Online Group Buying Taking Off in China

China is seeing an explosion of Groupon-like websites as more companies and entrepreneurs hope to get in on the group buying trend.
China, which has 420 million Internet users, saw the launch of its first group buying site in January of this year. Now the country has 1,215, according to the China e-Business Research Center.
Group buying is a kind of shopping approach that became popular on the Internet with the emergence of U.S.-based sites like Groupon, which was launched in 2008. The sites work by offering special discounted deals on a product or service from a featured company. If enough users buy into the discount, then the special deal is given to all those who participated. The formula has been a hit with users in the U.S., with Groupon so far having sold more than 17 million discounted deals. Although its popularity online only started this year, the concept of group buying already had roots in China, where customers often haggle with merchants to get a better deal. The shopping approach later moved on to the web in the forms of specialized sites or forums to barter with businesses.

Mobile Payments

Yet another trend in the naturally social world of mobile is the ability to both make and take payments right from the phone. A startup dubbed Square, a project of one of Twitter's founders, Jack Dorsey, has developed a dongle that attaches to the iPhone's headphone jack that allows credit card transactions to be processed right on the spot.

Existing major players in the finance space such as Visa are getting into the game too, with stated intentions to continue pushing forward aggressively in the mobile payment arena. PayPal too has a popular mobile payments app for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms.

And while all of the above is just starting to trend in the United States, the developing world has been driving rapid adoption of mobile payment services for some time already. Add to all that the ability to make microtransaction purchases within a wide variety of mobile applications beyond specifically payment-oriented apps, and we've got an emerging ecosystem small businesses are going to want to pay close attention to.

Location as a Platform to Make a Statement

MTV recently worked with Foursquare to create the Get Yourself Tested badge. The proactive initiative is designed to encourage sexually active young adults to check in when they visit a clinic, and help to remove the stigma around the experience. The campaign is working — in just a few weeks time, Foursquare has doled out more than 3,000 Get Yourself Tested badges.
Whether or not you agree with the mission behind the Get Yourself Tested campaign, MTV is successfully using Foursquare as a platform to promote a cause they believe to be important.
Last year, Foursquare teamed up with Pepsi to launch a check in for charity initiative in the New York area. Foursquare user activity over the course of one weekend helped raise $9,200 for CampInteractive. The campaign also caught the attention of an anonymous donor who stepped in to donate $50,000, putting the funds raised for the non-profit during the weekend promo just shy of $60,000.
Location-based cause marketing has also found a home on Gowalla. The location-sharing challenger, which takes a stamp-based approach to city exploration, recently partnered with TOMS Shoes on their One for One movement — TOMS matches every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes for a child in need. The partnership was designed to raise awareness around TOMS Shoes’ one-millionth shoe drop and promote the cause through checkins. Gowalla estimates that it helped to expose the campaign to more than 522,000 people.Gowalla is also linked with LIVESTRONG. During the Tour de France, Gowalla users could check in to share their messages of hope and inspiration for those affected by cancer. Those messages were painted on the streets thanks to the help of a Nike/LIVESTRONG Chalkbot.

Doubletree Hotels to reward guests for virtual check in

Hilton’s Doubletree Hotels has decided to give out digital “gifts” to consumers for Tweeting or checking into one of its hotels on Facebook Places.
As per the information available, consumers who use the major location-based social networking services such as Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook Places or Gowalla, belong to Topguest and virtually connect with Doubletree will receive exclusive discounts. The gift could even be 25% discount on the bed-and-breakfast package at a Doubletree hotel.
As Virgin America stated last week, the industry is finding a new way to reward “tech-forward” flyers. For its part, the California-based airline has chosen to capitalize on the rapid growth and popularity of location-based apps.
The airline has teamed up with Topguest, the new geolocation 'check-in' club that provides guests with real-world travel rewards when they virtually check-in using applications like Facebook Places and Foursquare. The airline will let its travelers earn bonus Elevate points by virtually 'checking in' at the airline's airport terminals, gates and other locations. Each 'Check-in' using popular location-based mobile applications like Facebook Places and Foursquare will earn guests 25 Elevate points.

