Connecting Urban Nomads Worldwide

Once upon a time there was a depressed man named Louis, who recently lost his favorite sweatshirt from New York. There’s no website to buy it and he won’t go back for at least a few years….

Across the pond sat a man named Nick, a New Yorker traveling to London for the first time. With only one weekend in London he wants to find the best possible pub for fish n chips. But alas, every pub claims to be “THE BEST” and Trip Advisor gives everyone 5 stars…

Fortunately for both Louis and Nick, the stars aligned and created a website to solve all of the problems and limitations faced by today’s Urban Nomads.

An online platform co-created and crowd-sourced by today’s traveling young urban professionals (yuppie’s) to connect and exchange information about all of the most up-to-date international trends and products. (Majchrzak et al., 2013)

Louis went on RyoCo and put in a “local request,” for his sweatshirt, the website then matched him with various profiles of other Urban Nomads in New York. The first person on his list of matches (sorted by departure date) is Nick, traveling to London in two weeks! Ecstatic, Louis writes to Nick, sending a request for the sweatshirt along with a photo. Nick responds that he lives two blocks away from the store and he can certainty bring it, in exchange for information on the best fish n chips.

When the two agree, Louis wire transfers the sweatshirt money to RyoCo, the website holds the money until the transaction is complete. This creates a formal agreement between the two; once Nick sees that the money is available, he purchases the sweatshirt. Finally, before meeting, they pick a meeting place, from one of the standard suggestions like coffee or beer, or something unique that they decide together.

Two weeks later Nick and Louis have coffee at a local shop in London, upon meeting, the two go on the mobile app, agree upon a mutual password to unlock the “exchange process;” following the prompt screens Louis confirms that he has received his sweatshirt, instantly the money in the RyoCo holding account is transferred to Nick’s bank account. So simple! Done in three clicks!

The two sit down for coffee and Louis tells Nick the best place for fish and chips, and asks if he wants to join him and his friends to a bar with live jazz.

Although it sounds too good to be true, thanks to value co-creation facilitated through two-sided networks, platforms like RyoCo can bring together both sides of the market to be active value creators in the new system. (Eisenmann et al, 2006)

Currently no substitute or comparison exists, the RyoCo platform maximizes utility and value for every stakeholder; accomplished by utilizing a variety of informal and formal institutional arrangements while maximizing on active consumer participation and created value that is driven and facilitated by both Online Community and Platform environments. (Carson et al., 1999) (Saarijarvi et al., 2013)

Now that you know….

Tell everyone about RyoCo!

The website and app linking global Travelers with Locals and trending regional restaurants, bars and boutiques.

References

Agrawal, Ajay K., Christian Catalini, and Avi Goldfarb. “Some simple economics of crowdfunding”. No. w19133. National Bureau of Economic Research (2013).

Bateman, Patrick J., Peter H. Gray, and Brian S. Butler. “Research Note-The Impact of Community Commitment on Participation in Online Communities.” Information Systems Research 22.4   (2011): 841-854.

Carson, Stephen J., et al. “Understanding institutional designs within marketing value systems.” Journal of Marketing (1999): 115-130.

Dellarocas, C. (2003). The Digitization of Word of Mouth: Promise and Challenges of Online Feedback Mechanisms. Management Science

Eisenmann, Thomas, Geoffrey Parker, and Marshall W. Van Alstyne. “Strategies for two-            sided markets.” Harvard Business Review 84.10 (2006): 92.

Majchrzak, A., and A. Malhotra. “Towards an information systems perspective and research agenda on crowdsourcing for innovation.” Journal of Strategic Information Systems 

Özpolat, K., Gao, G., Jank, W., & Viswanathan, S. (2013). The Value of Third-Party Assurance Seals in Online Retailing: An Empirical Investigation. Information Systems Research”

Saarijärvi, Hannu, P. K. Kannan, and Hannu Kuusela. “Value co-creation: theoretical          approaches and practical implications.” European Business Review 25.1 (2013): 6-            19.

Strategic Business Insight. (2014). VALS™ | VALS™ Types | SBI. Retrieved June 8, 2014,          from http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/ustypes.shtml

The RyoCo concept has been brought to you by the combined efforts of GM Group 9: 

Agnes, Alison, Konstantina, Marijn & Nelly