roadhop_transport search beyond flights

“transport search beyond flights”

http://roadhop.com

1.  Executive summary 2.  Opportunity 3.  Proposed solution 4.  Status

5.  Development timeline 6.  Competition 7.  Investment required 8.  Team

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Roadhop is the “airbnb” of non-flight passenger transport.

Executive Summary •  Roadhop.com is a website to help travellers search and purchase

intercity non-flight (e.g. bus, train, ferry, speedboat) transport options •  Users can:

§  Compare departure timings, fares, location maps from various transport operators

§  Share with others how they have travelled §  View travel methods and reviews by other users  §  Buy tickets online

•  Mission: To reduce search and booking time for travellers looking for non-flight transportation options around the world

•  Vision: To provide real-time data for all transportation around the world

Opportunity

•  Non-flight travel suffers from poor data §  Little information (e.g. Southeast Asia, Latin America,

Eastern Europe) or §  Unconsolidated information online, with schedules, fares

and station maps in separate websites and guidebooks

1.  UIC - International Union of Railways, 2010 2.  U.S. Department of Transportation 3.  China Ministry of Transport, 2011

Opportunity

•  But they are overlooked as major forms of long-distance travel

•  Buses and trains are the only modes of travel for some developing regions

§  Over 40 billion railway passengers yearly, metro not included1

§  US: travellers spend over 1 billion dollars annually on intercity buses2

§  China: 2.4 million intercity bus trips daily3

Proposed Solution Crowdsourcing from travellers •  Contribute in a fun way by

creating their personal trip log using Facebook and mobile

•  Verify search results by voting, commenting and reviewing

Companies list and sell tickets •  List prices and departure timings on

Roadhop •  Reach out to passengers on their

company page •  Sell tickets using Roadhop’s

Ecommerce platform

Administrators gather and index information •  Digitize primary data •  Assemble schedules and fares railways, bus (and other)

companies with limited web presence

Why will any transport operator want to sell tickets online?

Because passengers want to buy them.

We provide travellers with a non-flight transport search.

Once travellers see their departure timing available on

Roadhop, they will want to book them

(before others do).

Status

We gather data (and travellers).

Crowdsourcing from travellers •  Contribute in a

fun way by creating their personal trip log using Facebook and mobile

Back  to  menu  

Crowdsourcing from travellers •  Verify search results by

voting, commenting and reviewing

•  Search includes administrator uploaded routes

Back  to  menu  

Plan

Then we create a ticketing platform for bus, train, ferry (etc.) companies.

Development Timeline Functionalities

R  Crowdsourced  pla6orm  to  collect  schedules/fares  of  travellers  using  travel  records  on  Facebook  R  Search  with  vo=ng  and  commen=ng  

 R  System  for  transport  operators  to  list  and  manage  routes  

R  Mobile  trip  tracker  R  Ecommerce  

R  Connec=ng  routes  search    (Near  Future,  when  data  is  up)  R  Mobile  search  with  real-­‐=me  loca=on  data    (Far  future)  

Completed

In development

Planned

Current Oct 2011 Apr 2012 – Aug 2012 Future

Development Timeline Marketing and data

R  Partner  with  notable  travel  bloggers,  newspapers,  magazines,  hostels  R  Compe==on  for  most  routes  logged  R  Seek  sponsorship  from  tourism  boards  /  airlines  for  free  flight  =ckets  

 R    Contact  small  tranport  operators  to  list  

R    Index  all  train  routes  in  the  world  +  routes  from  major  bus  operators  R  Progress  will  depend  on  funding  raised  

In development

Planned

Competition •  Rome2rio.com •  SilverRail Technologies •  Google, Yahoo!, Bing Travel / Maps: Directions search feature

which contains information on shorter distance public transportation for some cities

•  Travel guides like Lonelyplanet, Roughguide, Tripadvisor and Wikitravel

•  Local operators to learn from §  Red bus (India) §  Qunar (China)

Why do we need the money? What are we going to do with it?*

•  $200K to build and sell –  ecommerce platform (airbnb for passenger tickets)

•  To hire programmers, customer service, accounting, sales, legal •  Merchant account

•  $150K to develop new functionalities –  Mobile ticketing, Mobile route tracking / logging, Real time data,

Connecting search algorithm, Integration for mobile, social and web

•  $100K to collect data –  Digitize bus, train, ferry, van, speedboat (etc.) schedules, prices, maps

not online (worldwide)

•  $50K for servers, equipment, maintenance, operations

Our ecommerce platform (beta) will be ready by April 2012

*Will  be  explained  in  more  details  on  our  financial  Projec=ons  

How can we make money?*

•  Subscription: A membership fee for transport companies to list

•  Ecommerce: A small transaction fee for each passenger ticket sold

•  Licensing: A fee for operators which require customization (e.g. html redirect, fleet / route management / multiple logins)

•  API

*Will  be  explained  in  more  details  on  our  financial  Projec=ons  

The possibilities are endless.

Exit strategy

•  IPO on Asian Stock Exchange –  SGX, Nikkei, Hang Seng, Shanghai

Team •  Roadhop is started by Wyn and Kel

§  Both graduated from Singapore Management University (but not at the same time)

•  Wyn: §  Loves to program and travel §  Majored in quantitative finance and economics §  Proficient in Ruby and/on Rails, secretly likes Python, and vaguely remembers some C+

+, Matlab, and R

•  Kel: §  Loves to travel and does not program §  Spent 3.5 years in Toshiba analysing procurement operations in Asia §  Spent 1 year in China with Lorenzo International, working to design and implement

the factory’s supply chain system

•  Both are avid backpackers §  Favourite song: Discovery channel – the world is awesome (link J)

I will be in San Francisco for Founder Showcase from 7 Nov 2011 to 23 Nov 2011. See you there! Or call me

Kel: 65 9863 2957

kelzq@roadhop.com