If you've seen Tim Burton's film "Big Fish," you'll appreciate today's entrepreneurial story even more. This company, also called "Fishtrip,” draws its name from the movie and tells a story about travel, courage, and imagination.
"Life is a fairy tale; only with imagination can you take action, and only with action can your life be extraordinary and colorful," says Na Yao, founder and CEO of Fishtrip.
A Unique Fish
The distance between a humanities student and the founder of an internet company is the ambition to dive deep and transform the tourism industry's supply chain from the bottom.
In the vast sea of the internet, Na Yao is a unique fish.
She entered this domain early. In 2005, during her second year of her master's program at Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication, Na Yao became one of the first employees of Google China. At Google, she deeply understood the power of the internet as a productive force. Using internet product technology to drive business models can profoundly change the way people and things connect. In 2008, Na Yao left Google and honed her skills at two internet startups.
"The time has come for Chinese internet companies to go global! China is at the forefront in terms of technology application and product innovation, especially in combining the internet with life services," says Na Yao. This was the background of Na Yao's entrepreneurial journey and her unwavering determination to venture overseas in the internet field.
To combine the internet with life services and use it to transform and reshape a traditional industry, Na Yao chose the tourism industry, which she was most interested in. In February 2013, she and her technical partner Xunzhang Huang registered Beijing Fishtrip Network Technology Co., Ltd. "We want to dive deep like a big fish and transform the tourism industry's supply chain from the bottom up." Thus, Fishtrip set sail.
We know that tourism products typically consist of eating, lodging, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment. They can be divided into two categories: standardized and non-standardized. For example, hotels are standardized products, while B&Bs, inns, apartments, and villas, which offer more personalized facilities and services, are non-standardized products. Non-standardized tourism products provide users with the most authentic local experiences, catering to the personalized needs of new-generation travelers and driving the upgrade of tourism consumption and products.
Due to the fragmented nature of non-standardized tourism products and the difficulty of collecting them, the traditional tourism industry relies on local travel agencies for overseas travel. These local agencies control all the destination resources. As a result, domestic travel agencies find it challenging to manage overseas operations, and travelers have to share the costs of these local agencies. Controlling destination resources is a significant pain point in outbound travel, which Fishtrip aims to address.
Fishtrip seeks these emotionally rich and story-filled non-standardized tourism products. A team of travel-loving internet enthusiasts, with an average age of 27, embarked on this journey with the ambition to reshape the tourism industry's supply chain using the internet, despite having little traditional tourism industry background.
A Fluid World
The internet has broken the physical boundaries of companies and people's identity boundaries. A person can be a company employee during the day, an Airbnb host at night, and a Fishtrip travel hunter on weekends and holidays.
Mengying Zhao is a senior at Beijing Technology and Business University. Last November, she spent three weeks in Bali and earned about 16,000 yuan. Can you make money while traveling? The secret lies in her role as a Fishtrip "travel hunter."
Launched in 2014, "Travel Hunter" is a crowdsourced platform for global destination tourism resource collection. It mobilizes travel enthusiasts or locals to find professional, high-quality, and interesting non-standard tourism resources at various travel destinations. Hunters follow app prompts to reach designated locations, complete tasks, and receive substantial cash rewards.
Na Yao showed the reporter a new task on the Travel Hunter platform: finding the Royal Palace Youth Hostel in Bangkok, Thailand, and securing a partnership with the hostel owner. The task involves taking photos and videos of the hostel and submitting them to the system. Completing the task within four days earns $32. Hunters only need to visit the hostel, confirm the supplier's authenticity, and upload the information. All tasks are completed via smartphone, and the backend verifies the task's location using GPS data.
"The software is user-friendly, and the tasks are easy to follow. I can complete a task in 30 to 40 minutes," said Mengying Zhao. She completed over 80 tasks in two weeks in Bali, earning about 200 yuan per task. "Traveling turned from spending money to making money, which made me very happy."
Not only travelers are happy but also locals. Tony Dzuong, a freelance writer in Hanoi, Vietnam, registered as a travel hunter two months ago. He has completed 66 tasks, earning about $1,600. "Being a part-time hunter increased my income, allowed me to make many friends, and work in an international environment, which is fantastic."
The slogan of "Travel Hunter" is—time creates greater value through paid exchanges. "This value appears to be the time hunters contribute and the money Fishtrip provides. However, the exchange creates even greater value," Na Yao said. Fishtrip creates job opportunities locally and introduces Chinese internet products and technology. Hunters earn income, destination resources get promoted, and Fishtrip saves on business expansion costs while acquiring numerous direct suppliers. Additionally, they can sell the photos and videos hunters take to generate revenue.
Standardizing business development processes and using products and technology to drive business models are key to the success of Travel Hunter. Today, Fishtrip relies on over 60,000 hunters in more than 20 global destinations to control destination resources. The number of accommodations increases by 3,000 to 4,000 each month, making Fishtrip one of the few tourism startups with international direct procurement capabilities.
Once connected with Travel Hunter, suppliers can register on WAKA Technology—Fishtrip's global destination tourism resource precision marketing platform. Here, Fishtrip unifies distribution for direct procurement resources, becoming a supplier for major OTAs (online travel agencies) like Ctrip, eLong, and Qunar. Suppliers only need to update their inventory and prices in real-time, and their services can be distributed globally through the WAKA platform. Fishtrip charges a commission on each completed order.
