A travel agency for virtual worlds. Synthravels is the first travel organization to offer a guide service to anyone who wants to tour highly-hyped virtual worlds like Second Life or World of Warcraft.
The increasing complexity of virtual worlds is making them more interesting, fun and potentially lucrative. But it's also creating a considerable threshold for newbies, especially for those who have little or no experience with online gaming. Compare it to snatching a tourist from his annual holiday in Myrtle Beach and dropping him in the back streets of Mumbai ;-)
Which is why it makes perfect sense for two savvy Italian entrepreneurs to set up a service that takes curious explorers by the hand and shows them the wonders of metaworlds. A customer registers with Synthravels, picks a destination and preferred day and hour for the trip. Within a few days, he or she receives an itinerary by email. To prepare, a visitor has to download any software needed for the virtual world and should also create an avatar. After logging in on the selected day and time, the visitor will find an expert guide waiting to show them the ropes, from the basics of maneuvering to finding elusive and exclusive virtual hotspots. For More: www.synthravels.com
Friday, March 23, 2007
No Middleman
UK-based Zopa, a place where creditworthy consumers who'd like to borrow money can get together with other consumers who are happy to lend it to them. Cutting out the middleman, lenders set their own rate of return and choose which borrowers they want to lend to. Zopa manages various 'markets', matching lenders with borrowers' various risk profiles. Intrepid lenders might choose borrowers at a lower credit band who can give them a higher rate of interest. Cautious lenders can choose borrowers at a higher credit band, but then of course the rate will be lower.
To reduce overall risk, an individual lender doesn't actually lend to an individual borrower; instead a lender lends money across at least fifty Zopa borrowers, and similarly a borrower borrows from a group of Zopa lenders. All lenders and borrowers enter into a legally binding contract with their respective borrowers and lenders. Zopa manages the collection of monthly repayments and if any of that money is not paid on time, it uses exactly the same recovery processes that mainstream banks use.
To reduce overall risk, an individual lender doesn't actually lend to an individual borrower; instead a lender lends money across at least fifty Zopa borrowers, and similarly a borrower borrows from a group of Zopa lenders. All lenders and borrowers enter into a legally binding contract with their respective borrowers and lenders. Zopa manages the collection of monthly repayments and if any of that money is not paid on time, it uses exactly the same recovery processes that mainstream banks use.
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