Social travel site Burufly to release iOS app to capture Indonesian growing market

Burufly - Search & GO

Burufly.com, a fast growing social travel destination site in Indonesia, has released the first ever social travel app for the country market to Apple AppStore

Burufly.com has 900,000 members, since launching in November 2012. Members create travel stories and journals about the best places to visit in Asia, though currently the focus is on Indonesia.

The app allows members to share and search more travel stories on the go and connect with other travelers quickly.

The founder & CEO of Burufly.com, Pete Goldsworthy says: [quote]The number one thing our members were asking for was a mobile experience, which made sense since travel is so on the go. Creating travel stories that your followers can wish list and ask you questions about, just got a whole heap easier.[/quote]

I asked Pete to share more insights about the app and the story behind the scene

Why IOS? and why not BlackBerry?

Burufly is super visual, so BlackBerry is not appropriate as the camera and software for enhancing photos is just not as solid. [quote]iOS users of our mobile web version showed the best response in terms of engagements, uploads and time on site, so it was an obvious choice. [/quote] We have also noticed a lot of the most popular apps start with iOS such as Path and Instagram, which are both visual as well. Indonesian’s who don’t have iOS, build up their latent demand to use the app because their friends with Apple have already been raving about it for months. Our bet is that this exclusivity helps to breed explosive trends in Indonesia.

What are the top 3 drivers for a rapidly increasing Burufly community?

Our campaigns such as www.burufly.com/lazadaburufly, which was held in November 2013, where users share their favorite spots in Indonesia across their blogs, social media feeds and even chat apps produced massive results for both Lazada and Burufly. In one day we had nearly 10,000 people visit the campaign, referred by their friends. People are still amazed by the diverse destinations in Indonesia, so using our content and community to increase growth will be a continued strategy.

I requested him again to share more real marketing insights rather than campaigns but I didn’t have more. Eventually he just shared Burufly strategy [quote]It is our core focus the three C’s: Content, Community, Commerce[/quote]

Beside travel packages, are there any eCommerce-related products for travelers: hotels, flights… ?

At the end of this month we will have a new product, ads based, that makes it easier for users to find hotels within vicinity of attractions that they find on Burufly.

For those not familiar with Burufly and its founder Pete: Pete is an Australian Indonesian guy. He was an Indonesia – Malaysia Managing Director of AdMax, the regional advertising group founded by Paul Srivorakul, who is now Chairman of ArdentCap, an eCommerce focus fund based in Thailand. Burufly also got funded from ArdentCap.

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About the travel site

Burufly was launched fully in November 2012 and has quickly grown to be the second highest ranked travel content site in

Indonesia with around 700,000 monthly visitors (see appendix). Burufly.com has every single province in Indonesia covered with user-­‐generated content and local experts that ensures your next holiday is a great experience. Aside from packing bags, getting on a plane and traveling, Burufly.com provides great insights in to what is new, hip and trendy to do in your own city.

[quote]We feel that too much emphasis in travel has been placed on “cheapest price” where consumers get a ‘great deal’ but pay for it with a bad experience” – says Pete Goldsworthy. [/quote] “We connect voyeurs with like-­‐minded people, that come from similar walks of life or share hobbies by overlaying the mechanics of a social network over outstanding travel content, that makes it easy for members to decide what is hot or what is not.”

For Bahasa version, please check Burufly telah meluncurkan aplikasi social travel pertama untuk pasar Indonesia

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