"From resource collection to information management and maintenance, and unified distribution on a global online platform, this is the process of transforming the entire supply chain," Na Yao said. The Fishtrip team spent four years fundamentally changing the relationship between users, suppliers, and the platform, addressing the information asymmetry, fragmented suppliers, and lack of standardization in traditional tourism.
Besides reshaping the supply chain, data on destination operators, service content, and inventory prices will collectively form a structured database in a vertical field. This dynamic database, capable of real-time updates and self-repair, will become the foundation and core of artificial intelligence, offering greater possibilities for Fishtrip. Travel hunters act as data collectors, while WAKA Technology manages and updates the database.
Next, Fishtrip will expand from specialty accommodations to all categories of food, lodging, and entertainment, focusing on developing its travel accommodation booking platform, Fishtrip Travel. In the future, users will not only book accommodations on Fishtrip Travel but also contact travel hunters for guided tours and travel companionship, experiencing the most authentic travel.
Na Yao said, "The biggest change brought by entrepreneurship is knowing when to think divergently and when to think convergently. Divergence is imagining how the world should operate, envisioning new forms, new worlds, and new cooperation models. When doing things, we need to converge and focus. This is what I often tell the core team members—the tension of thinking."
The Meaning of a Journey
From renting a desk in someone else's office in Wangjing, Beijing, to owning a floor of an office building in Sanyuanqiao, and soon moving to a standalone building in Liangmaqiao, Fishtrip is growing.
Fishtrip is growing.
From the initial two-person registration to a team of 120 people.
From renting a desk in someone else's office in Wangjing, Beijing, to owning a floor of an office building in Sanyuanqiao, Fishtrip will move to a standalone building in Liangmaqiao on June 25.
Tianxiang Xiong is known as the soul of Fishtrip. She was the first employee hired by the company, a diligent aunt who can cook well. Over the years, Aunt Xiong's serving dishes have grown from two or three plates to five or six large bowls with a diameter of 30 centimeters. No wonder Fishtrip employees say, "As long as Auntie's food is good, the team will thrive."
Na Yao said, "I don't believe entrepreneurship means struggling to make ends meet. My employees and I need to eat well, with three meals a day on time, plus fruit, snacks, and afternoon tea. We need energy to tackle the various challenges on the entrepreneurial journey."
Talking about the difficulties of entrepreneurship, Na Yao recalled a financing experience. She visited a top domestic investment company where 20 investors lined up to question her, "You don't have experience as an executive in a large company, can you manage a company? Your team lacks experience in the tourism industry, can you succeed in tourism?" Na Yao responded, "I may not know how to swim now, but I have the courage to jump into the water. As long as I persevere, I will learn to swim."
That company ultimately did not invest in Fishtrip. Facing skepticism and doubt on the entrepreneurial path, "I don’t care" is Na Yao's mantra. "Don't worry too much about others' evaluations. My focus is always on what I want to achieve. If we concentrate all our efforts on one point, it will become a prism reflecting colorful light."
Following China Growth Capital, Fishtrip received a total of 500 million yuan from Fidelity and Ctrip. Now, it has independent revenue-generating capability. Next, Fishtrip aims to bring in strategic investors for better resources.
“This is a highly creative team,” said Maohua Sun, Chief Operating Officer of Ctrip Group. “Fishtrip explores solutions to manpower issues using purely technical means, relying on data-driven and product management. They have made valuable attempts in the ‘Internet plus’ space. While Ctrip operates like a large advancing team, Fishtrip is like a special forces unit. Their innovative research has provided us with much inspiration, and we can support Fishtrip’s innovative development with more resources, creating a complementary ecosystem. We hope Fishtrip will continue to explore its business model and specific operations, and we look forward to more surprises from Fishtrip.”
Honghao Yang , Deputy Director of the Industry Institute of the China Tourism Academy, believes, “Fishtrip’s three platforms have high relevance and strong synergy. Especially the Travel Hunter platform, the model is novel. It not only reduces the cost of acquiring suppliers but also enhances the authenticity of accommodation data compared to the mode where suppliers upload data themselves. Facing competition from some sharing economy platforms, Fishtrip needs to continuously innovate and optimize its business model to further enhance its core competitiveness.”
“The biggest growth over the years has been in management,” said Na Yao. “When we first started, there were only a few people, and resources were limited, so we had to inspire everyone’s fighting spirit and encourage cross-functional work. Later, when there were forty or fifty people, we had to learn to work with boundaries, understanding processes and rules. Now with over a hundred people, the new challenge is to form a unified understanding and introduce data-driven management.”
No one tells Fishtrip what to do next; it’s entirely up to their own exploration. This is indeed challenging but also a great experience. As Yajie Tang, Fishtrip’s Operations Director, said, “Every day feels like navigating sharp turns on a highway, but each turn reveals new and exciting scenery, with exploration and surprises coexisting.”
Words from the Entrepreneur
We are fortunate to live in an era where the internet rapidly integrates into various industries and the government strongly supports innovation and entrepreneurship. Life is a journey of entrepreneurship. Regardless of winning or losing, give it your all, stay enthusiastic and optimistic, embrace challenges, and keep moving forward.
Entrepreneurship teaches you when to think broadly and when to focus. Broad thinking is about envisioning new ways for the world to operate, imagining new forms and collaborations. When it’s time to execute, focus and concentrate on the task at hand.