[fubyFrery]

It's something thats been on the drawing board for way too long, actually since around 2007. I have been a bunch of times and love the country, I kick myslef for not developing a site sooner, but finally the stars have aligned and I'll be off to Colombia at the end of this month to get things rolling.

DR1 been going since 1996 and we have learn't a lot, had some successes and made lots of mistakes. These days we have a pretty good idea what people want and how to drive traffic to the site. So our plan is to take our knowhow and see if it will duplicate in another market. If it works, great, expect to see a few more countries in the future

Our goal was to be the first Dominican tech/web related company to successfully export it's knowledge/knowhow and setup in a market outside of the DR. Looks like we might be #2, as my very good friend Carlos Coll at SuperCasas & SuperCarros is currently setting up opertations in Bogota. Carlos has a great business model and will do very well in Colombia.

Why Colombia?

It's a massive emerging market that is relativly untapped when it comes to English language sites, especially ones of the quality and depth of DR1.

Colombia leads in Latin America for tourism growth numbers and has an outstanding tourism product, very diverse and well organised.

It's a huge country to cover, so our initial focus will be in and around Carategna, the center of tourism. I have been there 4 times, so I know it pretty well and I'm looking forward to getting to know it a lot better.

This thread will keep everyone updated and how things evolve from the day to day stuff to the final launch date and beyond. I have no doubt it will make for interetsing reading as the project unravels.

[6Rexw51X]

Robert, are you going to have a point man living full-time in Colombia, or will you be flying back and forth from the DR?

Also, how do you plan to tap into the expat community to grow the site like DR1?

My guess is they must be scattered all over the place, but is there any one area where they seem to concentrate?

[fubyFrery]

Robert, are you going to have a point man living full-time in Colombia, or will you be flying back and forth from the DR?

Also, how do you plan to tap into the expat community to grow the site like DR1?

My guess is they must be scattered all over the place, but is there any one area where they seem to concentrate?

I'm the point man right now for Colombia, but that could well change.
We will see how it goes in the first few months and make the call from that.

80% of the traffic on DR1 has nothing to do with expats., most of our traffic is travel related.
We have never done a great job of tapping into this market, but we have been working in the
background to fix this. You will see more on that over the coming months.
I don't expect Colombia to be any different, primarily travel related.

My guess is that Bogota has the largest concentration of expats, not that this is so important to us.
We will start in Cartagena, which is the most popular destination for tourism and travel for Colombia.
As things evolve, we wil add more destinations and content.

Colombia has never had a site like DR1. It has multiple fragmented sites, some with forums,
others with odd pieces of info or focused on a particular niche etc. Pretty much all are run as hobbies.
The Colombia related forums are very fragmented, lots of infighting and trolling between forums.
Hopefully we can change the landscape, bring in what we know and in time have a site that is as
good or better that what we have for the DR.

Colombia is a risk, but unless you try, you never know.
It costs a bunch of money to go, live, take a good look, find people, create content etc.
But I feel it's a risk worth taking and has the potential to be an excellent market over time for DR1.

[GenryDont]

In Denmark DR1 (Danmarks Radio 1 ) is the main tradicional TV channel. The first channel. Similar to BBC1 in the UK. I guess it is not really important what name you give your business. it is the idea behind it and the strategy that is more important. Often best if it does not really mean anything. Then you create the meaning through your marketing. But the name dr1 does here refer to Dominican Republic. and especially North Americans understand "the dr" and use that to refer to the country. Robert how are you going to use the name dr1 in Colombia ? Are you going to explain that the business comes from the Dominican Republic or are you going to give it a new meaning and not use the dr connection. Of course some of your users on dr1 also goes to Colombia and knows Colombia but that is a small group.

[fubyFrery]

Dolores Robert 1 you can spin it lots of ways

DR1 is and will be used as the brand, just like BIC, Lee, TAG, AT&T, IBM etc.
I feel it's a brand name much bigger than the DR, plus it's easy to say and remember.

Of course I will explain our roots are in the DR and we have been successful in certain areas
etc and we plan to translate that to Colombia, blah. blah, blah.

In all honesty...

I don't like to get so hooked up on brand, positioning, market segment and so on... analysis paralysis!
I prefer to go and do, then see what happens. Maybe it's the wrong approach using DR1, maybe not.
Nobody here can say one way or the other, as nobody has ever done it, including myself

[fubyFrery]

Eventually I'm going to move many of these posts into the Colombia site when it's open for business, but for now I will keep them here.

Back to the topic at hand...

How do you find a place to live/stay for an extended period of time?

Colombia is no different to the DR. You really need to be on the ground. Your options increase 10 fold and you can negotiate much better pricing. The market is packed with 3rd parties that are really not into negotiating and in many cases do the client/owner an injustice.

