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Line 1: {{For\|the AM [[radio station]] located in [[Rockingham, North Carolina]]\|WAYN (AM)}} '''WAYN''' (standing for ''Where Are You Now?'') is a [[social networking]] [[website]] with a goal to unite [[travellers]] from around the world. WAYN has an [[Alexa Internet]] traffic ranking of 2,830 {{ref\|popularity}} and was launched in [[May 2003]]. {{Use dmy dates\|date=January 2016}} {{Infobox website \| name = Where Are You Now? Ltd \| logo = \| logo_size = <!-- width in pixels, with "px" suffix --> \| logo_alt = WAYN.com logo \| screenshot = \| screenshot_size = <!-- width in pixels, with "px" suffix --> \| screenshot_alt = WAYN Destination Page \| caption = WAYN Destination Page \| company_type = \| founded = {{Start date and age\|2002}} \| dissolved = <!-- {{end date\|df=yes/no\|year\|month\|day}} --> \| founder = Peter Ward, Jerome Touze, Mike Lines \| industry = Internet \| services = \| international = yes \| owner = \| employees = 21 (July 2016) \| parent = \| divisions = London, Cape Town, Szczecin \| url = {{URL\|www.wayn.com}} \| website_type = Travel & lifestyle social network \| language = \| current_status = closed }} '''WAYN''' (an [[acronym]] for ''Where Are You Now?'') was a social travel network.<ref name=pivot>{{cite news \| url=https://www.phocuswire.com/You-have-to-pivot-to-win-it-Original-social-travel-site-WAYN-on-survival \| title=You have to pivot to win it: Original social travel site WAYN on survival \| work=Phocuswire \| date=5 February 2014 \| first=Sean \| last=O'Neill}}</ref> Its stated goal is to ''help discover where to go and meet like-minded people.'' WAYN was the brain child of entrepreneurs Jerome Touze and Peter Ward and was founded in 2002.<ref name=pivot/> ~~== Features ==~~ As with many other social networking services, WAYN enables its users to create a profile and upload photos. Users can then search for others, and link them to their profiles as friends. It is also possible to send and receive messages using discussion forums. Since it is designed for travellers, members are able to search for contacts based on a particular ___location. Using a world map, it enables a user to visually locate where each of their contacts are situated around the world. The service is thus intended to be used for its members to keep friends informed of where they are whilst travelling. WAYN is very popular in the UK where it has over 1 million members. It is also strong in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries in Western Europe, including the Netherlands. Like other [[social networking service]]s, WAYN enabled its users to create a profile and upload photos. Users could search for other users and link them to their profiles as friends. The founders part-exited the business in 2006 in a $11m deal<ref>{{Cite web \|title=WAYN secures $11 million \|url=https://www.stellantpartners.com/en/hotel_commercial_due-diligence_legal_audit_global_travelportal_liquidation/wayn-secures-11-million \|access-date=2023-04-23 \|website=www.stellantpartners.com \|language=en}}</ref> to DFJ Esprit and valuing the company at $46m.<ref>{{Cite web \|title=WAYN Stock Price, Funding, Valuation, Revenue & Financial Statements \|url=https://www.cbinsights.com/company/wayn/financials \|access-date=2023-05-05 \|website=www.cbinsights.com}}</ref> In 2015 it claims to have over 20 million users.<ref name="about 2015">{{cite web\|title=WAYN: About Us\|url=http://www.wayn.com/aboutus\|access-date=20 September 2015}}</ref> By 2013, the site grew to 22 million registered users, growing at a daily rate of 5,000 new users and adding 25,000 new travel photos every day.<ref>{{Cite web \|date=2013-09-19 \|title=Social travel network WAYN marks 22-million registered travellers \|url=https://ventureburn.com/2013/09/social-travel-network-wayn-marks-22-million-registered-travellers/ \|access-date=2023-04-23 \|website=Ventureburn \|language=en-ZA}}</ref> In late 2016, the website was bought by [[Lastminute.com]] in an asset purchase deal at terms that were not disclosed.