Business Ideas in Romania

A mobile GPS

• Posted by Eugen on December 10th, 2007 filed in Entertainment, IT & Telecommunications, Services

Opportunity: A search entertainment service on your mobile

Have you ever experienced the situation of being out somewhere and not finding the nearest cash point, restaurant, club or cinema? You call your friends and ask them of a nice cafe nearby, but none of them know what to say, especially if you are new in the city? I did.

In this case, even a quick internet search on your mobile may not help you, unless if there would be a mobile service to which you would send your preferences and it would give you a reply with exact coordinates or other useful information… This idea crossed my mind while I was asking myself where The National Museum of History is.

I did a quick search on Google and found out about such a service called Where2. According to it, everything starts with an application which receives your message with your coordinates (it doesn’t matter what kind of coordinates, the software is able to identify almost all of them on the map). The application finds the nearest desired points and sends you a reply which includes: the name, directions, working hours and whatever information you may need.
The software can provide additional information, like what movies will be shown at a certain hour, if there are any vacant seats, the ticket price etc, so that you can manage your time properly and have the possibility of picking the desired location from a personalized list. The online platform can be used for a quick search, but can also provide more details, for example: the menu of a restaurant and its prices, various promotional offers, etc.

Where2 obtains revenues from the fees paid by those entertainment locations that want to be included on the search map, posting additional information and advertising them on the site.

The competitive advantage Where2 has is that there are no similar services in Romania right now. However, when I tried to access it, for unknown reasons I couldn’t do that. Even the website www.where2.ro doesn’t work. So, it looks as though at this moment the market for this idea is free for anyone. Considering the fact that the Where2 owner has already built significant experience and a partner network, maybe a possible opportunity for those interested in it would be a collaboration or maybe even a buyout of his service.
If this type of service gets extended and improved by other companies or entrepreneurs, it will be much easier to find the perfect location for a perfect relaxing evening. So, have you decided where are you going tonight?