Jizo.ru, the air travel metasearch engine launched earlier this year by Fast Lane Ventures, has launched an impressive social commerce application on Facebook.
The new tool, named Flight Finder, allows Facebook users from Russia to view the best airfare offers to visit friends and family in other cities and countries in real time with just one click. Users can then easily purchase tickets on the corresponding Jizo.ru page.
The application is currently available only to Facebook users living in Russia, but Jizo says that further international deployment is under discussion with Facebook’s global headquarters.
Furthermore, Jizo intends to launch the service on other social networks. “Facebook was the first one from a strategic point of view, but others will come soon,” company representative Veronika Orlovskaya said to East-West Digital News.
Fast Lane estimated that the application could generate as much as $130 million in commissions alone in 2012, to be shared equally between Jizo and Facebook. The projection is based on a forecast of 9 million active Facebook users from Russia next year – up from 5 million in early 2011 – with a 1% daily site visit to ticket sales conversion rate, an average order value of $200 and a 2% commission fee from airlines and online travel agents.
“On a global scale, the amount of additional revenue could reach $6 billion,” Jizo adds.
Social commerce in Russia is still in its infancy. Most online vendors generate no more than $10,000 per month on such leading networks as Odnoklassniki.ru and Vkontakte.ru. One of the rare exceptions to date has been Welcome Gifts, or Zhelannye Podarki in Russian. Launched last year on Odnoklassniki, the application has been so successful – attracting a remarkable 12 million users during the first three months – that its creator recently launched a similar app on the Turkish version of Facebook.
Fast Lane Ventures was founded in Moscow last year by two Western businessmen, French serial entrepreneur Pascal Clément and KupiVIP.ru founder Oskar Hartmann. In addition to Jizo, Fast Lane has also launched Upladder.ru, an premium online job search service, VitaPortal.ru, a medical news site inspired by the WebMD.com model, and Domgeo, an online database of real estate available for purchase or rent. Last month, it acquired a stake in Travelrent.com, a Russian online alternative accommodation system.
