Project Description: |
Innovative Travel Marketing System Tim Nguyen seemytrip@gmail.com BUSINESS DESCRIPTION Seemytrip comprises a B2B and B2C solution that provides an efficient, mutually beneficial platform for mapping enthusiasts, independent travelers, packaged tourists and travel suppliers to record and create visually stunning presentations of their trips. We expect to be the de-facto provider of a service that is presently unavailable. Through our very easy-to-use graphical interface, users of our system will be able to bring a journey to life with interactive maps tracing each step of the trip by including photo albums, diaries, and personalized music. Seemytrip¡¯s revenue will be from membership, partnership and advertising. Once established in Asia, Seemytrip will expand to North America, Europe and South America. Our business concept stems from the realization of Nine marketplace trends: 1: A new travel trend is emerging; a growing number of travellers are using travellers' online journals, known as travel blogs, to plan their trips according to the European Travel Commission report (Feb 2005) . 2: The travel segment comprising of 18-34 year olds independent, educated, and computer literate travelers is a fast growing trend. 3: The highest ranked and most frequently visited travel websites are interactive mapping websites. Ex: Multimap.com, Mapquest.com. 4: The targeted segment of 18-34 year old are the quickest to embrace interactive multimedia content on the internet, and therefore want a more engaging and personalized way to view and present travel over the web. 5: The internet has become the most important influence over travel purchases for travelers, surpassing television and print media. 6: Online advertising spending in 2004 was $7.2 billion and is projected to increase by 20.2% in 2005 reaching $11.3 billion by year¡¯s end. 7: The market for travel agent¡¯s services is sizeable. Total sales from the 45 countries researched by Euromonitor was US$389.7 Billion in 2003. 8: Travel agencies have begun to move away from the brick-and-mortar model, recognize the burgeoning customer base being generated by the internet and pre-empt the market with innovative products that give them an edge over the competition. 9: Package tours represents a large share of travel agency¡¯s profit and is growing steadily. MARKET AND INCOME Seemytrip's revenue stream will be from the following: 1. Membership Fees from travel agencies. 2. Membership Fees from Independent Travelers. 3. Banner ads, google type text ads and sponsorships. 4. Website design and interactive map design. 5. Geotargetting advertising services. 6. Online focus groups and consumer research surveys. Our market share is approximately $US 500 million/year. COMPETITIVE EDGE: Seemytrip¡¯s competitive edge stems from five sources: technology, pricing, alliances, content and community. 1. Technology: unlike other interactive tour creation services, Seemytrip¡¯s system is based on Flash as opposed to html or Javascript (google maps). This means that our tour contents (maps, hotels, attractions, transport) are fully interactive and is rich with animation capabilities. As a result, our solution meet the customer¡¯s demand for animated virtual tour presentations that can be easily created and customized. Furthermore, we developed proprietary techniques for creating customized animated interactive maps that is quick to download and highly scalable. 2. Pricing: As of now, only the largest online travel agencies such as Expedia and Travelocity possess the budget necessary to create virtual tours. Our service debunks the myth that only the biggest agencies can afford large-impact solutions by providing all agencies, large and small alike, with the ability to create very attractive tours with little assistance from our staff, and at a very low price relative to our competitors. 3.Alliance: To ensure success, and to effectively promote our system, we will create strong bonds with key tour operators, travel agencies and travel industry organizations. Because of first-mover advantage and our contacts within the travel industry, we are well positioned to create an effective barrier to entry for competitors. 4. Content. Seemytrip¡¯s unique map based system encourages our members to create rich geographically based travel information (also support GPS entries). Thus, Seemytrip¡¯s library of geographically tagged information represents a barrier to entry and a source of revenue. 5. Community. To ensure success, Seemytrip will create a vibrant community between travel services providers, technology and travelers consumers. Because of first-mover advantage, we are well positioned to create this barrier. MANAGEMENT TEAM: The management team consists of friends who share one another's dreams and passions to drive forward. The founders have extensive experience in start-up management, e-commerce, finance, marketing, travel, and operations. In addition, plans to enlist the expertise of angel investors and professional management to augment the team. Tim Nguyen has over 20 years in IT and software design. Roy Graff has over 9 years of experience in the Travel industry. He was the Beijing Director of E-commerce - China Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA). POTENTIAL EXIT SCENARIOS: Two potential exit strategies exist for the investor: 1. Initial Public Offering. We seek to go public within 3 years of operations. The funds used will both help create liquidity for investors as well as allow for additional capital to develop our international strategy. 2. Acquisition Merger with Private or Public Company. Several websites are targeting our consumers; however, they lack the innovative offerings of our site. Value has been created through our interactive trip recording and presentation platform as well as partnering with groups such as Cendant, Diethelm, TUI, American Express. The content and the eyeballs bring value to Portals such as Yahoo, Google, MSN and large travel conglomerates. INVESTOR OPPORTUNITY: We are currently in the final stages of alpha testing and expect to launch within six months. We are seeking $US 750,000 for 20% shares. |
