After saving 20% ​​on the Web3 consumption platform for business trips in Hong Kong, I chatted with the founder of Umy.

Interview: Tong, PANews

Written by: Frank, PANews

During the just-concluded 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, as the official media partner of the conference, PANews went to the scene to report. Unlike in the past, this time we tried to actually book the air tickets and hotels for this Hong Kong itinerary. In addition to being much cheaper than the traditional platform, we can also settle directly with stablecoins, which is much more convenient for the Web3 team. How can a Web3 business travel platform have a price advantage over traditional platforms?

With this curiosity, PANews chatted with Alex, the founder and CEO of Umy who attended the event at the event. At the bustling booth, Alex introduced us to the business logic and future blueprint that challenged the traditional OTA pricing system. Umy's model seems to explore a new paradigm for Web3 companies to advance into traditional scenarios.

Web3 infrastructure is mature, and it is time to solve the pain points in

consumption scenarios

PANews: Can you introduce the background of the team, especially the founding team?

Alex: Our team actually entered the currency circle from 2018 to 2019. The team members have many backgrounds, including those from traditional Internet manufacturers, overseas prestigious universities, and members with strong technical or research capabilities in the currency circle. When we decided to focus on the Umy project last year, we integrated the team and established an independent company. Including me, I am a total of four co-founders.

PANews: Are these four Lianchuang all Web3 backgrounds?

Alex: Three are the Web3 background. There is also a person from the traditional air ticket hotel industry, with rich experience and good resources. He is mainly responsible for the integration of sales and supply chain resources. Other positions include CTO, and a VP and I are responsible for the future business expansion of the entire Umy Group.

PANews: What would you say if you introduced Umy in one sentence?

Alex: Umy is a comprehensive consumption platform in the Web3 field. Our Slogan is "travel, shopping, and life", which actually represents our gradual in-depth layout: start from the biggest urgent need of "travel", and gradually expand to all aspects of e-commerce and life in the future. We give priority to serving Web3 users, but we also welcome and support traditional Internet users. We have opened credit card payment channels and will also access more traditional payment channels in the future.

PANews: Why did you finally choose to enter the tourism consumption track first?

Alex: In the past few years, the implementation of Web3 infrastructure, especially better public chains and expansion solutions, has reduced Gas fees to extremely low and transaction speed has also been greatly improved. This lays the foundation for building consumer applications that truly solve users' high-frequency needs. In the past, it was unrealistic to do daily consumption for dozens of U, and to trade for a few minutes. Now that the technical conditions are ripe, we believe that the time has come, and we should use the decentralized, transparent, low-cost characteristics of Web3, combined with our products and our experience in making them close to users, to solve the pain points in traditional consumption scenarios, such as travel. So Umy came into being.

Don't make profits from user prices, don't kill familiar people

PANews: What do you refer to in terms of travel and travel? What are the core advantages of Umy compared with traditional OTA platforms?

Alex: The most important thing is price and transparency. Traditional OTA platforms (such as "Kacheng") have the right to control pricing. From hotel cost prices to users, there are multiple agents to increase the price, which may be as high as 20% or even more. They will also use big data to "kill old customers". The prices seen by different users may be different, and high-level members are sometimes more expensive.

Umy's advantages are:

Price advantage: We directly connect with suppliers, cut off the intermediate links, and strive to directly give the supplier's reserve price to users without making a profit from the C-end price difference. Users can also feel the actual experience. For example, when you book with Umy in Hong Kong this time, you can get about 20% cheaper.

Transparency: We do not "kill old customers", and we plan to put price information on the chain in the future to achieve openness and transparency.

Convenience of crypto payment: Supports payment of various cryptocurrencies such as USDT/USDC, which facilitates direct consumption of Web3 users, and also supports WeChat and Alipay to meet a wider range of needs.

PANews: If you don’t make a profit from user price difference, what is Umy’s business model? How to make a profit?

Alex: Our profit model has changed our thinking and does not rely on the price difference of the C-end. It mainly comes from two aspects:

Supplier Rebate: As a sales channel, we will receive a certain proportion of rebate from suppliers such as hotels and airlines.

Value-added service fee: For B-end customers or high-end individual users with special needs (such as company group building, family vacation customization, conference services, etc.), we provide one-to-one exclusive services and charge service fees. For price-sensitive users who only require standard booking services, they can enjoy near zero markups.

PANews: In addition to the price advantage, what other features does Umy have in its products and services to attract users?

Alex: Not only do we offer standard airfare hotel reservations, we also launch:

Luxury Travel (prime) sector: meet users who have needs for high-end hotels and customized itineraries.

Featured products: Provide services such as island tours, ski packages, conference venue docking and other services in response to the needs of the Web3 community and project parties.

Membership system: Through different levels such as gold cards, platinum cards, black cards, etc., it provides price discounts, exclusive customer service, priority resource matching and other rights.

Payment Solution (UmyPay): We have developed a payment system that aggregates cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies. This system also has the potential to provide it to other companies as a B2B service in the future.

