THREE Shenzhen teenagers teamed up with two Chinese-American sisters and their young startup is now a step closer to their web-based entrepreneurial dream, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

    That ambitious goal: Create an interactive platform for exchanging practical travel data and establishing global friendships.

    The five raised 1.5 million yuan (US$243,600) sourcing from several venture capital funds and now their social media platform, TravExchange, is on track.

    The concept was conceived and is now being implemented by high school students Wu Ziqian and Liu Yulin from Shenzhen Second High School, Jiang Yuxuan from Nantou High School, Gina Ni from Lowell High School and Gia Ni from Lincoln High School, both in San Francisco.

    The platform allows for exchange of travel information between individuals around the world. Global users can relay expertise in their city to others so that travelers can experience more at less expense.

    “Young people like to travel around the world and meet new friends, but the usual package tours with travel agencies are not so popular, anymore,” Wu said. “Most young people don’t have a lot of money, but they still want to travel and enjoy life abroad. They can do that by getting info from local people.”

    The program, conceived by the Chinese-American sisters, was at first slow to launch due to a lack of technical support. Then Wu came to know the sisters at China Software Developer Network, one of the largest software developer networks in China. The project was soon off and running.

    The group established clearly defined individual areas of responsibility. Wu is in charge of program operation, Jiang handles design, while Liu provides technical support. The Chinese-American sisters handle strategic planning.

    Wu explains that users can post their travel requirements for specific destinations on TravExchange. They can then examine corresponding information posted by residents of the destination cities listed. Users can also negotiate for better deals with different information providers.

    Wu says the program’s primary target users are high school and college students. At startup they will introduce virtual money to woo public support. Later they hope to generate profits by selling advertising on the web platform.

    The team completed web page and app designs for Android mobiles and development for other devices is progressing.

    Not yet open to the public, the site and collateral apps will officially launch in July.

    To increase public awareness and build a user base, the concept and plan was presented on a public fundraising network. So far more than 108,000 yuan was raised as of last week’s deadline. (Anna Zhao)