GroupMe pushes specialized group texting for travel planning
Skift Take
There is a ton of skepticism here about whether the startup, acquired by Microsoft/Skype, can really build a seamless, mobile, group-travel planning experience and whether or not people will care if it does.
Booking reservations and buying tickets with friends can be a pain: finding the right events, exchanging myriad links and emails, coordinating schedules. “And then one person always gets stuck footing the bill for everyone else, and has to worry about collecting payments and cash from their friends afterward,” says Jared Hecht. “It ruins the experience.”
Enter GroupMe, the startup Hecht cofounded in 2010 with Steve Martocci, which enables users to easily classify offline social networks into online groups (friends, coworkers, yoga buddies), and share messages and media.
Up Next
Business Travel
The State of Corporate Travel and Expense 2025
A new report explores how for travel and finance managers are targeting enhanced ROI, new opportunities, greater efficiencies, time and money savings, and better experiences for employees with innovative travel and expense management solutions.
Sponsored 
Tourism
How Two Little Letters Made Anguilla into a Hidden Caribbean Goldmine
Anguilla is a small island with a big secret. It owns one of the most lucrative pieces of digital real estate in the world: the .ai domain. Now that ChatGPT brought artificial intelligence mainstream, it holds the potential to transform the island's tourism economy – and its future.
Tourism
Remote Year Collapse: What We Know
Remote Year said it was closing, upsetting many customers who had paid for future trips as digital nomads. Two CEOs are pointing fingers at each other. It's the vendors in emerging markets who will likely be hurt most.
Travel Technology
ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Meta AI: A Frenetic Year With More to Come in 2025
AI companies have made considerable progress in 2024 as it relates to travel — glitchy as the tech may be. It's just the starting point for 2025, which is sure to have an explosion of AI advancements.
Hotels
Remote Year Shuts Down Despite New Owners’ Earlier Promises of a Bright Future
Remote Year was a small but pioneering company, innovating on the edges over the years. Sad to see it come to an end.