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Would you use this? Feedback wanted!
hayyato
subscriber Posts: 3 Member
So basically, it's a location based crowdsourced app/site. How it functions:
Scenario 1:
International student from Singapore moving to London to study. Wants to view different campuses and accommodations/hostels to get a feel or the area an neighbourhood. She posts a mission requesting photos/videos with commentary or a live tour of the designated location.
Scenario 2:
Someone looking to move cities and wants to explore different neighbourhoods and houses. They could get someone to show them the interior of the house (visiting real estate agents on their behalf) or show them the whole neighbourhood, a more lively, less static feel of what you'd get on Google Earth/Street view, which doesn't show the whole vibe of the neighbourhood in current time.
Anyhow, this allows the person to see a less glossy, unedited version of the places they are moving to, because not everyone can afford to fly or travel very far just to check out neighbourhod/accommodation/campuses.
Questions
1. How do I validate this idea? I have spoken to international students and most are super enthusiastic about having a real time view from a local about the potential place they're staying in. However, many were unsure how much, if at all, they were willing to pay. There was a clear 50-50.
2. Which leads to my next question. How will I monetize this? Should it be free, and if so, what incentive will the other party have to scout places and create videos? I'm not sure if gamification will help. Also, should I leave the videos/photos up on the site for others to see or should that be private and only accessible to paid viewers?
3. Do you personally think I'm solving a problem? Is this something worth pursuing?
Scenario 1:
International student from Singapore moving to London to study. Wants to view different campuses and accommodations/hostels to get a feel or the area an neighbourhood. She posts a mission requesting photos/videos with commentary or a live tour of the designated location.
Scenario 2:
Someone looking to move cities and wants to explore different neighbourhoods and houses. They could get someone to show them the interior of the house (visiting real estate agents on their behalf) or show them the whole neighbourhood, a more lively, less static feel of what you'd get on Google Earth/Street view, which doesn't show the whole vibe of the neighbourhood in current time.
Anyhow, this allows the person to see a less glossy, unedited version of the places they are moving to, because not everyone can afford to fly or travel very far just to check out neighbourhod/accommodation/campuses.
Questions
1. How do I validate this idea? I have spoken to international students and most are super enthusiastic about having a real time view from a local about the potential place they're staying in. However, many were unsure how much, if at all, they were willing to pay. There was a clear 50-50.
2. Which leads to my next question. How will I monetize this? Should it be free, and if so, what incentive will the other party have to scout places and create videos? I'm not sure if gamification will help. Also, should I leave the videos/photos up on the site for others to see or should that be private and only accessible to paid viewers?
3. Do you personally think I'm solving a problem? Is this something worth pursuing?
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Comments
Very interesting.
In terms of monetizing, your best bet would likely be a free to download app, but offer the in-app purchases. As you mentioned, restricting some of the features to paid members makes a lot of sense. So, maybe unpaid members can see three or four photos, but paid members get access to the whole gallery and videos. Perhaps also you have a rating and review system of people who have stayed at these properties, and paid members can see the reviews, while unpaid members can only see the number of stars/points.
You'll also want to open up ads for monetization, but ads that aren't disruptive. So after they've completed an action, an ad appears, not during their action. Sponsorship and partnerships are a good way to gain money as well, but you'll have to convince a company that your product can help scale their business as well.
So, would you have each property take photos and create a video and then send to you to add into the app? In return, you would be capturing potential customers/leads for them to stay at these places?
Community Manager
StartupNation, LLC
I think it's a good and useful idea. But I find a concern about some private information and security as well. I don't want to see my photo and my license plate number near my house on the website.
And I'm sure that it'd be more popular among people who really is taking the decision to purchase real estate abroad or in another region. It seems unlikely, that budget tourist or student will pay money.
In my opinion you should make an agreement with other real-estates apps and websites.
Good luck!
Community Manager
StartupNation, LLC
Community Manager
StartupNation, LLC