We first spoke with Steve about six months ago, when he shared with us the journey of OWNRIDES, an online driver booking platform for tourists. The Taiwanese startup Generated GMV close to 1m SGD in 2018 since its launch. We spoke to Steve again,  a graduate from Singapore Management University to learn more about the startup.

How did it all start
We first had the idea of an “Airbnb for driver-guides” in late 2016 but quickly found there isn’t much difference from one driver to another driver for this marketplace model to work. We then changed the idea to a “Uber for custom tours”, launched the new marketplace in April 2017 and achieved 54% monthly average growth in the first 6 months.

How is the self-drive rental market in Taiwan
Self-driving is not popular with international tourists in Taiwan. Notorious drivers, complicated traffic rules and confusing road signs (written in traditional Chinese) all make self-driving in Taiwan intimidating for international tourists. For domestic tourists, they either drive their own cars or they travel with families and friends who drive. So the car rental market is not big in
Taiwan.
Who are your real customers – Locals or Overseas tourists
Our customers are international tourists, mostly from Singapore, Malaysia, US and Philippines but also from Japan, South Korea, India and even Saudi Arabia. We have very few Taiwanese customers since they have no problem traveling around Taiwan on their own.

What are some of the use-cases of customers using Ownrides
Our customers do not want the “one-size-fits-all” tour packages that OTAs provide so they use OWNRIDES to plan and book their own custom tours. One very memorable trip was by a customer from Hong Kong who traveled directly to Yushan Mountain from Taoyuan International Airport in the early morning, climbed to the peak of the mountain within a day, and returned to Chiayi City by the night. Another custom tour was by a customer from Germany who came on a cruise ship and visited both landmarks in Taipei City and scenic spots along Taiwan’s northeast coast. In all cases, our customers can plan their tours on our platform, get price quoted instantly and book them within minutes.

On fundraising

We raised a small amount of funding from 2 angel investors in the beginning but are entirely self-funded since.

What are some of the roadblocks for your startup
One major roadblock was the regulation in Taiwan. Uber was fined in Taiwan for providing non-professional drivers and we had to scrap our plan to provide these drivers whom we spent 2 months recruiting but did not want to risk getting caught in the crossfire. Another major roadblock was the regulation again but it was the regulation in South Korea and not Taiwan. We found South Korea very similar to Taiwan but because we use Google Maps for data and South Korea restricts these data, we are not able to expand to South Korea yet.

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Daniel Cheng is the Founder and President of RTM Association (Redefine Tourism Mixer), the biggest community of travel startups and tourism tech entrepreneurs in Taiwan. At the recently concluded OTM Forum 2019, Daniel shared insights on the State of Travel Startups in Taiwan. Year on year, there has been significant growth in outbound tourists in Taiwan. Taiwan had 15.4mn outbound tourists from an overall population of 23mn. Currently, there are 15 travel startups with over 30 employees.

Daniel also shared the current state of travel startups in Taiwan, the challenges in the industry and funding opportunities.

Watch the video for Daniel’s presentation on State of Travel Startups in Taiwan.

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During the last couple of years, Taiwan has demonstrated immense potential with its contribution towards the growth of startups in the APAC region. Taiwan, which was once largely recognized as hardware manufacturing hub in Asia, now finds itself in a startup race lead by Singapore and Hong Kong. The boom in growth has been pioneered by Taiwan Startup Stadium, located in downtown Taipei and helping startups to go global.

While KKday has been one of the most famous Taiwanese travel startups, there are other the travel startups too that have been doing the fund raising rounds. Here is a look at some of the prominent Taiwanese travel startups:

MyTaiwanTour

MyTaiwanTour which provides personalized and customized tour packages to overseas tourists from US and Europe markets last month raised US$1.5M from Sanpu Group which would aid in expansion to Japan and China.

KKday

Launched in 2015, KKday operates in the highly competitive tours & activities space. During the beginning of January, KKday had raised a Series B $10.5 million round led by Japanese travel operator H.I.S. In addition, last month the travel startup had raised an undisclosed round by Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba and Japanese chat app company Line primarily to contribute to its growth in China and Japan.

FunNow

FunNow, is another Taiwanese startup in the space of entertainment and leisure activities. It secured a $5 million round in Series A funding led by Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund. With over 500,000 members, FunNow has over 3,000 vendors providing more than 20,000 activities.

AsiaYo

Last week, AsiaYo, a travel accommodation booking platform based in Taipei, Taiwan, raised $7 million Series B round which was led by Alibaba Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund. With approximately, more than 60,000 rooms listings and over 600,000+ bookings AsiaYo is competing with Airbnb in the competitive alternate accommodation space.

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As oil prices continue to diminish and US dollar is keeping strong, international travellers are finding a value for their money with Asian tourist destinations. The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimated international tourists to increase by 43 million people every year, eventually reaching a mind-boggling 1.8 billion by 2030. Emerging economy destinations are predicted to grow at an average rate of 4.4 percent where Asia stands to profit the most. The analysis speculates that the tourism in the region will outgrow average growth in the rest of the world, with an overwhelming number of 535 million visitors by 2030.

The magnitude of this opportunity certainly isn’t escaping companies that provide unique travel experiences. Meanwhile, KKday, a Taiwanese travel start-up, announced that it has raised US$4.5 million in series A funding to assist acceleration in its Asia-focused expansion. The round is led by AppWorks Ventures with participation by 91Capital.

KKday is a site that connects travellers with local tour operators. According to a company statement, since its launch in early 2015, KKday has provided 5,000 unique travel experiences and generated revenues of US$914,000* in January 2016 alone. The start-up focuses on destinations in Asia, with activities featuring in Bangkok, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Taipei majorly but also provides  in places like Paris, New York, and Cappadocia. The startup has branch offices in Hong Kong and mainland China, with plans to open up offices in Singapore, South Korea, and Japan by April. It also expresses its keen interest in Macau and Malaysia as important growth markets.

Jamie Lin, founding partner of AppWorks Ventures, in a truncated statement said;

“More travellers [are] embracing independent travel. KKday’s services are customer-oriented, satisfying travellers’ expectations of customizing their own trip,”

Asian travellers are an important outbound market with Chinese travellers alone estimated to have spent US$129 billion in 2013. KKday recognized that vacation packages provided by traditional travel agencies did not suffice increasing expectations for unique, personalized, and bespoke tour experiences and tried to bridge the gap. Since they’ve got a new set of funds to expand its operations across Asian domain, probably we’ll see them grow in the tourism sector with greater potential.

Source: TechinAsia

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