Comments on: HereOrThere is nowhere – 681 members after a year

By: bebek oyunlarÄ±

bebek oyunlarÄ± — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:37:17 +0000

So it’s the Ecademy of Social travel sites then.

By: john m howitt

john m howitt — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:22:15 +0000

So it’s the Ecademy of Social travel sites then.

By: Ollie Toogood

Ollie Toogood — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:22:26 +0000

I think we should all be careful before commenting on others businesses and their dealings. These are very tricky and testing times, let’s work together and help each other. Information is sensitive and should be respected as such. Happy Christmas to one & all.

By: Hugo Burge

Hugo Burge — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:02:12 +0000

At least this started an interesting discussion – I agree, helpful to test things on the side and see whether they strike a cord – appreciate Alex’s comments. It wasn’t something we were going to start inside Cheapflights and I loved some of the early players in the space and thought we could do it better/ differently. Unfortunately I had to effectively pull the plug on this one before getting to the key differentiators around inspiration. I got close to some v interesting partnerships – close but no cigar. It is a very crowded space, with a mind boggling number of smaller players who started around the same time.

On traffic point I’ll quantify puny: 10-15k in users per month, mostly from Google with only about 30% in the US. Folks are not staying because I have not been nurturing the community (which is essential in the early stages).

Maybe I should have killed it by now to avoid grim headlines like the one on this article but I don’t see any harm in letting it stay live for a bit longer esp as there is some great content on there. Might keep it up my sleeve in case the right opportunity comes along.

By: Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:16:52 +0000

Ed – I already said they were US figures and the founder himself says the site is “puny and an unutterable failure”. Need more?

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:13:28 +0000

I’m not sure a Compete graph is the right metric to support your argument. From their own FAQ Compete measures only US users

http://www.compete.com/help/q18

By: Alex Bainbridge

Alex Bainbridge — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:52:50 +0000

You need to have a few personal projects to try things out…..

Its the yacht vs super tanker discussion – learn how to make decisions on sites that are easy to adjust – before you have to make the serious decisions that take 6 months ++ to work come to fruition.

I shut down my fun project site (RSS recasting thingy) (after it was reviewed by MA on global TC)….. lucky I got away without it being deadpooled!

Anyone who doesn’t have a few personal web projects isn’t trying hard enough!

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:51:50 +0000

As a keen traveller, the space is very crowded where travel experiences are concerned. At one point we seemed to see trip start-ups appearing everywhere. I only use one or two sites to help inspire me or share my experiences, and tend to stick to them.

It’ll need something unique for me ‘jump ship’ and as for creating a blog about my travels, I have enough on my plate ranting about the travel industry!

By: Hugo Burge

Hugo Burge — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:44:30 +0000

No Probs. A delight to share my failures

I’m reluctant to shut it down in case the right opportunity comes along. Right now it is just hanging out at the cross roads.

By: Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:12:53 +0000

Thanks for responding Hugo.

By: Hugo Burge

Hugo Burge — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:50:29 +0000

Hi All

Me here! Would have been great to speak to you Mike before your posting (I just got back to see your email to me earlier today). This article is not correct and Crunch Base is off the mark somewhat.

Agree, the membership is puny and an unutterable failure

This site was a personal project where I dropped the ball long ago. I had plans for it that did not come to fruition (which included a potential fusion of cash from HOWZAT), so I have just been letting it lie to see if anything evolved whilst I focussed on bigger fish. You win some; you lose some.

Re: questions about WAYN. Yes, I became an investor in WAYN after the initial ball was rolling on hereorthere.com but the vision was always totally different. I saw WAYN as the myspace of travel with a driving force of dating. Luckily WAYN has gone on to see some amazing successes.

Happy to talk more about any of this. Learnt some lessons.

bests

Hugo

By: Scott Jones

Scott Jones — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:47:55 +0000

Pretty sure that Hugo is involved in WAYN too?

By: Zee

Zee — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:46:39 +0000

Oh dear, that is pretty poor…