Featured Company / ZoomAway Travel Inc.

Uber, Slack, Zoom, Pinterest, Lyft, AirBnB, Palantir, etc.  2019 could go down as the year for tech IPOs, potentially even surpassing the record levels set during the dot com boom across 1999-2000.  It certainly speaks to a couple of points: 1) technological advancements are thriving, and 2) investors can’t get enough of them.

Anything social remains white hot (look at some of the aforementioned names), as does the electronic gaming space.  Social networking sites in the U.S. alone have grown at a whopping 29.1% compound annual growth rate during 2014-2019, with total revenue for 2019 expected to exceed $40 billion, according to IBIS World. 

The industry analysts at Statista show that the online social gaming market revenue in the United States is expected to expand from $2.15 billion in 2017 to $2.4 billion by 2020. The firm further states that the majority of those revenues are currently and will continue to be, attributed to app-based social gaming, which is expected to account for nearly 84% of the entire U.S. online social games market in 2020. Additionally, Statista noted that time spent on mobile devices grew from 107 minutes in 2012 to 223 minutes in 2017.

ZoomAway Travel Inc. (TSX-Venture:ZMA) (OTC:ZMWYF) is using technology to marry e-gaming and hospitality, employing geo-location and other modern tech to create a unique way for users to experience cities and businesses worldwide, either physically or virtually. 

ZoomAway is building on years of experience in the hospitality business providing fully branded, white-label booking interfaces for hotels and resorts that bundle accommodations with activities.  More than 150,000 rooms have been booked through ZoomAway products, along with over 200,000 rounds of golf and 100,000 ski tickets.

Diversifying from hotels and events, ZoomAway recently unveiled its concept coined “ZoomedOUT”, a novel product built by the company’s development team at Zero8 Studios that pushes the boundaries of location-driven games with simple yet addictive gameplay mechanics, all while seamlessly integrating with real-world hospitality features for businesses and points of interest.  The ZoomedOUT platform is expected to be paired with other mainstream mapping technologies similar to successful games like Niantic’s Pokemon Go coupled with a theme park look and feel and function as a game as well as a utility.

Overall, ZoomedOUT is influenced by multiple tried-and-true game methodologies, such as in the location-based games Pokemon Go and Jurassic World Alive. Furthermore, there is quest-based resource management as influenced by Clash of Clans or Vikings: War of Clans and clicker-based resource management like that in Adventure Capitalist and Brave Frontier.

The crux of the game is for players, either individually or as teams, to capture buildings by meeting specific requirements.  Once the requirements are met the player can begin the “conquer” process through either an elapsed time quest or a clicker like a takeover meter. The goal is to conquer and maintain every building or point of interest in a given city all while collecting as many resources as possible.

Users that are playing in cities where they are physically located will receive certain benefits to that city.  Conquering cities requires accumulating resources.  This means that players will be incentivized to visit certain locations to collect different resources, albeit a gas station (for fuel resources), a restaurant (for food resources), hotel (energy resources) or any other type of local destination.  This, of course, brings a business – and advertising – component into the spirit of the game.

Players can go to real life locations for exclusive resources, perks, etc. As new businesses join the game, they can constantly change their buildings influence and benefits potentially creating endless new strategies on how to play the game every time you play.

The initial launch city for the game is Las Vegas, an appropriate choice given the amount of activity in “Sin City” and the millions of visitors that could play ZoomedOUT and reap rewards.

Rather than the invasive ads that can annoy users, ZoomedOUT provides an opportunity for businesses to advertise in a manner that is more like the real world. This can mean a billboard or a plane flying by or even animating their current location to catch the user’s attention to drive visitors.

ZoomedOUT further incorporates additional popular concepts, such as using third-party APIs for reviews, rewards, and coupons to encourage real-world and virtual traffic and – going back to ZoomAway Travel’s legacy business – one-click portals to reservation systems within the game.

In totality, ZoomedOUT is employing key components of sites and services like Facebook, Yelp, Groupon, Pokemon Go, Trip Advisor, Clash of Clans and more rolled up into one neat package.

The game has a diverse revenue model, ranging from free for players to “VIP” for businesses.  As with other games, players can upgrade to monthly subscriptions or make in-app purchases to speed up the conquering process or benefit from a catalog of resources.   For companies, players can have the option to watch advertisements that assist in the conquering process in addition to more traditional ads like those mentioned (billboards, banners, etc.).  Advertised businesses will also be offered monthly subscriptions that allow them to upgrade their building from a standard map image (that is part of the game) to one that makes conquering their building more valuable to players, with added business information and more. 

To that end, management has provided estimate revenues based upon user and corporate adoption.  The estimates are built upon an initial investment starting capital of just $750 thousand, which ZoomAway has already raised via convertible debt financing for the development of ZoomedOUT, as well as mergers and acquisitions.

24 months following the launch of the game, a “worst case” scenario is projected at 800,000 daily active users (DAU), 8% user acquisition (of total audience reach), 140 business subscribers and 10% in-app purchases (IAP), 8% subscriptions of DAU pool, which would drive about $253,000 per month in revenue.  The “expected” scenario is for 2 million DAU in 24 months, 20% user acquisition, 15% IAP, 9% subscriptions from DAU pool and 350 business subscribers for $2.6 million in monthly revenue.  The “best case” scenario is for 3.5 million DAU in 24 months, 35% user acquisition, 20% IAP, 10% subscriptions from DAU pool and 550 business subscribers for $3.7 million in monthly revenue.   These are estimates only.

The company is targeting a full-scale release of ZoomedOUT during the first quarter of 2020. 

Not every game is going to be a blockbuster, but Pokemon Go, Minecraft, Fortnite and others show just how fast a game can go viral.  Since it is being referenced as a comparable for its location-based component, consider that Pokemon Go made an estimated $600 million in revenue for its developer, Niantic Labs, in the first three months after it launched in the summer of 2016 as an example of what a blockbuster can generate.

ZoomAway Travel Inc. (TSX-Venture:ZMA) (OTC:ZMWYF) has already cut its teeth in the hospitality space.  Its vision and innovation with ZoomedOUT is pioneering a truly unique blend of hospitality and gaming.  Geo-caching is wildly popular. Gaming and social media are at the root of our society today.  Online booking and advertising are now embedded in our culture.  The question is: Will marrying all of these things together be a windfall for ZoomAway?  The concept certainly is compelling.