<ref>{{Cite web \|last=Butcher \|first=Mike \|date=2016-09-21 \|title=After a long journey, WAYN gets picked up by its dotcom-era brother, Lastminute.com \|url=https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/21/after-a-long-journey-wayn-gets-picked-up-by-its-dotcom-era-brother-lastminute-com/ \|access-date=2023-04-23 \|website=TechCrunch \|language=en-US}}</ref> The acquisition meant that Wayn's database of users and content was added to The Travel People,<ref>{{Cite web \|title=WAYN travel social network bought by Lastminute.com Group \|url=https://www.phocuswire.com/WAYN-travel-social-network-bought-by-Lastminute-com-Group \|access-date=2023-04-23 \|website=www.phocuswire.com \|language=en}}</ref> lastminute.com's media division. The Travel People claims to reach 43 million monthly unique visitors every month across all its brands (Lastminute.com, Rumbo, Volagratis, Bravofly and Jetcost). == History == WAYN was founded in 2004 in [[London]] by Jerome Touze (Co-CEO), Peter Ward (Co-CEO) and Mike Lines (CTO), after Jerome came up with the idea to connect people based on their ___location while having a few beers in their local pub. Jerome had the original concept, but he didn't have any technology skills to make it a reality. He was working at the time at a consultancy firm in London, and connected with Peter Ward with a likeminded approach to entrepreneurship. Peter, was very close friends with Mike Lines, who was the lynchpin in the whole program and built the entir wayn service including its full website and backend services single handidly. WAYN was founded in 2002 in [[London]] and was presented to the public in May [[2003]] having secured financial backing from Stephen Pankhurst, the founder of the well known UK school reunion site [[Friends Reunited]], which recently sold to ITV for £120M (plus £55M earn-out). WAYN initially grew through word-of-mouth and reached almost 50,000 members by the end of 2004. Following it's relaunch in May 2005 it grew exponentially, reaching over 2.5M members by the end of [[2005]]. WAYN has since been nominated for the [http://www.websiteoftheyear.co.uk Website of the Year] contest in category [[Social Networks]]. WAYN is also one of the very few sites which didn't lose the impact of new subscriptions after introducing fees for taking advantage of the full membership service September [[2004]], making it one of the few premium social networking communities that has managed to become profitable. WAYN now has over 3 million members. WAYN initially grew through word-of-mouth and reached almost 50,000 members by the end of 2004. Following its relaunch in May 2005 it reached over 2.5 million members by the end of 2005. On 26 March 2012 the site claimed "over 19.1m members".<ref name="about 2015" /> The business started with initial seed funding in 2003 from the original founder of [[Friends Reunited]].<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.putneysocial.co.uk/scaling-a-successful-business-session-with-pete-ward.html\| title=Scaling a successful business session, with Pete Ward\| work=Putney Social}}</ref> ~~== Criticism ==~~ When a user signs up for the WAYN service, they are given the option to import contacts from an online address book (such as [[Hotmail]], [[Yahoo]], [[AOL]] and [[Gmail]]) by providing their username and password{{ref\|privacy}} and send them an invitation to join WAYN. However, WAYN has been criticised by some users, who felt that it is made too difficult to unsubscribe from these "invitation reminders". Recipients can unsubscribe from these "invitation reminders" by clicking on the link at the bottom of the invitations and entering your email address. This blocks your email address from receiving any further correspondence via the WAYN.com service. In 2006, the WAYN Founders managed to complete a part exit of the company for $11 million from [[Draper Fisher Jurvetson\|DFJ Esprit]] and attracting famous internet entrepreneurs as investors such as [[Brent Hoberman]] (ex-founder of lastminute.com), Hugo Burge (CEO of cheapflights.co.uk), Adrian Critchlow and Andy Phillips (ex-founders of Active Hotels) and [[Jagex\|Constant Tedder]] (ex-CEO of [[Jagex]], an [[online game\|online gaming]] company) and was referred to at the time as the '[[MySpace\|Myspace]] of Travel'.<ref>{{cite web\| url=https://mashable.com/2006/11/27/wayn-gets-11m-for-myspace-of-travel/ \|title=WAYN Gets $11M for "MySpace of Travel"\|first=Pete\| last=Cashmore\|date=27 November 2006 \|work=Mashable}}</ref> ~~== See also ==~~ * [[List of social networking sites]]▼ ==~~References~~Services== WAYN users could post photos from their trips. Registered users sent and received messages using [[email]], [[discussion forum]]s, [[E-card]]s, [[SMS]], and [[Instant messaging\|instant messages]] and Q&A. WAYN provided a destination browsing service to discover ''Where to go next'' and WAYN members could interact with each other and ask questions on the destinations through a Questions & Answers service. The site also provided ''Social Opinions'', which generated more than 25,000 opinions daily in 2014.<ref name="travolution.co.uk">{{cite web\|url=http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2014/12/05/9489/wayn-announces-tour-offering-in-tie-up-with-viator.html\|title=WAYN announces tour offering in tie-up with Viator\|publisher=}}</ref> In 2015, WAYN announced major strategic partnerships with [[Booking.com]] to offer hotels booking to its users <ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news/article/wayn.com-signs-strategic-partnership-with-booking.com/\|title=Wayn.com signs strategic partnership with Booking.com\|work=Breaking Travel News\|date=17 November 2014}}</ref> as well as Viator to offer tours and activities booking.