What happened?
- According to the latest report from Grand View Research, the global online travel booking services market will reach US$1.13 trillion (approximately NT$3.729 billion) by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.0%. All local travel and lifestyle service bookers want to go overseas to capture the booming online booking market. However, compared with companies selling technology products, consumer-oriented platform-based startups often have difficulty going overseas, addressing cultural differences, and educating consumers in different markets. Not a few of them have returned with success.
How do platform-based startups grasp overseas business opportunities?
- FunNow, specializing in instant booking services, has launched differentiated strategies for different markets and has successfully gone overseas to six countries in less than eight years. FunNow has gained 2.5 million members domestically and abroad and was also selected as one of the 13 startup teams in the National Development Council's NEXT BIG program based on the national startup brand Startup Island TAIWAN this year.
- FunNow has established a solid foothold in Taiwan, and even though it has entered the markets of Hong Kong and Japan, which are considered to have similar languages and cultures and are highly accepted by the public, FunNow co-founder and Global Strategist Ms. CC Chang, believes that as long as one hasn't gone out to the sea and arrived in the local market, they will never know what kind of challenges they will be facing. FunNow follows Uber's example of setting up a Launcher team specialized in overseas expansion to instantly solve the challenges faced at the initial stage of going overseas and tailoring different strategies for different overseas markets to break through the barriers one by one.
- Hong Kong: With high labor costs in Hong Kong, stores were reluctant to spend time trying out new systems, which made it difficult to launch their business at first. Later, the company joined hands with an international brand owner who had already cooperated with the company in Taiwan to conduct marketing activities in Hong Kong so that local stores could see the platform's benefits and successfully break through the barrier.
- Malaysia: The popularity of online credit card payment is low in Malaysia, and the biggest obstacle is the cash flow payment. The company's core members organized a team to make a decision on the front line and quickly connected with GrabPay, the mainstream payment in the country, to solve the payment problem.
- Japan: Aiming at overseas customers traveling to Japan and avoiding the Red Sea of competition among local peers. During the epidemic period, the company cultivated merchants. It quietly developed the market, and after lifting the blockade, the trend of traveling to Japan exploded, and its performance rebounded strongly.
- Thailand: The company deployed its local business team early during the pandemic but needed help finding suitable senior business talents. Later, the company adjusted its strategy and recruited several rookie salespeople to develop several contracts with local stores successfully.
What's in the future?
- After FunNow's rapid establishment in many countries, its next goal will be to stabilize and deepen its roots in the local markets. Currently, FunNow has strategically formed alliances with local partners, including the acquisition of Niceday, a specialty experience booking platform in Taiwan, TABLEAPP, a large-scale restaurant booking platform in Southeast Asia, and Eatigo, to achieve the synergistic effect of horizontally integrating more businesses.
How do we become the public's first choice in the face of differences in national conditions and consumption habits? Read the in-depth Salon Talk between Sunrise Medium and FunNow's CC Chang.
