Dopplr is a social network aimed at business travelers. By just this defination the creativity and effort put behind the project is not very clear.

Although once you get the chance to signup to it, you will understand the pain and effort which has gone into preparing this network. For starters the usability is spot on. Some examples:

• Add a trip: It allows you to type a location and once you finish typing it suggests possible locations.

• Focus on Travel: In my opinion a niche social network should do what its there for example: Flixster deal with movie, Flickr - Pictures. Dopplr does exactly what it says on the tin and shows you the places you are about to travel.

• Suggests Coincidences: You can see who might be at the same location as you at a given time.

• Recommendations: But I think Dopplr really hits the spot is with its recommendation engine. Dopplr suggests what you should do in the city you are about to visit, based on others recommendation.

There are also other features which are very attractive. Example: Inviting through other networks like Gmail, Twitter, Flickr and Microformats.

An excellent team and good quality investors has indeed helped to create the buzz:

Tags: Dopplr, Business, Social Network

I blogged about it earlier and now the moment of truth RESULT TIME ! I’m glad Kwiqq is one of the companies going to San Francisco with the delegation.

Overall the judge’s feedback was very positive:

 Some of the companies I’m looking forward to meet:

Coull - Interactive video platform

Byteplay (dotHomes) - Real estate search engine

Hubdub - News prediction social network

WAYN - travel and lifestyle social networking community

TrustedPlaces - Venue recommendation network

Mydeo - Mainstream application for storing and sharing video

Silobreaker - Contextual and graphic search results

edocr - Making business documents interactive

Companies who made it

Blogged with Flock

Tags: WebMission08, San Francisco, TCUK

There are several ways to monetise your social network, especially when you have over 10 million users. WAYN last week announced :

a deal that will see its members offered a branded pre-pay credit card.

The traveller’s network has agreed the partnership, with Tuxedo Money Solutions, to allow its 10.8m users to sign up to the card.

It makes sense to offer credit cards to frequent travellers. I wonder if they have an affiliate deals with other credit card companies too. As I can see Capital One’s ads on their site:

Blogged with Flock

Tags: WAYN, Tuxedo Money, Credit Cards, Capital One

Kwiqq has just released the financial benefits one of its social networks for 2wentys, First Choice’s youth brand.

The 2wentysworld community was built with the aim of increasing internet channel share as they are significantly more profitable for First Choice. Participation by users has transformed into increased internet channel share by strongly linking 2wentysworld to First Choice’s sales website.

Since it’s standing start launch in April 2007 2wentysworld has made a significant contribution to internet channel share and the prospects for 2008 are bright.

As the graph indicates (above) 2wentys bookings were significantly improved in 2007 over 2006. As 2wentys marketing campaign had not changed from 2006 the 5% or greater improvement in the months following the April launch of 2wentysworld can be attributed to the social networking effects of 2wentysworld.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: SocialNetworking Financial Benefits 2wentys First Choice