While social media is still a relatively new method of communicating online, there are some dinosaurs that have been around for a long time. One of the lesser known dinosaurs is WAYN. WAYN is a relatively small network (15.5 million users) that focuses around finding fellow travelers. Though they are small compared to Facebook and Twitter, they’ve revealed to TechCrunch that they are now profitable. This is an awesome feat for WAYN when Twitter is still not profitable and Facebook, now sitting on 400 million users, has just starting making dough.
WAYN does things the right way for a smaller, more focused social network. It isn’t about broadly keeping in touch with your friends, but specifically in making new ones during your travels through different countries. The site is more popular in Europe because of the closer proximity to different countries and the site started in the UK, but now that you can connect your WAYN account through Facebook, WAYN has dramatically increased their visibility. Using another social networking site, especially a giant one like Facebook, to piggyback a few users your way is a great idea for a niche network like WAYN. Your WAYN account would never replace your Facebook account, so it’s safe and effective to “partner” with Facebook to grab some more users. They way they’ve made most of their money though is through different countries’ tourism boards. Many tourism boards want to get involved in social media and WAYN offers them a direct connection to people who like to travel.
WAYN has a purpose that echoes what got me into using the Internet in the first place — meeting new people. As an only child, I made a lot of conversations with people who I met playing video games or through MySpace just because they were someone new to talk to. The power of being able to talk to billions of people from around the world was unheard of until the Internet became a part of our daily lives. Essentially, it’s really really cool that a social networking site exists that focuses on building your social network rather than maintaining it.
What do you think of WAYN? Do you use it? Or is it too niche to be of use for you?
Filed under: Social Media, TechCrunch, WAYN
