Worldfriends

With WorldFriends, you can be in wherever you are and still communicate with people from all over the world. You can brush up your language skills by communicating the language you are trying to improve proficiency. Or obtain rare information from locals before arriving in your travel destination. Of course you can simply enjoy communication or become friends with local members with similar interest.

What began as an Internet solution to the real-world problem of finding language exchange partners expanded into what is today: WorldFriends (“WFN”), a unique online community of ‘internationally minded’ people interested in travel, foreign cultures, language learning, and meeting new friends. By providing a friendly multi-lingual environment of social connection, cross-culture open-mindedness, and safe refuge, WFN is the ‘café to the global village’. Today, over 2,000,000 registered members in 237 different countries are ‘meeting their neighbors in the global village’.

WFN = travel + language + new friends.

On the Crest of the Wave
Globalization is accelerating, changing the way the world lives, works, and socializes. With ‘Globalization 3.0’ we changed from being a small world to a tiny world. The global markets for travel and language learning are vast and increasing with the exponentially growing capacity for global communications and technology stimulating the demand to learn foreign languages, especially English.

WFN caters to the large, fast-growing group of people who want to “be global” … getting a thrill from tasting foreign cultures, culture discovery, language exchange, travel experience exchange, and making friends with other internationally-minded people for the purpose of penpals, friendship, travel experience, learning experience and sometimes romance. These new internationally-minded friends might live on the other side of the planet, or on the other side of town. This consumer niche segment, defined by mainly psychological attributes but also expensive physical habits, is a segment within all ethnicities and nations around the world. It is a minority within each nation, but large in its worldwide sum, and, within the rapidly globalizing world, growing rapidly.

Current and Future User Experience

WFN is available in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), and Korean. Each member creates profile page including photos, basic attributes, language exchange preferences, travel interests, and several essay questions. Currently, WFN functions as a “search engine for people”. Users can search using up to 30 different search criteria as well as free text search, making it easy to find people with specific characteristics or interests. Using special algorithms, WFN also recommends people who have a high degree of fit with what the user is looking for.

WFN is currently developing major new features to unleash its communities’ passionate interests in the areas of travel, language learning, and socializing.