For passionate travelers, the world is fast shrinking and there is no place beyond reach. This is the reason why the number of travelers is growing exponentially every year. In 2017, the number of global international travelers was 1.3 billion while the number of Korean international travelers was 26 million, which was 4.1 million more than it was in 2016!
However, travelers always find it a challenge to make friends locally without the fear of being scammed. Korean startup Doongle’s app just made making friends locally easy, safe and fun! Founded by Nathan Jh Moon, Doongle helps users to make global friendships with people who share common interests and are keen to explore the lifestyles and cultures of a place. The app already has more than 1,000,000 Doonglers from 118 countries and 3,800 cities. It is available in more than 10 languages such as English, French, German, Indonesian, Thai, Chinese, Turkish, etc.
Enjoy the local flavor
One can simply access the app and connect with the locals with Doongle. There is a variety of information on local trends which helps create social bonds. Users can post/read stories and photos, ask questions and connect with like-minded people. The app, available on Google Play and Apple app store, shortly plans to allow users to share videos of their travel experiences with others. The app also aims at offering purposeful, long-term friendships between its users instead of other short-term social apps such as Tinder, HelloTalk, etc.
Customized service for a better experience
The app connects users based on map location as well as interest thereby making it easier to find friends. It uses a match and recommend algorithm and currently has local user data from 183 countries. It records over 102,000 stories, 95,600 connections and 3 million messages per month. It is very popular in Turkey, Vietnam, Korea and has a presence in the US, Thailand and Indonesia. The app can be purchased for $5.49 for a month and $13.19 for a 90-day subscription. There is an AI chatbot available for new users to help them find information easily.
The company plans to incentivize users and generate data from its users. It also plans partners with local advertisers and travel agencies to generate revenue. The startup expects to achieve monthly sales of $1.3 million by 2021. The company has a team of senior professionals from Fintech, Social, Gaming and Dating startups. It is looking for potential seed investment and local partnerships to penetrate Japan and SEA (South-East-Asia) market.
