Blog homeThis week I was at FOWA (Future of Web Apps) in London. Very good it was as well….. with one of many highlights being the live filming of Diggnation - with 1200 people in the crowd. Think a geeky version of the Rocky Horror Show plus beer . Really, I am not going to explain that.
Apart from all the Web2.0 stuff (like building communities, new web technologies etc) there were some great insights from leading web entrepreneurs. Frankly, this kind of conference beats travel industry conferences hands down. I am not going to write about any of that because, well, other people already have….. I hate reinventing wheels. Besides, you can find many of the slides at Slideshare
One of the many interesting presentations was by Matt Dibbulph from Dopplr. They are currently beta testing a new travel social network along the lines of WAYN (Where Are You Now) - in that users say where they are, what they are doing and where they are going. This lets people meet up….. for example say you are at a conference in Japan and one of your friends is there (but you didn’t realise it before) - you could see this from the future trips mechanism….. that kind of thing…
This year I have now heard WAYN speak at two conferences (both Travel Technology Initiative - London) and Dopplr once. Of course you can’t evaluate too much from what people say at a conference - because that depends slightly on what their target audience is about (whether they are a business audience or a technology one)…. however I will give it a go!
These thoughts are from my own perspective and are NOT what Matt was talking about in his presentation….. i.e. I am not quoting him, right?
WAYN - Where are you now
- 8 Million users
- 2nd largest social network in the UK (and larger than Friends Reunited)
- Their talks were mainly about how the travel industry can work with them….. i.e. by buying advertising as well as history of their projects
- VC backed by Howzat Media, a well known VC fund for travel web 2.0 projects (from the backers of Cheapflights). These VCs know about successful advertising funded companies within the global travel industry.
Dopplr
- Beta launch (not public yet)
- Matt was passionate about technology and all the uses of their system seem to be very elegantly executed. Other people thought that as well
- Site built to be incorporated into 3rd party services and systems via open standards, widgets and all sorts of other mechanisms.
- I fear that perhaps they are too worried about being technically perfect while letting WAYN go ahead and build a network of users that may be difficult to catch up over time
- VC backed by US based “Silicon valley” expert VCs (see more detail). These VCs know about successful social networks and web companies.
So looks like a classic battle ahead - both funded, both with similar solutions - one with a great and powerful userbase, one with a technically elegant solution and the backing of the “digerati”.
However their strategies both seem a little different. WAYN seems to come across as wanting to work within the travel industry…. which is where their money will come from in the end (advertising etc)….. however Dopplr don’t seem to have any revenue concepts at all (or none they want to share yet!). Indeed, with Dopplr being web service based - there are less “pages” that can hold advertising.
Dopplr also seems to be taking the strategy that if you can get digital thought leaders using their service (for example adding widgets to their blogs, using it to track their travel etc) then the main web population will follow (and subsequently everyday people). WAYN have gone for the everyday people first….. and seem to have got there - but perhaps if users perceive that Dopplr is more fashionable (because the digerati are using it) then perhaps this will cause people to move service.
Both can survive….. and in boxing terms it is certainly round #1 to WAYN however I think that maybe Dopplr can get there in the end because their foundations look better and more future looking. The big question is whether by WAYN having 8 million users already that they can keep pushing ahead making life difficult for Dopplr.
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