Searching for travel- related offerings without leaving Facebook

Travel search engine Mobissimo says it has launched the first vertical travel search application available within Facebook.
Users can access Mobissimo’s travel search engine directly from Mobissimo’s Facebook page and get real-time results from over 172 different travel websites.
In addition to the launch of its own search engine within Facebook, Mobissimo is also providing the Mobissimo Facebook travel search protocol to its partners so they can quickly integrate their own travel inventory into Facebook via the application marketplace.
The company has taken this move considering Facebook’s growing importance in online travel distribution and planning.
“As the only major U.S. travel search engine with its own proprietary travel search technology, deep integration into the Facebook ecosystem makes perfect sense for us to reach the 500 million Facebook users who want to be able to search for travel without leaving Facebook.” said Beatrice Tarka, Mobissimo’s CEO and co-founder.

bmibaby plans to re-introduce its FFFF Twitter campaign next year

The airline has been inviting the “twitterverse” to nominate up to three of their most deserving friends to win free flights to a specific bmibaby destination. By adding the #FFFF hash tag into tweets, Tweeple can nominate friends they feel deserve more followers to win one of three pairs of flights. bmibaby has been giving flights away for the past few weeks to Munich, Prague, Belfast and Jersey. It is going to conclude the campaign on 26th November, with flights to Malta.
“A total of 350 people have entered in total over the past few weeks, with the #FFFF hashtag reaching almost 200,000 people so far. Nine lucky entrants have won flights so far, and there are three more flights per week to snap up during Jersey FFFF this week and Malta FFFF the week after,” said the spokesperson.
bmibaby’s Twitter competition FFFF returned this month. The airline also ran this campaign in February and March. bmibaby is also planning to bring it back in 2011.

Travel: Purposeful Premium

As the U.S. creeps toward recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression, there are some positive signs that Americans are beginning to loosen the stranglehold on their wallets and spend on "nice to haves" not just "must haves." TripAdvisor's 2011 Travel Trends Forecast brings this good news into more specific relief for the leisure travel category, saying that 90% of consumers plan to take two or more leisure trips next year, and over one-third say they plan to spend more on travel more than they did in 2010.
The 2011 travelers are going to be looking to justify why they should spend more, especially when there will likely still be many discount deals in the market. But they are willing to spend and it's entirely possible to capture those dollars. You just have the embrace the reality that if you are charging more, you have to actually deliver more. So what does purposeful premium look like in the travel space? It's taking the concept of value and redefining it beyond just dollars and cents. It's about value defined by experience, an experience that is so good that it justifies the money spent to access it. Southwest Airlines nailed it with "Bags fly free." Air travel has become fraught with angst for many people with the addition of so many restrictions and fees. Southwest quickly recognized the opportunity to alleviate one major stress point and did so. This promotion not only relieves a consumer pressure point but in a way that is perfectly aligned to its brand positioning and, most importantly, in a way that allows it to move away from price-point advertising.

LUXE Mobile

Anyone who has ever relied on a travel guide only to realize that the “charming” out-of-the-way café the book raved about is now closed will take solace in LUXE City Guides’ new mobile editions. The digital directories offer lists of must-visit shops, museums, bars and hotels, with regular (and free) updates ensuring that its users will never be led astray. The 20 guides, which cover cities like Berlin, Los Angeles and Beijing, flaunt a GPS system that makes it easier to track down a celebrated hole-in-the-wall restaurant or buzzed-about boutique. With baggage fees a fact of modern-day travel, having one less thing to stow in your bags means one less headache—or, space for one more souvenir—come the holidays.

IHG unveils Twitter exclusive Black Friday deal

InterContinental Hotels Group has come up with what is being described as the hotel industry's largest Twitter exclusive Black Friday deal called "50 Free Friday."
“Our Black Friday promotion gives consumers a discounted travel option when they're looking for deals leading up to one of the biggest shopping days of the year,” said Del Ross, vice president, U.S. Sales and Marketing.
He added, “Not only can our guests get $50 off a flight, this combined with our other promotions lets them earn free nights and save on baggage fees at the same time.”
Beginning Nov. 1 through Nov. 29, consumers can uncover the link to IHG's Black Friday deal by following @IHG_Deals on Twitter.
The deal will give U.S. travelers $50 off any flight on any airline to any destination through April 30, 2011 when they stay at least one weekend night at any InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites in the U.S.