Social Networking Watch

WAYN To Launch Dating Product

TNOOZ - Feb 8 - WAYN, the travel social network, is planning to unveil a dating service on St Valentine’s Day. A new site – WAYNDating.com – is live but has limited functionality, pointing visitors to the launch via a countdown clock. The launch will be revealed at a glitzy party in London on Friday night ahead of the service being switched on this weekend. FULL ARTICLE @ TNOOZ

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This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

WAYN At The SN Conference

PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 18 -- Co-CEOs Jerome Touze and Peter Ward of WAYN.com will be participating as speakers on September 22-23, 2008 at the next Social Networking Conference, taking place at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel Kensington and Conference Centre in London, UK. The European Social Networking Convention will focus on management and technology for the social networking and online personals industry in Europe. This includes internet, mobile, and enterprise social networking technologies. FULL ARTICLE @ THE EARTH TIMES

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WAYN's 'Build-Your-Own' Travel Community

PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 17 -- Travel, location and lifestyle social network WAYN.com (Where Are You Now?) launched a 3rd party whitelabel service. Select partners will be able to deliver own-branded versions of WAYN's unique location-based online community.

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WAYN To Be Close To Sale

TECH CRUNCH -- Jan 16 --  WAYN, the social network for travelers is allegedly in talks with AOL over a possible $200m sale. "We are absolutely not for sale. We've just launched a new version of our travel guides, with tonnes of content and new services", said Anika Erskine, WAYN's marketing manager. WAYN is one of the fastest growing travel and lifestyle social networking community sites in the UK and has a footprint in over 220 countries, with over nine million members. In 2006 the site received $11m in funding, including money from Brent Hoberman, co-founder of budget travel website Lastminute.com. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

WAYN.com Offers Users Affiliate Income

PRECISION MARKETING.CO.UK -- Nov 23 -- Affiliate marketing network Buy.at has joined forces with social network WAYN.com to allow users to make money through their profiles. WAYN.com users will be able to display products they want to recommend to friends in their profiles. When purchases are made users will receive commission from WAYN.com. FULL ARTICLE @ PRECISION MARKETING

Mark Brooks: Yub.com, which is owned by Buy.com, tried the same thing but never took off. Their Alexa rank is a lowly 300k. WAYN has a loyal following and an Alexa rank of 800. Perhaps they can make the bribe-your-userbase-to-refer-products model work. They're strong in the UK, are based in Poland, and are funded by the founder of FriendsReunited. 

This post also appears on FrequentFlirters.

WAYN Surpasses 10 Million Members

PR NEWSWIRE -- Nov 22 -- WAYN.com, a travel and lifestyle focused social network, became the 5th fastest-growing social network in the UK and 10th most popular social network, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. WAYN has grown from 45,000 users in March 2005 to over 10 million today. Top services on WAYN.com include travel guide and trip planning tools, such as photo and video sharing; interaction tools such as email, SMS and instant messenger, and forums. FULL ARTICLE @ EARTHTIMES

Mark Brooks: WAYN.com faltered at the beginning of 2007 after steady growth since 2005. See Alexa chart. The site was revamped and they dropped their paid membership. See September 2007 interview with Peter Ward, the CEO.  Also see June 2006 interview.

WAYN Expands Mobile Services

TRAVEL MOLE -- Nov 13 -- WAYN.com will allow users to access to two of it's most popular services, mail and travel guides, from their mobile phones as well as update their profiles. The company currently allows members to download a translation facility to their mobile phones for a fee. FULL ARTICLE @ TRAVEL MOLE

WAYN.com, Peter Ward - CEO Interview

SNW INTERVIEW -- Sep 27, 2007 -- WAYN is one of my favorite social networks.  I really like the map which shows where I've traveled to in the past, and the mails updating me on new people that are moving/traveling to town. I last interviewed Peter in June 2006. WAYN.com has dropped its paid membership program since then. Here's my latest interview with Pete. - Mark Brooks

How is WAYN unique?
WAYN is unique because it’s a social network that allows you to meet people based on where you are now, where you’ve been, and where you are going. If a Londoner is traveling to San Francisco and would like to see who else from London will be traveling to San Francisco that same weekend, they can log on to the site, run a search, and see which, say, 18-25 year old London females will be there. It allows them to plan their journey in advance.

That’s not the only reason why people use the service however, maybe you’re just interested in seeing who is coming to your hometown so you can show them around and have a bit of a cultural exchange. The core unique selling points of WAYN are location and travel. Rather than saying we are a niche player, I’d say we are a much more focused player that caters to the lifestyles of those who travel.

How many members does WAYN have and where are they now?
WAYN now has 9 million members around the world, 20% of which are predominantly in the U.K. We have almost another 20% in the U.S. and Canada as well. We have members traveling all over the place, but mostly people are still in their hometowns. They don’t travel all of the time.

We had about 4.3 million unique visitors last month. That number has grown from around 2 million a few months back, so we’ve literally doubled our growth in terms of unique visitors.

You no longer charge a membership fee. Why?
We still have a subscription element to the site, but we decided that the key focus for us moving forward is growth. A subscription-based model that limits interaction unless you pay wasn’t sustainable. We need to ensure that we are a scalable and growing business. So, with the help of our Chairman, Brent Hoberman, who has had a lot of experience growing online businesses, we decided to open up the integration and see what happens. We now provide a lot more features and services to all members, regardless of whether they’ve joined or not. And that seems to have been a very successful move for us. Since doing that, we’ve seen our page views per user double and the time spent online actually double also. It’s clearly had a very positive impact on the usage of the site.

