E-business courseBusiness Model AnalysisSept. 26, 2009

Magali Beauregard

Boo: Description of business• Principle: Travel 2.0• A Community with members: Boo wants to be a

worldwide exchange platform for people who travel.• Provide the visitors with useful travel advice

▫ Guides, reviews, maps, photos & recommendations for hotels, restaurants and bars.

• Over 2,500 destinations worldwide.• Search engine & Comparison engine

• Partnerships with other websites: ex.: events by eventful

• Recommended hotels, restaurants & bars (crew review)

Solving problems for:

The customer group served

• Target: Active Web users.

• Same principle as Facebook, twitter etc.

→ A community: The boo crew

• See the Social Technographics Ladder: • Boo targets every

people active on the Web

• Relies deeply on the critics and creators

Revenue sources

• Partnerships, such as with Eventful • Advertising: Hotels, restaurants and bars

• Credibility of the nature of advice?• Not only crew reviews: Also a Profit-driven

platform• Might be dangerous for the plaform, for such

communities depend largely on customers’ TRUST

Examples of Competitors

• Le Guide du Routard:www.routard.com

Same services: information on destinations, accomodations, advice from web users (forums)

• Tripwolf: http://www.tripwolf.com/

A social network such as Boo, same business model (+ direct advertsing)

Can this model apply offline or is it unique to the Web?

•Boo works as a Social Network.•For example, it enables customers to:

▫Publish photos they took▫Write articles or reviews▫Post ratings/reviews▫Etc.

•Therefore, as all social networks, it is UNIQUE TO THE WEB.

Sustainability of the business Model• Travel is all about experience.• Therefore, I personally believe the original idea behind

the concept is good (enabling the customers to exchange with other members and trying to save their time by providing a single platform).

• BUT I can think of many problems:▫ Travel covers so many areas (accomodations, things to do,

culture, sports, transports, weather, politics etc.) that I think the objective to get a comprehensive platform for worldwide destinations is too ambitious and unreachable. Therefore, I would recommend to dividethe website somehow (by area, or by type of tourism : cultural/sports etc.).

▫ Second, I would be afraid that the members do not trust the advice because it is obvious that one of Boo’s revenue sources is indirect advertising. It means it is not unbiased.→ Contradiction with the Mission statement.

Streching the model:• To increase users:

▫ Translation into foreign languages to reach international customers

▫ Be present on other social networks.

▫ Create competitions between users (travel-related challenges for example) to create buzz and therefore increase the number of visits.

• To expand revenue sources: ▫ Add direct advertising, and

this way, be more honest with the users and protect their precious trust.

▫ Create challenges and competitions, and find large brands to endorse them.

▫ Create a selection such as « Week Event », seriously chosen between every proposal, that could be commercial.