EyeforTravel Research Case Study
The School of Mobile Vol. 2 - The Detail
Going Forward: lastminute.com’s next steps
own knowledge base so as to offer a be�er service.
in mobile
lastminute.com is about offering exci�ng, inspiring
things for people to do and giving them experiences.
Over �me, lastminute.com want to increase the There is a good slice of that that translates beau�fully
func�onality of their mobile offerings by adding the to mobile.
ability to book �ckets or special offers, which is only
focused on products and services that are available
“This is also about extension, if we find a type of
and able to be purchased in the next few days.
experience that can be delivered flawlessly through
mobile we will look into this even if it would not
These kinds of offerings will be great for both people have been a priority for our desktop based site.
travelling to a different city, having it in their local Over �me the desktop versus mobile offerings do
language and providing them with some help. But, diverge somewhat as the requirements are different.
this is also crucial when one is in their home city, but We have an assump�on that mobile will become
the offering is slightly different. increasingly important over the next few years. That
is the goal. We feel that it will s�ll be relevant to
For example, as a traveller while you may have
create a separate experience for these smaller screen
internet access , as a visitor you may not know which
devices.”
websites to visit, where to seek recommenda�ons

and so forth. lastminute.com wants to provides
- Marko Balabanovic, lastminute.com
assistance through mobile no ma�er where the
consumer is. This leads to lastminute.com ge�ng
In the short to mid term the small screen experience
smarter about recommending products and services
is different enough that it needs to be treated
in light of the travellers context. i.e. loca�on, the
as a unique case. Looking at the other end of
social networks they use, the weather, the �me of
lastminute.com’s business (booking a city break),
day, and other informa�on they choose to share. This
people are willing to si� through a large amount of
is clearly tailored to each individual and becomes a
info and compare across websites and so even in the
process of connec�ng the different social elements
long term some of these ac�vi�es will be difficult to
together.
transfer to a small screen device so it is crucial to
know what should be mobilised and what should not
lastminute.com plan to leverage their brand using
be mobilised.
exis�ng social networks, while working to build their
Limita�ons/constraints

• The fact is, it is s�ll expensive to use the mobile internet while one is travelling. There is some concern that targe�ng
services to people who are travelling is going to mean that when they arrive home, they are welcomed back with a huge
bill. At least, this is what travellers believe and as such, they do not in fact use the services.
• Also, there is the problem of fragmenta�on. Building specific applica�ons for specific pla�orms to take advantage of
par�cular func�onality and advantages of a par�cular handset class to get presence through an app store is great but it
is not a long-term strategy. In the long term It will be much more viable to have services available via a mobile website.
However, in the short term it is necessary to devote resources to taking advantages of specific opportuni�es related to
a given device class/pla�orm.
• Examining widgets, there seems to be a new one every week which can be frustra�ng as it requires separate
development for each one. lastminute.com have developed a regular website, one for touchscreen phones with
an iPhone style and are now looking at switching everything to this second type of interface. A graphic style that
people prefer. A single mobile web look and basic func�onality which is be�er than mul�ple mobile web offerings.
lastminute.com can only do this by dropping support for some of the older handsets but their usage figures are showing
that only a miniscule number (ge�ng smaller) of the users of their mobile offerings even have these older handsets.
Also the people with the newer handsets are more closely linked to lastminute.com’s target audience.
• Another confusion is at what point do you merge mobile with your desktop website. Where is the boundary? The
strategy for SEO gets very confusing. Google does not like companies actually having a separate mobile website but
everyone does. What to do with regards to search engines on mobile is a big worry right now as even the search engines
do not know where they are going….
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