TripIt: B / B+
Techrunch is live-blogging the Techcrunch 40 conference. So far, I like TripIt best.
TripIt creates an easy-to-use travel itinerary for you when you send them the confirmation emails you receive from airlines, hotels, car rental companies and the various online travel websites. TripIt automatically adds maps and weather forecasts to the itinerary. Then, you can add notes, more destinations, etc.
The problems I see are:
1. Getting people to use TripIt. I can't see how you get people to remember to use the service. It's the kind of thing that travel junkies might use, but I can't see regular travelers thinking, "Aha! I'll just forward my confirmation email to TripIt". I guess one possibility would be to do deals with the airlines so that the airlines build TripIt into the confirmation process - maybe with an opt-in from the customer.
2. More importantly, I don't see the business model. I assume TripIt is looking to monetize the service via a combination of display ads and lead gen for airlines. Either way, I don't see how the volume gets high enough to make this exciting, except possibly as a feature set for a larger travel site. So, to me, this looks like a build-and-flip.
Overall, a nice feature set but I'm not sure it's much of a business. Which is a little surprising, because the founding team is really impressive.
B / B+
TripIt creates an easy-to-use travel itinerary for you when you send them the confirmation emails you receive from airlines, hotels, car rental companies and the various online travel websites. TripIt automatically adds maps and weather forecasts to the itinerary. Then, you can add notes, more destinations, etc.
The problems I see are:
1. Getting people to use TripIt. I can't see how you get people to remember to use the service. It's the kind of thing that travel junkies might use, but I can't see regular travelers thinking, "Aha! I'll just forward my confirmation email to TripIt". I guess one possibility would be to do deals with the airlines so that the airlines build TripIt into the confirmation process - maybe with an opt-in from the customer.
2. More importantly, I don't see the business model. I assume TripIt is looking to monetize the service via a combination of display ads and lead gen for airlines. Either way, I don't see how the volume gets high enough to make this exciting, except possibly as a feature set for a larger travel site. So, to me, this looks like a build-and-flip.
Overall, a nice feature set but I'm not sure it's much of a business. Which is a little surprising, because the founding team is really impressive.
B / B+
posted by Moses Kagan at
4:55 PM
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