We are looking to maintain the subscription element and currently are in the process of recalibrating that model. Those who upgrade will benefit from a number of both online and off-line services and benefits. For example, a U.K. VIP member will receive free annual multi-trip travel insurance across Europe, along with other benefits such as free trials of downloadable language translators and free cocktails in bars around the world.

We’re also building up a network of partners who are interested in providing our large community of traveling members with certain benefits when they come to that particular destination; 2-for-1 restaurant offers, entrance tp nightclubs, free cocktails in bars etc. We see that as a great way of providing the traveler with a number of things to do when they get to their destination, along with the ability to meet the people with whom they’ve interacted on the site. From our research we know that many of our members are interested in that kind of service.

That sounds like a worldwide version of the Entertainment Book.
Absolutely. I think we see the potential in ultimately becoming the most useful travel and lifestyle portal. We started off as a pure social network with a traveling slant, but we are clearly focusing on how we can build that service into something that is much more valuable both online and off-line to our users.

Are you profitable at this stage?
That’s a very good question and we’ve decided to invest more than we’re making. When we changed the model, our subscription element took a big hit and advertising is taking some time to ramp up. The good news is that the advertising revenue that we’re generating is growing 25% month-on-month, so we’re really getting close to the point where we can see the growth in the long run being much more exponential and valuable than where we were before. I think we have taken a short-term step back in terms of revenues but have benefited from the growth and ultimately long-term revenue potential from the business.

Now the site is very international. How are you monetizing abroad?
We use a network of agencies who have the local expertise in their particular geography. We’ve recently signed up with a fantastic agency in the U.S. that is more premium focused than the average network, and they focus on the travel sector, which is also more lucrative. We’re working with them to come up with some innovative campaigns that will really drive value for our clients without inhibiting the user experience of our members.

We’re also partnering with other agencies in key geographies. In fact, India is one of our fastest-growing markets representing around 8% of our overall traffic. We’re partnering with one of the leading media companies over there to grow our brand and opportunities in that geography.

What do you have planned for 2008?
For 2008 we have a lot of exciting new features and offerings coming to WAYN. In the next few months alone, each week we have several announcements of both new partners and new functionalities that we’re bringing to the site. I think you’ll see a fuller service in terms of travel in particular. We’ll be integrating with some of the leading travel service providers and launching new travel-related products. We’re looking to grow products such as insurance, hotels, hostels, and experiences. In short, there will be a newly-refreshed and fully-interactive travel guide that will let users not only find out who has been and who is going to certain places, but also share their experiences and add them to their trips.

WAYN Unveils New Website

TRAVOLUTION --July 13 -- WAYN.com re-launched this week offering communication tools free of charge. Previously, WAYN worked on a subscription model, but flagging growth, tough competition, and input from its investors, led Wayn to rethink its strategy. The site now ranks 570 on Alexa. WAYN will still work on a subscription-based model for added services, but the plan is to garner the bulk of the company's revenues from advertising WAYN currently counts 8.4 million members worldwide. FULL ARTICLE @ TRAVOLUTION

WAYN.com Improvements

OPW -- WAYN.com, one of my favorite social network, has introduced a new layout, along with...

• Friends News: Keep up to date on what your friends are up to!
• New toolbar: Improved navigation and direct links to our many different services!
• Birthday's: Instant reminders so you can't forget!
• Quiz: Check how well you really know your friends!
• Friends of Friends: find out how you are all connected!

WAYN Ties up With Kayak.com

EYE FOR TRAVEL -- Mar 27 -- Travel and lifestyle online community WAYN (Where Are You Now) has signed a strategic partnership with Kayak to offer a comprehensive flight search service for its eight million members. FULL ARTICLE @ EYE FOR TRAVEL

WAYN Secures $11 Million

PR NEWSWIRE -- Nov 27 -- Where Are You Now? (WAYN) raised $11 million in Series A funding from a syndicate of investors led by Esprit Capital Partners. Brent Hoberman, co-founder of lastminute.com; Adrian Critchlow and Andy Phillipps, co-founders of Active Hotels, sold to Priceline in 2004; David Soskin, CEO, and Hugo Burge, Vice Chairman, of Cheapflights; and Constant Tedder, co-founder and Managing Director of Jagex, which runs RuneScape, the UK's largest online multi-player game.  The funding will be used to create new revenue streams, expand the team - particularly in Poland where WAYN's back office operations are managed; enlarge the geographical base of the company and increase the range of online and offline products offered, including a tailored trip planner.  Based in London, WAYN unites travelers from around the world. Founded in 2002 by friends Pete Ward, Jerome Touze and Mike Lines, WAYN secured initial funding from Steve Pankhurst, founder of Friends Reunited in 2003. Membership has grown from 45,000 users in March 2005 to 7 million today. Recent research by eMarketers has revealed that advertising spend on social networking sites is set to top $1.8 billion by 2010. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Viacom Buys Quizilla (Female Teens Social Network)

YAHOO NEWS -- Oct 16 -- Viacom's MTV Networks is buying Quizilla.com, a top five community for female teenagers to create and share quizzes, fictions, poetry and other content. Quizilla was started in 2002 and draws 4.7 million uniques (comScore) around the world.  In August, MTVN bought Shockwave.com and AddingtingGames.com. In September, Nickelodeon launched ParentsConnect.com. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Mark Brooks: Users first joined social networks (Friendster) to check out their friends buddy lists. But they needed something more. MySpace beat Friendster because of their connection with music. WAYN.com is doing well (and charging membership) by allowing users to express their travel interests. Quizilla is perfect for MTV, and I bet they got a good deal on this slightly 'off the radar' site. They have mopped up a sizable batch of market key influencers.  Social networking sites will niche out around demographic targets, interests and we could still see a technology leader emerge with some next generation compelling functionality. I'm still waiting for the 'iPod' of social networks.