WAYN.com has announced that it has surpassed a staggering 10 million
members worldwide.

 
  In just under 12 months since WAYN.com raised $11 million in Series A
funding from investors led by DFJ Esprit (also including Brent Hoberman, ex
CEO and Founder of lastminute.com and David Soskin and Hugo Burge of
Cheapflights.com), the business has gone from strength-to-strength. Based
in London, WAYN is the world’s largest Web 2.0 travel community site, with
members in over 200 countries.

  WAYN.com’s popularity has flourished. It has become the UK’s 10th most
popular social network(1), has grown from 45,000 users in March 2005 to
over 10 million today and is increasing by up to 360,000 users per month.
In addition, time on the site has increased from an average of 7 minutes to
15 minutes per session and page views increased from 10 pages to 26 pages
per user over the last 3 months. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, WAYN.com
is the fifth fastest-growing social network with 80% audience growth since
December 2006.

  WAYN.com’s growth has been achieved through key strategic changes to
the business including opening up interaction to provide a free platform so
all members can take full advantage of its communication tools, travel
guide, trips and full search functionality, as well as building new
services with innovative and new offerings. One such service, the WAYN
Desktop, a software application still in beta phase, provides WAYN members
with a state-of-the-art photo upload tool for fast and simple photo
uploading and storage.

  WAYN.com is increasingly adapting to the varying needs of its members,
introducing offline services to augment its online content. WAYN.com has
recently announced partnerships with Lastminute.com, to integrate their
hotel content and booking service; Hostelworld.com, to enable members to
search for and book hostel and budget accommodation in over 160 countries;
toptable.co.uk to give access to unrivalled restaurant content in 12 key
cities throughout Europe; Apollo Travel Direct, a trading division of The
Co-operative Travel, the largest independent travel agent in the UK, to
provide a holiday concierge service to WAYN’s 1.9 million UK members and
isango!.co.uk to provide online experiential activities.

  Jerome Touze, Co-CEO of WAYN.com commented: “To reach 10 million
members in such a short period of time is a true sign of the strength of
our proposition and the service we offer. Our members see the true value
that our site provides and recommend us to their family and friends. This
year we will go from strength-to-strength, as new and exciting
functionality and partnerships are included.”

  “The pace of change has been accelerated with the funding we received
last year and the expertise, advice and commitment of our investors, in
particular DFJ Esprit and Brent Hoberman. Their sound advice and
encouragement has helped shape the business.”

  WAYN.com re-launched it’s Travelguide and trips functionality this
month allowing for the integration of its new partners through an online
booking system plus a new points system which ranks members by their online
activity.
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