forge partnerships with hotels, experience companies, airlines and OTAs. In markets like Indonesia and Thailand, it’s replicating Douyin's model through testing travel and restaurant vouchers. It’s making trademark filings such as ‘TikTok Go’. Add that to its array of tools that can accentuate travel commerce, for example "TikTok PayLater", a BNPL product, and we think the writing, as they say, is on the wall…
Who Else is Playing in the Sandbox?
Thousands of businesses in the travel sector are already experimenting and transacting on social media platforms. For example, in 2023 Marriott leveraged Instagram's native checkout to achieve a 15% increase in direct bookings. Similarly, Hilton's 2022 campaign featuring Paris Hilton yielded a 13% lift in direct bookings via Instagram and TikTok.
But it's not just hotel chains profiting. OTAs like Trip.com are also capturing significant volumes through social commerce - its partnership with Douyin produced over 100,000 hotel bookings in just one quarter of 2023, while creators generated nearly 6m travel orders overall. Last week, Expedia announced a partnership with Beautiful Destinations, a travel-focused Instagram hub, allowing travellers to build an itinerary from an Instagram Reel, then book it directly on Expedia. Other OTAs like Agoda are on the bandwagon, running attention-grabbing video ads on TikTok, often leveraging trending hashtags and user-generated content to engage viewers and inspire travel bookings.
Experience platforms are also getting in on the action. Klook, the leading Asian platform, has seen strong conversion rates among Gen Z through its TikTok-integrated booking features, despite not publicly disclosing exact figures.
And airlines are dipping their toes in the water. Etihad generated a 17% increase in bookings from dynamic ads on TikTok that delivered personalized flight offers based on users' travel intent and preferences. Southwest Airlines’ 14-week pilot embedded direct booking functionality within TikTok videos. Japan Airlines partnered with TikTok influencers to promote travel offers, apparently translating into flight bookings among younger travellers.
It’s just the start.
Influencers
Travel influencers have become a powerful force in shaping global tourism since James Liang, Chair of Trip.com, pioneered the trend by launching live-stream travel broadcasts during the COVID-19 pandemic, generating nearly $400m in sales and attracting 150 million viewers. This innovative approach inspired platforms like Klook, and helped double Asia's travel influencer count between 2022 and 2023.
Globally, travel influencers now drive a significant share of online travel behaviour. Around 35% of consumers—and over 50% of Gen Z—turn to social media for travel inspiration. In the U.S., 85% of adults have acted on influencer recommendations. Instagram alone hosts thousands of travel influencers, many of whom turn casual content into full-time careers.
Sometimes however, even influencers need a little nudge. Smart tools are already being used to personalise the influencer in your feed, thereby increasing engagement and conversion rates. This personalisation is crucial in capturing the attention of Gen Z and Millennial travellers who seek experiences that resonate with their individual preferences.
Just when you thought influencers were safe, consider this - Meta just had its first travel influencer summit, in Saudi Arabia, hosting 50 of the region’s leading travel influencers. Guess what? If you’re an influencer, your competition is now virtual. Meta told its audience that virtual influencers deliver 3x more engagement than their flesh and bones counterparts - and are easier to manage!
The New Tech Stacks Serving Social Commerce
Founders have been extremely busy creating tech solutions to streamline all of this activity.
For example, Fabulate, an AI-powered influencer marketing platform that helps brands and agencies scale content creation and performance across more than 300m creators. Fabulate automates everything from creator discovery and briefing to negotiation, approvals, reporting and analytics - streamlining workflows for speed, accuracy and scale.
Then there’s Stickler, the SaaS platform that tracks, measures and optimises social commerce activity. Stickler can analyse and report on the success of influencers and individual campaigns to a level most marketers would only dream of. Launched with a Southeast Asian social commerce remit, Stickler is now moving quickly into the online travel, anticipating explosive growth.
The TikTok USA Conundrum
TikTok USA revenues are estimated at around $10bn. However, the future of the business is uncertain amid multiple legal and political challenges. Since his most recent inauguration, President Trump has twice delayed the enforced sale or closure of TikTok USA by executive order. The latest deadline is 19 June.
Buyers are jostling for position, including Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft (with Walmart), Elon Musk and even YouTuber MrBeast. AppLovin proposed a merger allowing ByteDance partial ownership, attempting to resolve security concerns. Meanwhile, TikTok’s fate has become intertwined with broader U.S.-China trade tensions.
Despite the turbulence, TikTok’s US business remains strong with around 136 million adult users in the United States – nearly half of the adult population. While recent data indicates a slight dip in user numbers following the platform’s 12-hour shutdown in January, TikTok remains a dominant force in the social media landscape, particularly among younger demographics.
Where Art Thou, Meta and Google?
The American platforms, with their vast, feature-rich toolkits, have been a little slower jumping on the travel bandwagon than the Chinese. So far.
Meta is testing fully native ecommerce in some areas, including travel. Its platforms have traditionally offered sophisticated ad options like “Travel Ads”, which can dynamically pull inventory into the feed. It also offers an array of "Book Now," "Reserve," and "Get Ticket" booking buttons. A great example is @hotel, the social commerce OTA enabling its 75m followers to book tens of thousands of hotels directly through Instagram and TikTok.