PANews: Cryptocurrency payment is a feature of Umy. What currencies are currently supported? How do you deal with the risk of exchange rate fluctuations after users pay for cryptocurrencies?

Alex: Currently, it mainly supports USDT and USDC, but will soon expand support for BTC, ETH and more mainstream and emerging currencies. After the user pays, we will manage exchange rate risks through internal exchange strategies and partners. We lock the exchange rate in real time or exchange it for stablecoins as much as possible, and then exchange it for the corresponding fiat currency when it needs to settle with the supplier. We will strive to keep the cost of exchange users at an extremely low level, such as a few tens of thousands.

PANews: There are also some other Web3 travel projects on the market, such as Travala. Compared with them, what are the differences in Umy's positioning and advantages?

Alex: The main difference is price strategy and service scope. We emphasize that the price given to users is basically zero commission and no price increase, and it is understood that Travela may still have a price increase rate of 15%-20%. In addition, we have a deeper layout in luxury hotels (luxury travel sector) and B-end customized services for the Web3 industry. In addition, we also provide a richer non-standard products.

PANews: What about products like U cards (cryptocurrency credit cards)? Will it be a competitor?

Alex: Not only is it not a competitor, but a better partner and an ecological co-builder. U cards are payment tools that solve the problem of "how to spend money", and users can use it to spend anywhere, including Umy. Umy solves the problem of "where to spend money more and experience better", and provides specific consumption scenarios and value. We have a complementary relationship with U card, and we will cooperate with more U card projects in the future.

Vigorously develop overseas markets and implement Web3 technology into

consumption scenarios that require urgent needs

PANews: What is Umy's current market focus and future expansion plans?

Alex: Before April this year, we mainly conducted tests and trial operations in internal and familiar circles. After April, with the improvement of product iteration, our market focus will shift overseas on a large scale. Key cities include Dubai, London, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, etc., as well as the Asia-Pacific region. There are also some popular tourist destinations, such as Jeju Island, Maldives, Mount Fuji/Hokkaido ski area, etc. Since June is the peak tourist season, we hope to seize this opportunity to gain popularity in the two markets of Web2 and Web3.

PANews: How do you view the impact of the current bear market on Umy's business?

Alex: I think the bear market is an opportunity. People may be busy trading in bull markets, and speculation decreases in bear markets. Instead, they may be more willing to use the cryptocurrency they hold to improve their lives and experience consumption, and the demand for travel may be stronger. For our team, the bear market also allows us to focus on polishing products.

PANews: What strategies does Umy have in brand cooperation and ecological construction? For example, participating in the Web3 Festival this time?

Alex: We attach great importance to B-end cooperation and brand endorsement. Participating in top industry events like the Web3 Conference is very helpful for us to establish brand awareness, connect with investment institutions, project parties and traffic platforms in the early stage. We are also actively cooperating with major wallets and exchanges to provide consumption scenarios for their users and achieve ecological co-construction.

PANews: In addition to travel, Umy will expand to in the future?

Alex: In the future, Umy can become an entrance to traffic and resources (or "grabble"). On the one hand, users can find various Web3 consumption scenarios on the Umy platform. On the other hand, project parties can also obtain traffic, brand exposure and early support through Umy, including solving infrastructure problems such as payment.

PANews: In addition to blockchain technology, does Umy have any applications in AI?

Alex: Our team has actually been deploying AI-related solutions and products, including AI solutions in the field of travel. In the future (maybe the second half of the year), we will open up relevant APIs and provide them to AI Agent or other AI projects according to the standards. For example, if an e-commerce AI application is connected to our API, its users may only need to say one sentence: "Where will I go to and where will I attend?" Our AI can automatically analyze the time, location, purpose and other factors, plan the best air ticket hotel plan, and come with a comparison of competitor prices, showing how much cost it saves. You can even combine destination information, weather, surrounding recommendations, etc. to generate several complete itinerary plans for users to choose from.

PANews: Many Web3 projects will issue coins. How does Umy consider this?

Alex: At present, our team is planning for equity financing and future listing. Issuing coins is of course an option, and we can also do it in compliance overseas, but we don’t want to do it for the time being. First, in order to maintain the original intention and do a good job in products and businesses; second, issuing coins will be too affected by the market cycle, which may affect the company's development rhythm and user sentiment, and may also bring additional compliance pressure and maintenance costs. It is more stable to take the equity route. Of course, we do not rule out that at the right time in the future, if issuing coins is indeed more conducive to the development of users and ecosystems, we will consider issuing tokens, but now the focus is on making the products and business solid first.

PANews: Will Umy move from "a process" of Web3 to "Taobao of Web3" in the future?

Alex: We don’t actually have that great ambition to eat up all the consumer tracks. What we want to do more is to create a solid model for the "Web3 technology to be implemented in urgent need consumption scenarios". We hope to join forces with more like-minded friends to promote this direction, which is more in line with the decentralized spirit of Web3. It is enough for us to do our own vertical products and services. In the future, we can even support and help other project parties who want to do similar directions to prosper the Web3 consumption ecosystem together.