Social travel network WAYN marks 22-million registered travellers

When you are an online social network dedicated to travel in an economy that doesn’t really support gallivanting around the world, milestones matter. For travel and lifestyle social network, WAYN, that milestone is 22-million registered users.

The social network that boasts to be “the world’s largest travel and lifestyle social network”, announced today that it reached new heights with membership now over 22-million people worldwide. The site currently sees around 5 000 new registered users daily with more than 21-million visitors in the last 60 days alone.

WAYN: an acronym for Where Are You Now, describes itself as a network that helps travellers make the most out of life by discovering where to go, what to do and who to meet.

“This is a very exciting time for WAYN, we have revamped the site to be a lot more aspirational and travel focused. The updated design has received key industry awards such as the prestigious world’s leading travel social network award in 2012 and best community of the year in 2012,” says Jerome Touze, co-founder of WAYN.

“It’s incredible to think that there are 31-million photos on WAYN now and this is growing by 25 000 new photos being uploaded each day. There are over 1-million messages, tips and activities being sent daily too,” he adds.

The network has been working quite hard to give its users the best experiences possible, launching a VIP segment that allows premium users special access to various locations around the world, discounted airfare and hotel rates as well preferential airport lounges.

Turning the site into a commerically viable business has also been a key driver for Touze this past year.

“The site has secured large commercial relationships in the last 12 months such as Indonesia Tourism, Brand USA, AT&T, Germany Tourism, St Helena Tourism, Reunion Tourism, William Hill, Nedbank to name but a few. We hope to continue to give our users new and engaging products so they will keep coming back and enjoying their WAYN experience,” says the founder.

For WAYN it’s more a case of catering to users’ aspirations rather than just a place to meet people and discover interesting places to visit. By using aspirational destinations and ideas, as well as powerful imagery, users can interact with each other, sharing experiences, tips and photos of spots they have been to.

The revamped site includes a live question-and-answer service where users can ask any questions and provide tips to other travellers. Since launching, the Q&A portion of the platform has seen “massive success” according to Touze, and sees an average of 30 answers per question asked.

“There is also a new stories platform on the site, giving members the chance to read about crazy, exciting and unusual things to do or see around the world, whether it is the top strangest places or the scariest bridges, this has added a new dimension to WAYN’s offering,” says the company.