<ref name="travolution.co.uk"/> ~~# {{note\|popularity}} [[Alexa Internet]] ''[http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=www.wayn.com Alexa Traffic Ranking for wayn.com]''. Retrieved [[January 3]], [[2006]].~~ ~~# {{note\|privacy}} WAYN ''[http://www.wayn.com/wayn.html?wci=StaticPage&page=Privacy Privacy policy]''. Retrieved [[January 3]], [[2006]].~~ ~~# {{note\|forums}} Spyware Info ''[http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=61288&pid=341293&st=0 WAYN — Spyware Info discussion forums]''. Retrieved [[January 3]], [[2006]].~~ == Contact import == Like many other social media sites, WAYN encouraged its users to invite their friends, which in turn led to the contacts of the members to receive an invitation to join. In 2006, some members vented their frustration, claiming they were not aware that an invitation would be sent to their contacts.<ref>{{Cite book \|last1=Thuraisingham \|first1=Bhavani \|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibz1CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 \|title=Analyzing and Securing Social Networks \|last2=Abrol \|first2=Satyen \|last3=Heatherly \|first3=Raymond \|last4=Kantarcioglu \|first4=Murat \|last5=Khadilkar \|first5=Vaibhav \|last6=Khan \|first6=Latifur \|date=2016-04-06 \|publisher=CRC Press \|isbn=978-1-4822-4328-4 \|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.antionline.com/archive/index.php/t-274101.html\|title=Don't go to WAYN.com\|publisher=}}</ref> The company acknowledged that this process could be improved and subsequently changed the way in which invitations were generated and has also signed up with Return Path, one of the few whitelisting companies in the world that certified Emails Best Practice at the time.<ref name=pivot/> ==~~External~~ ~~links~~Use == WAYN [[Alexa Internet]] traffic ranking was 12,251 as of March 2017 down more than 2,000 position from the prior year.<ref>{{cite web \| publisher = [[Alexa Internet]] \| url = http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/www.wayn.com \| title = Alexa Traffic Ranking for wayn.com \| access-date = 1 January 2015 \| archive-date = 5 March 2016 \| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305024108/http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/www.wayn.com \| url-status = dead }}</ref> It claimed in 2013 to house user data for over 22 million users in 193 different countries.<ref name=ventureburn>{{cite web\|url=http://ventureburn.com/2013/04/wayn-how-a-social-startup-is-cashing-in-on-online-dating-and-jet-setting/ \|title=WAYN: how a social startup is cashing in on its jet-setting community\|publisher=VentureBurn\|first=Jacques\|last=Coetzee\|date=16 April 2013\|access-date=16 April 2013}}</ref> * [http://www.wayn.com WAYN website] * [http://www.maxpc.co.uk/features/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=28780&subsectionid=736&subsubsectionid=609 How we built WAYN.com] — an interview with the creators of WAYN, published in [[MaxPC]] magazine * [http://www.prweb.com/releases/2003/8/prweb77491.htm About WAYN Concept] == Monetisation == ~~[[Category:Social networking]]~~ WAYN.com commercialised its website through advertising. The site also offered a membership service (VIP) for users who wished to access to travel and lifestyle benefits. Later, the site launched a travel booking service for users to book their hotels and tours globally.<ref name=pivot/> ~~[[Category:Virtual communities]]~~ ==References== {{Reflist\|30em}} ==Further reading== * {{cite web \| last=Tyler \| first=Richard \| title=British social-networking site WAYN takes on Twitter \| website=The Telegraph \| date=April 14, 2009 \| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/5154438/British-social-networking-site-WAYN-takes-on-Twitter.html \| access-date=July 26, 2016}} * {{cite web \| title=WAYN's Ward of courtship \| website=The Telegraph \| date=May 13, 2008 \| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/2789852/WAYNs-Ward-of-courtship.html \| access-date=July 26, 2016}} * {{cite web \| last=Parsley \| first=David \| title=Bidders are circling round WAYN's world \| website=The Independent \| date=February 17, 2008 \| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bidders-are-circling-round-wayns-world-783203.html \| access-date=July 26, 2016}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Wayn (Website)}} ~~{{website-stub}}~~ ▲* [[~~List of~~Category:British social networking ~~sites~~websites]] [[Category:British travel websites]]