About CIEDGE ADVENTURE

About the business

SUMMARY

Travelling has become a way of life. People are travelling the world now more than ever. Flight and hotel bookings are so easily done, it isn’t uncommon to see someone purchasing their next holiday while standing in line at the grocers or while waiting for their order of fries. But holidays involve much more than these two elements. Planning a holiday means curating everything from the moment you reach the airport to leave your home country for your holiday destination until you board that flight which will take you home again.

People go on holidays for the experience of seeing new places, trying new things, sampling new cuisines and the list goes on. In this day an age, it is easy to book everything online. But did you know that four (4) out of ten (10) activity providers do not sell their products online and many do not even have a website? This is especially evident in developing and under developed countries where only the biggest providers have the means to be available online. Smaller players who often offer the same services, sometimes at a lower price do not have an online presence making it difficult for travellers to make comparisons before selecting their options.

At CiEdge, we have developed the XTVT mobile application, an app platform which lists activities and attractions in Malaysia for free independent travellers so they can find activities mainly according to categories within travellers’ vicinity which will appear at the top of the list. All activities are pinned on the integrated map displayed within the activity page. XTVT currently have 800 activities listed in Malaysia and this number is rapidly growing as we uncover more.

On XTVT travellers will be able to find nearby accommodation, transport or activity providers to each activity. What makes us unique is that we make the experience personal by testing, testing and testing. We measure for statistically significant differences in how they engage with our activities. Then we come up with recommendations powered by algorithms that are based on the assumption that similar activity patterns represent similar travellers’ tastes.

We are a team of five (5) enthusiastic members covering operations, marketing, content strategy, strategic partnerships, data analytics, and developers. We started in early August 2019 and received a funding of RM1,500,000 to provide App presence for activity providers. Our aim is to make it easier for the 48.16 million free independent travellers in South East Asia to find and reserve tours and activities while they are travelling around this beautiful continent of ours.

PROBLEM

When you’re planning for a vacation overseas, how do you find activity packages? We’re guessing, you’d probably spend some time in looking for packages in platforms such as Klook, AirBnB or even Traveloka. Yes, it is! Similarly, for any travelers around the globe would have the same thought process. So, if you’re a traveler who’s excited to try and visit Malaysia and are looking for packages to purchase from these platforms, you will be utterly disappointed! Why? Because as soon as you hit enter into that search bar, you’ll be swarmed with pages of theme parks and KL tours. If you’re them, wont you feel like Malaysia has nothing much to offer? Is Malaysia truly a place that has nothing better than KL and theme parks? The answer is NO!

Then why are we only seeing such packages? Because only 2% of popular places are being featured online platforms. This is due to us not having a dedicated source to supply such activities to these platforms. These platforms can’t afford to do it themselves as they are more focused in opening new markets around the globe and simply do not have the resources to focus in each and every country they are present in and they need help!

Why should we help these platforms? Because tourism is one of the most important sources of income for our economy! Yet, our performance for the past 5 years has been poor. Not reaching our own target even once! A solution has to be materialized as soon as possible to target more travelers visiting Malaysia once the international borders are open and we will be able to use tourism to get our economy back on track.

SOLUTION

A centralized hub to aggregate Malaysian travel activity packages

We aim to become the local champion of Malaysian travel activity packages by aggregating these packages under the CiEdge B2B travel platform and supplying them to online travel platforms around the globe. This is done by providing a marketplace for local activity providers to digitalise their businesses. Their packages are uploaded via their own dashboard and then published in our B2C travel platform, XTVT Malaysia. Packages that are listed in XTVT Malaysia will then be distributed to various international online travel platforms by CiEdge.

Seamless API integration for bookings

The CiEdge B2B travel platform supplies Malaysian travel activity packages to the international travel platforms through API integration. This allows travelers to seamlessly book packages and receive instant confirmation. For activity providers, they can easily manage their bookings and transactions through our unique dashboard. They would be able to able to track their sales and packages as well as manage their customers with the help of XTVT’s Activity Provider dashboard.

PRODUCT

XTVT Malaysia is our B2C customer friendly travel platform catered for domestic tourists as well as international tourists who are already in Malaysia. This platform also enables the activity providers to feature their packages through XTVT’s Activity Provider dashboard.

CiEdge is our B2B travel tech platform that will enable the distribution of packages under XTVT Malaysia to international travel platforms.

CUSTOMERS

Our customers are divided into two categories; B2B and B2C.

Our B2B customers will be coming through our strategic B2B partners where they have presence in local regions around the globe. We’re expecting the access of international markets such as Australia, Middle East, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Europe and North America through Online Travel platforms such as Traveloka, GetYourGuide, Ctrip, etc. Our estimation of tourists from these channels in 2022 is 37,188.

In contrast, the B2C platform will focus in obtaining customers who are Malaysian as well as tourists who have already arrived in Malaysia. We estimate that we should be able to attract over 12,960 customers.

TRACTION

In the past 11 months, we were able to grow the business to have the following traction:

BUSINESS MODEL

We utilize a commission-based business model.

XTVT Malaysia (B2C) charges 10% commission to every sales made on the platform

CiEdge takes a commission of 15-25% on every sales made through partnering online travel platform.

MARKET

In total, over US$700 billion was spent on online travel agent globally. While the COVID19 pandemic will leave its scar on the industry, it is estimated that by the end of 2023, this market will continue to recover and grow to a revenue of over US$800 billion with a growth of 100 million users compared to 2019. With increase of more travelers utilizing the online travel platforms, we need to be pro-active in making sure that they have the interesting and quality packages to choose from if they decide to travel for Malaysia!

COMPETITION

Despite having some competition with these companies, these are the advantages we have over them:

Unique Solution: Only company that supplies adventure activities from Malaysia to international market
B2B and B2C Platform Ready: Available in both B2B and B2C mode that enable easier onboarding of activity providers
Symbiotic Combination: Able to create diversity of products for local competitors that are supplying hotels and transportation services to international travelers/platforms

FUNDING

The largest portion of the funding will be channeled to Branding & Marketing (42%) as well as the Operating Expenditure (32%). Another 21% will be shared between Technical Development (11%) and B2B Travel Tech Partnership fee (10%). 5% of total raised fund will also be channeled to PitchIn as part of the crowdfunding fee.