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Name: SpotWorld
Quick Pitch: SpotWorld helps users discover the best travel spots anywhere in the world via iPhone.
Genius Idea: Travel guides for a mobile, social generation.
With Facebook’s and Twitter’s social graphs, startups in the travel category are reinventing the way the world goes on vacation. Airbnb is perhaps the most prominent standout, but there’s also a crop of up-and-coming startups — Wanderfly and Gtrot come to mind — with a fresh, social media-infused approach to travel.
Add newcomer SpotWorld, which launched its iPhone app just weeks ago, to the list; it’s taking a hybrid mobile and social approach to reinventing the age-old concept of travel guides.
The two-person company was envisioned by startup veterans Joseph Chong, formerly of PayPal and AdBrite, and Shashank Likhite, previously with social gaming startup Playdom.
“We love to travel. We love going places. We’ve lived all over … and we’ve traveled the world,” says Chong. “But, there’s this universal travelers’ dilemma: ‘How do i discover the best travel spots where I’m going?’”
He points to dated guide books, ill-informed hotel concierges and lengthy web searches as common symptoms of the traveler’s conundrum. “The most trusted information is recommendations from friends,” says Chong, “and the better way to solve this problem is with mobile.”
SpotWorld’s mobile travel guide is a location-aware application designed for place and itinerary discovery at over 500,000 places around the world. Users can fire up the app for quick, nearby spot checks, browse far-away destinations or popular itineraries, and build their own itineraries.
“What makes us different is that the app works in popular destinations all over the world,” Chong says.
Users can create, define and add to their itineraries as they browse, pulling from destination photo tours, popular itineraries or friends’ favorite places. These itineraries can be saved for personal use, published and shared with the SpotWorld community or shared with friends on Facebook.
And while SpotWorld is a travel app for travelers, it could be a handy tool to use for uncovering hidden gems in your own neighborhood.
“Users will pull up popular spots near them and discover something new,” Chong says. “That’s the experience that has really delighted users and keeps them coming back.”
SpotWorld also houses a number of subtle novelties, including a feature called “Been There.” Users can browse through the application and mark places they’ve been with the Been There button and build out a place history. The feature, says Chong, has been surprisingly popular with users, and so the startup recently added the ability for users to share their Been There maps with friends on Facebook.
Weeks old, SpotWorld has already netted Apple’s coveted approbation: It’s been featured on the homepage of the App Store in 61 countries and, at one point, was the top travel app in 12 countries.
Now the nascent bootstrapped startup is looking to raise growth capital so it can build on its early momentum and deliver engaging features for each of the three stages of travel: pre, during and post.
Post Source: http://mashable.com/
Name: SpotWorldQuick Pitch: SpotWorld helps users discover the best travel spots anywhere in the world via iPhone.
Genius Idea: Travel guides for a mobile, social generation.
With Facebook’s and Twitter’s social graphs, startups in the travel category are reinventing the way the world goes on vacation. Airbnb is perhaps the most prominent standout, but there’s also a crop of up-and-coming startups — Wanderfly and Gtrot come to mind — with a fresh, social media-infused approach to travel.
Add newcomer SpotWorld, which launched its iPhone app just weeks ago, to the list; it’s taking a hybrid mobile and social approach to reinventing the age-old concept of travel guides.
The two-person company was envisioned by startup veterans Joseph Chong, formerly of PayPal and AdBrite, and Shashank Likhite, previously with social gaming startup Playdom.
“We love to travel. We love going places. We’ve lived all over … and we’ve traveled the world,” says Chong. “But, there’s this universal travelers’ dilemma: ‘How do i discover the best travel spots where I’m going?’”
He points to dated guide books, ill-informed hotel concierges and lengthy web searches as common symptoms of the traveler’s conundrum. “The most trusted information is recommendations from friends,” says Chong, “and the better way to solve this problem is with mobile.”
SpotWorld’s mobile travel guide is a location-aware application designed for place and itinerary discovery at over 500,000 places around the world. Users can fire up the app for quick, nearby spot checks, browse far-away destinations or popular itineraries, and build their own itineraries.
“What makes us different is that the app works in popular destinations all over the world,” Chong says.
Users can create, define and add to their itineraries as they browse, pulling from destination photo tours, popular itineraries or friends’ favorite places. These itineraries can be saved for personal use, published and shared with the SpotWorld community or shared with friends on Facebook.
And while SpotWorld is a travel app for travelers, it could be a handy tool to use for uncovering hidden gems in your own neighborhood.
“Users will pull up popular spots near them and discover something new,” Chong says. “That’s the experience that has really delighted users and keeps them coming back.”
SpotWorld also houses a number of subtle novelties, including a feature called “Been There.” Users can browse through the application and mark places they’ve been with the Been There button and build out a place history. The feature, says Chong, has been surprisingly popular with users, and so the startup recently added the ability for users to share their Been There maps with friends on Facebook.
Weeks old, SpotWorld has already netted Apple’s coveted approbation: It’s been featured on the homepage of the App Store in 61 countries and, at one point, was the top travel app in 12 countries.
Now the nascent bootstrapped startup is looking to raise growth capital so it can build on its early momentum and deliver engaging features for each of the three stages of travel: pre, during and post.
Post Source: http://mashable.com/
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