Quan Zhou

Case Study- TripAdvisor

            Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert, Nick Shanny, and Thomas Palka are the cofounders of TripAdvisor. Kaufer was the President and CEO of TripAdvisor and a successful independent software vendor specializing in programming and testing tools. He is previously the cofounder and vice president of Engineering of Centerline Software when he led a several award-winning programming environments.

            TripAdvisor became the largest online travel website in the world and was acquired in 2004 by Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp (IAC) and got over five million users in July 2006 with 220,000 plus hotels and attractions. It starts when Stephen and his wife are looking for somewhere to have a perfect vacation. They looked for a travel agent who suggested an island and some resort will be good for a vacation for the two of them. He found out that internet will be a great help for people who are looking for a great vacation because the internet is an easy access for searching. He was looking in the internet that time and found a lot of websites until he realized what if all of these sites will be just in one site, our searching will be very easy if that happens and TripAdvisor begins. And now they are focusing on destinations, hotels and attractions for tourists.

            It took a couple of years to populate this site, it was launched in February 2000 and October 2000 but it only covered the United States. Making money is the biggest turning point for them because they started without any revenue to break even so they are very careful in spending their money. One thing that I have learned from their advices is before going into a business, be sure that you really know the partners that you want to come with because it will be hard in a company if one will leave you hanging alone.

Case Study-Hot or Not

James Hong and Jim Young founded the Hot or Not in 2000. It is to let the user submit photos and have other votes if they are hot or not.

Hot or Not is a rating site that allows users to rate the attractiveness of photos submitted voluntarily by others. The site also offers a match making engine called 'Meet Me' and an extended profile feature called 'HOTLISTS'.

I have learned that we can take from James Hong is to have people who highly understand the users and the product. After that you have a result of having a lot of users working in you network. Always remember that not all goes according to your plan, you don’t have to dwell on the fact that your plan didn’t work. We must have to know what direction we are going in and run around as if we are trying to get out. Another one is not to spend much of your money because who you are used of spending it is difficult to get unused to it. Always have a legacy for the rest of your life. It will help you to be successful.