Looking online you will pretty much only find the accommodation targeted directly towards "Gringos".
This is good and bad. The good means they usually have an idea what's needed and expected, the bad is the price.

I initially emailed a ton of sites, listings etc, just to see the responses, who was who etc.
It's amazing how many people cross list all over the place and under different names.
Many list properties they don't represent, but make for good eye candy to draw you in.

I emailed all in Spanish, plus some I sent an English version under a different name etc to see the responses and if it made any difference to the pricing. It really didn't make much of a difference to be honest when it came to pricing, but it made a difference when it came to negotiating. This could of course be down to my Spanish, as opposed to them being "Gringo's" and more willing to negotiate etc.

Pretty much everyone told me it's high season in Cartagena, availability is tight etc. This I took with a pinch of salt and the normal practice to create some urgency and keep the pricing high. I had already emailed a bunch of places with varying dates, so I knew that availability wasn't an issue. Plus these are online listings, so you would expect them to get more traffic and interest. If they had lots of availability, then I'm guessing the lesser trafficked places must be hurting and happy to see my $$$.

It will be interesting to see the difference in rental pricing when I'm actually there next week.
I expected high pricing as Cartagena is reputed to be the most expensive city to live in and looking online that "appears" to be true. Cartagena is quite a bit higher than Santo Domingo, US$750+ for a furnished 1 bedroom and moving up to US$1,200+ for a 2 bed room in a nice building, pool etc.

One difference in Colombia is that each sector is rated (estrato) and all the utilities are pegged at that rating.
If you live in an estrato 6 sector, you will pay considerable much more for your electric, gas, water and services than an someone in an estrato 3 sector. It's a way for the rich to subsidize the poor, but everyone pays and gets access to reliable utilities.

Most of the properties you see online will be in estrato 5 or 6 sectors, as they are aimed towards tourists, travelers etc.

What was the outcome of all the emails, back and forth etc?

I have decided the best plan of action is to get a place for a few days, then negotiate while I'm there. I will be able to see exactly what I'm getting, plus my negotiating position will be much better as I'm face to face and have cash in my pocket. This is the exact same advice I give anyone looking for a place in the DR, so I'm going to take my own advice

On a side note...

One of the apartment owners offered me a free stay for a few days as he's been to the DR a bunch of times and DR1 was a huge help when doing research etc. Nice gesture, but alas the dates didn't work out

It's good to see people cross traveling between the DR and Colombia. Let's hope we can make more of that happen, by giving Colombia a site it deserves

[BeaseHoca]

So Robert when will you start hiring interns??

[cakaeroryrere]

The name for the new Colombia forum should be CO1, in my humble opinion, new country new name using the knowledge you have acquired running DR1.

Congratulation!

[Veveseinlep]

Congrats!!!

Will give me a reason to visit Colombia which I never had the priviledge.

Maybe DR1 can reimburse me for my expenses? lol

[fubyFrery]

When you have the funds $$$ spare to buy co1.com let me know

It's a site, not just a forum. The forum will be part of it, just like it is on DR1 now.

If I owned Nike or Coca Cola, I wouldn't change the name when entering a new market.
Sure, DR1 isn't as well known, but it's still a brand that has a wide reach and touches millions of people every year.

[encumeterz]

Good Luck Robert ! May the force be with you.

[espenijij]

DR1 Colombia, sounds like a winner, good luck!

[st01en_lox]

well congratulation
but Im having a hard time keeping up with one
let alone two of these lol
I feel neglected already
Manu

[fubyFrery]

well congratulation
but Im having a hard time keeping up with one
let alone two of these lol
I feel neglected already
Manu

Different country, different audience., although I expect a few posters to cross over.

[st01en_lox]

I hope your teeth hurt for leaving DR1 for another concubine lol
you see , nobody is commenting on this
everybody is triste
Manu

[6Rexw51X]

Will give me a reason to visit Colombia which I never had the privilege.

Hey Bronxboy, don't worry-we'll plan a trip over there and you'll see how much fun it is.

I have people over there who will sort us out just fine and we'll have a blast!!!

For the record, let me say this-I know we are fans of the DR, but it's not the only country in the world.

Colombia has a lot going for it and one of the things that most impressed me is the level of education amongst the young people I met in some of its' cities.

But like everywhere else, it's good to know people who can introduce you into these social circles.

Art, education, culture, history-the country has plenty going for it.

Great news, Robert!!!

[sarasmid]

colombia would appear to be a large area to cover properly

[fubyFrery]

colombia would appear to be a large area to cover properly

Very aware of that

It's a huge country to cover, so our initial focus will be in and around Carategna, the center of tourism.

[GenryDont]

I would imagine that Bogota being the capital has lot of expats and English speakers to.

[sarasmid]

let me know if you need my expert advice....Ive never been there lol