We asked Meta if they plan to compete head on with TikTok. If they are, they certainly didn’t want to tell us. But earlier this month, in an interview with Stratechery 's Ben Thompson, Mark Zuckerberg introduced the concept of "infinite creative," where businesses would provide Meta with their sales targets and bank account details, allowing Meta's AI systems to handle the rest - ad creation, targeting, measurement and transactions. Imagine how well that went down with the advertising community.
We think travel commerce is a neat fit, if Meta gets serious about it. But what about Alphabet?
Google has long been a player in travel commerce, with a serious arsenal of tools including Gemini, Google Search, Google Travel, Google Hotels, Google Flights and YouTube. Widely regarded by OTAs as a frenemy, Google is an uncomfortable bedfellow if you’re a travel operator, taking ad revenue from travel companies while competing with its customer by selling direct-to-consumer bookings.
The Mighty YouTube provides a source of travel inspiration, showcasing destinations, hotels, experiences, and travel tips. Travel companies are partnering with influencers on YouTube to drive traffic to external booking platforms. YouTube Shopping launched to allow creators to tag products in videos and livestreams. Now launching in Asia, YouTube Shopping is more retail-focused and should be able to move into travel commerce with Alphabet’s formidable suite of travel tools.
And now Google is testing travel ads in AI-generated search results by partnering with startups like iAsk. These ads appear in response to travel-related queries and include brands like Tripadvisor and Kayak, marking a new way to monetize AI search amid rising competition.
Despite Google’s market power, TikTok has created a massive disruption in the search space, with TikTok quickly becoming the preferred search engine for Gen Z and Millennials.
The Disconnected Trip
The vision of a "Connected Trip", famously articulated by Glen Fogel of Booking.com, promises a digitally seamless travel experience, integrating flights, accommodations, transportation, activities and payments into one unified platform. While this ambitious idea aims to offer end-to-end simplicity for travellers, today’s consumers still largely book fragmented trip components, often through social platforms, and piece itineraries together themselves.
The strength of the Connected Trip lies in its promise of ease and personalization. Advanced technology and data analytics enable platforms like Booking.com and Expedia to streamline travel, minimize friction, and deepen customer loyalty. This seamless integration could potentially enhance the user experience significantly, making travel planning more efficient and enjoyable.
Conversely, social media platforms currently offer what might be termed "Disconnected Trips." Platforms such as TikTok and Douyin excel at inspiring travel through engaging, algorithmically tailored content, but fall short when handling complex booking processes. Travelers drawn in by influencers' content create fragmented booking journeys spread across multiple external platforms, with limited customer support.
The ultimate winner between these two models depends on technological evolution. If social commerce platforms develop the sophisticated infrastructure needed - booking integrations, payment flexibility, inventory management, customer support, and AI-driven personalization - they could rival traditional OTAs. However, given the complexity of travel planning, we suspect the winners in this race will be the OTAs who couple social commerce and AI with well-priced content and customer service.
Stories from the Front Line
Says Stickler’s founder, Fionn Hyndman, “what started as top of the funnel marketing is now a conversion machine. Travel has unbridled growth ahead, and we are the platform of choice to measure ROI through social commerce channels.”
Toby Kennett, Co-Founder of Fabulate says "Influencers are no longer just inspiring travel—they’re selling it. As platforms like TikTok evolve, the gap between influence and transaction is closing fast."
Tourism New Zealand, the digital-first tourism authority is tasked with growing Chinese inbound visitors who are still hovering around 60% of pre-Covid numbers. CEO Rene de Monchy told us “Tourism NZ is campaigning hard on Chinese social commerce platforms and it’s working – we are getting bookings and numbers are rising.”
Mauricio Prieto, Co-Founder of eDreams told us “in a world that is changing fast, think about what hasn’t really changed. Trust is still an enormous currency – travellers with complex itineraries want to know there’s a human somewhere in the booking chain. The need to reduce anxiety doesn’t change.”
And our favourite quote, this time from Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder of WIT - Web in Travel: “buying travel on TikTok is not like buying face cream – travel is way more complex.”
This is Not an Existential Moment
The Social Commerce story is but one phenomenon affecting online travel. There’s another elephant in the room, and it’s called Agentic AI. Its already clear that AI travel agents are going to change the booking funnel and stitch travel itineraries together in ways we never dreamt of. But they currently suffer from the very same constraints that social commerce faces – complex itineraries and the need for vast interconnected tech stacks and customer service apparatus. (Agentic AI is such a big subject, we’ll cover it in a separate article. Watch this space!).
OTAs may well be approaching 30 years old but they’re sophisticated businesses with huge distribution and product inventories that they can offer at attractive prices. They offer consumers price discovery, and a means of escalating if things go wrong.
Importantly, they’ve lived through fundamental shifts before – from web to mobile and now to AI and Social Commerce. Change is just part of the journey.