Creating a reputation after receiving a million USD investment from Shark Pham Thanh Hung, on the morning of September 21, Astra Tourism Social Network Project was officially launched, along with a spectacular investment signing ceremony in Hanoi.
The story of Astra
Remember, not so long ago, the Astra tourism social network project attracted attention when it successfully raised $ 1 million from Shark Pham Thanh Hung in the Shark Tank Vietnam program. Few people know that Astra is also one of the rare projects to receive funding from Shark shortly after the project is broadcast for a few days.
In the morning of September 21, 2019, the launch ceremony of the Astra Tourism Social Network Project and the signing of investment cooperation was solemnly held in Hanoi. At the ceremony, Shark Hung – one of the Sharks of Shark Tank Vietnam, joked that this is definitely the project with the most spectacular launch ceremony during the three seasons of Shark Tank Vietnam. This claim is even more certain because the guests included Shark Dzung Nguyen, Shark Tran Anh Vuong, and many other famous names in the tourism industry as well as start-ups.
Astra is a travel social network that utilizes a compensation model for users and applies blockchain technology to ensure fairness, transparency and efficiency. In the opening speech, CEO Nguyen Tiep affirmed: “Astra tourism social network is creating what society needs. While other social network platforms are gradually being diluted, Astra focuses on the niche market. Due to the schedule, the content will be simpler and more friendly. In particular, Astra was born to change the passive travel habits of Vietnamese people. In 2018, tourism contributed US $ 26 billion to the total value of the economy. This confirms that Vietnam is a country that sees tourism development as its strength. At the same time, the best way to promote Vietnam to the world is tourism.”
The investors
Meanwhile, Shark Pham Thanh Hung explained the reason why he invested money immediately in this project, which is very popular at the moment: “The travel and service review models are increasingly popular, such as TripAdvisor in the world, Michelin … Especially, in Vietnam, there are two strengths for developing the economy: agriculture and tourism. However, these potentials have not been adequately exploited. Moreover, you should not build houses on other people’s land, and recently the government is encouraging the development of social networks created by Vietnamese people. Today, the launch of the project also implies an outspoken significance of Astra’s efforts, and calls for the participation of the community, including knowledge and material resources for tourism which are created by Vietnamese people so that it can go global”
In particular, Astra tourism social network uses the blockchain system used to ensure transparency in rewarding users who contribute valuable content. Astra’s Chief Technology Officer – Phung Huan shared: “The blockchain system that Astra built includes complex formulas, algorithms, Big Data and AI applications. This is an effort of a team of nearly 70 engineers to bring the best experience for users.”
Receiving Astra as a pioneering and daring project, Shark Tran Anh Vuong commented: “First of all, we need to praise this project because it is a social network made by Vietnamese people. As I said before, if there is no startup, then there is no success, so the market needs a lot of pioneers like Astra. On the other hand, entering a niche market, Astra has proved the vision of the founding team, recognizing that tourism is a good land but not fully exploited yet.”
The Astra project
Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Tuan Ha – the Chief Executive Officer of Vinalink, a leading expert on marketing and brand in Vietnam, said: “Astra’s way of going is completely different from other social network products that have been launched recently. Instead of rushing to develop the beta, Astra focused on building the system, developing enough target users, taking care of this object before launching the official version. Astra also proved to be advantageous when gathering large inventory sources, helping businesses when designing tours, or users when using to achieve optimization, use the service at a cheaper price. As being in an online travel market where Booking and Agoda account for 50% of the market share, Astra promises to be an appropriate solution to bring confidence to customers. line.”
At the project launch ceremony, Astra’s founders, investors, advisory councils and guests joined hands on the balls to activate the project. Besides, the signing ceremony also took place with Shark Hung opening, along with 22 other venture capitalists. According to the Chief Executive Officer – Nguyen Tiep, the lauch event is expected to take place on December 12, 2019, with the largest scale ever.
Sunshine
According to Nhip song kinh te