Everyone takes plenty of photos with their smartphones while travelling, but where do they all go? All too often the answer is into a random album filled with a load of other photos to sort through later, or somewhere hidden on your Facebook or Twitter timeline. Travelog is a web and mobile-based service which lets travelers easily share their photos with other jet setters around the world and attach them to locations, as well as discover new places to travel themselves.
CultStory is the company behind the website and mobile app, with COO Jepil Yun having founded the company in 2009. After initially attempting to develop mobile apps and utilities that managed personal information, Jepil began working on a travel application in 2010 and it was this which eventually led to Travelog.
“The reason I started Travelog was to solve the problem of only the same content being displayed when searching for holiday information, despite people having different styles of travelling. In order to do this we are aiming for a platform that searches for and recommends content that fits the individual.”
In order to do this, Jepil and his team have been tracking information from uploaded content including the use of a tagging system to categorize individual preferences. A new personalized recommendation engine for the service is expected to be up and running by August or September.
A quick look at the site reveals a world map with lists of the top locations and top travellers from around the world. The nationality of users is also shown along with which countries they’ve travelled to. Clicking on a country will bring up a list of cities and posts that users have made. It’s here that you can find photos and entries from users during their travels.
As a team of developers, CultStory didn’t attempt any active marketing of Travelog at first. Despite this, it soon gained popularity and now has over 26,000 downloads and 11,000 users. It was also featured in the New York times and most of the user base is international, with 35% of users from China, 35% from English speaking countries and only 5% from Korea. As a result, the company has hired a foreign marketer and is now participating in overseas travel conferences and exploring new avenues for partnerships.
Unfortunately the app is currently only available on iOS but the company says that it plans to launch an Android version by the end of this year. For more information check out Travelog’s website.
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