TravelMole Q&A with WAYN co-founder

Jerome Touze, co-founder and director of Where Are You Know, shares his views on the Web 2.0 phenomenon, how to commercialise it and advice for the trade. by Linda Fox

Q: Why is social networking having such an impact on travel?

A: I think it started with class reunions, then social networks and more sites about your friends. We looked at it and wanted to make it a bit more niche. You are only going to have so many myspace and entrepreneurs are constantly trying to look for new ideas. It’s amazing when you travel you meet so many people and back in 2001 when we had no idea about the web we had a vision of a map visualising where your friends are. It’s surprising that it’s only recently that we are seeing websites starting to do what we are doing and establishing communities for employees internally. For every industry there is going to be a community and travel is one of the biggest industries in terms of online transactions.

Q: How does WAYN make money?

A: We are a subscription-based business. People said making money was about advertising but what happens if it collapses and you’re relying on one model. The site is not just about interaction it’s about getting access to a number of features you would not otherwise have. It’s getting harder now to justify the subscription with sites offering similar things so we’re going to revamp the strategy. It will be a balance of the momentum we have built up and the interaction and other revenue streams. At the moment 70% of what we make is subscriptions and 30% is advertising and advertising is going to become more important. If we open up the door it will bring in more people and create more page impressions and that will enable us to provide an increased level of targeted information.

Q: Can a site like WAYN ever be mass-market because of its niche appeal?

A: Our demographics are interesting. We have a good balance of users – 28% are between 18 and 25 years old and 28% are between 25 and 35 years old but six percent of our eight million subscribers are above the age of 55 and 45% earn more than £35,000. People don’t necessarily use the site just for travel they use it to see who is coming to town this weekend. It’s travel and dating and the dating element is extremely strong in every social network. It’s human nature but people don’t want to admit it. For us it already is mass market in terms of demographics but it won’t really be mass market until get to 100 million subscribers.

Q: Who in the UK is doing social networking well?

A: Tripadvisor is the best example. When it comes to travel reviews and finding the best advice people are not going to WAYN they are going to tripadvisor. One of the things you can’t do on tripadvisor is find out who the person is and have some interaction with them but they have just announced the creation of a social networking platform. We get ideas from these sites on how we can become a much more valuable and interesting proposition. In the UK we have yet to see someone really doing it and we’re the biggest but what about a myspace or facebook adding a travel dimension to their sites or someone like the Guardian. Many sites have started to do it in the UK.

Q: What are your predictions for travel online this year?

A: People need to start to realise that social networking is more of an opportunity than a threat. It’s a complementary service. We would like to syndicate our content and bring a social dimension to supplier sites and keep people on them for longer because it also brings people back to our site. The year is going to be interesting from a general online perspective and whether we are going to continue to see the high valuations or will there be a reality check.

Q: What advice would you offer to a travel company wanting to take advantage of social networking?

A: Lots of companies are trying to build their own communities internally – Web 2.0 is easy to embrace and does not cost a lot. I would rather see affiliate deals with existing companies because the industry will be very different in a 18 months and building something from scratch may not be the best way. Sometimes the people who appear to be the underdogs drive the returns. The market is hot now and you can raise money but for how long?