AirTroduction : Travel social networking in the air. Interview de Peter, founder of AirTroduction
AirTroductions est un site de travel social networking pour les passagers des Cies aériennes.
Foundé par Peter, le site possède déjà plus de 21 500 abonnés et a récemment levé des fonds financiers pour son développement avec une nouvelle version du site et des nouveaux services à l'horizon été 2007.
Positionné en priorité sur le marché US, AirTroductions exploite une belle niche avec du potentiel : les voyageurs des Cies aériennes.
Prochainement des services pour d'autres acteurs de la chaîne du tourisme.
Peter nous présente AirTroductions.
>Peter, you are the founder of a very original travel 2.0 web site, airtroductions.com., Can you tell us the story and some fact about it?
AirTroductions was founded after hundreds of bad flights sitting next to people who drove me insane. It occurred to me that we were all wasting time on the airplane, when we could be meeting, connecting, networking, and the like.
>Can you give us some outline about your goals with airtroductions.com.!
The #1 goal of AirTroductions is simply to have a better flight.
> Who use airtroductions.com? Any special profil and country for airtroductions.com individuals & community users?
AirTroductions is used world-wide, by thousands of people across all life-spans. From college students to business travelers to families with children to widowers.
>Any advises for people who start to use airtroductions.com !
Fill out your profile!! Without that, no one can know anything about you!
> airtroductions.com is a social travel network, a travel dating network? How do you make money to run this Travel 2.0 business?
AirTroductions is indeed a social network. Money is made when you find someone to contact – it's a $5.00 fee to contact them and if they agree, change your seat.
> What are the main advantage to use airtroductions.com?
It lets you avoid the psychological hell that comes with sitting next to someone for 10 hours you don't know.
> What are the top 5 users for airtroductions.com?
Business travelers
Vacationers
Families
Students
Singles
>Internet is going faster and we talk now about Web 2.0 and Travel 2.0. What do you think about this evolution in the tourism & hotel market place ? Word-of-mouth marketing and User Generated Content are the big trends for Travel 2.0 ?
We see AirTroductions as the tip of the iceberg. As we continue to grow as a community, we'll see more and more people using the web for virtually everything – from setting up flight companions to arranging dinners. This is just the beginning.
>We see important impact of news technologies (RSS, AJAX, podcast, blog, socialnetworking tools, Google mashup,Vidéo etc), what is your point of view ?
Any technology that makes life easier is a good thing.
>What about your developpment and project for airtroductions.com?
We've just received venture capital, and we're anxiously looking forward to the growth of the site to encompass not only travel, but life as a whole.
> Can hotels and other tourism professional become airtroductions.com Partners?.
Of course! We'd love that!
>What are your personal taste for:
>Travel:
Continental Airlines, Virgin's Upper Class
>Travel destination:
Phuket, Thailand, and any major city. Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, and Los Angeles are my favorites, after my home of New York, NY
>Hotel :
W Hotel in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and the Hyatt Regency Tokyo
>Business:
I skydive in my spare time. If I thought I could make money at it, I'd give everything else up.
>You have the micro
I just wrote a book called "Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts and Why Your Company Needs Them." It's on Amazon, and it's doing surprisingly well. That's always exciting to see. The only downside of traveling as much as I do is that I tend to miss my two cats.