<article><a href="http://echoes.xyz/">Echoes</a>, a Vietnam-based startup that transforms the tourism experience through its geo-locative soundmaps, has generated interest from incubators, the press and the local community.</article>

<a href="http://echoes.xyz/">Echoes</a>, a Vietnam-based startup that transforms the tourism experience through its geo-locative soundmaps, has generated interest from incubators, the press and the local community.
Launched by Joshua Kopecek, Echoes has won the chance to visit Singapore, to demonstrate the project to investors, in May. The sonic tours may also be purchased by the local tourism authorities, Kopecek said in an interaction. Edited Excerpts.
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What has led you to establish Echoes?
In 2013 we started what was then called the Soundwalk project, which was the conjunction between 11 different cities around the world. I was asked to create a Soundwalk for Hanoi, as part of the larger project, the Locative Audio project.
A lot of people came along to the event that we ran, tickets for the event were sold out. We did not have enough time or the resources to meet the demand for it. We also designed a walk for visually impaired students. It was really great for them to listen to locative audio.
In 2014, we applied for funding from the Dannish Embassy and we ran a crowd funding project, both of those were successful, so we manage to raise money for phase two.
With the money, we organised events in Copenhagen and Hanoi last year, and we invited artists to make soundmaps. At that time it was still a hobby, but we then decided to create a business model from this idea, because we want to develop an app and make it a global platform. As the event finished in November in Hanoi, we started work to convert it into a startup.
The name was changed to Echoes and now it is treated as a commercial company. In the last five months, we have been trying to build a team to develop the business.
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How do you make revenue and profit as the app can be downloaded for free?
We are working on different models of revenue at the moment. We would actually charge for content. People could download content within our app, so it will be in-app purchase.
We are also working on a premium model, for which, people pay credits within the app so that they could listen to a certain amount of audio tours. By inviting friends, they can get more credits. It is a choice whether the content producer want to make the content available for free.
It has always been my intention that I want the platform to be totally an open access, where people can sign up and make the content available for free. Of course we need money to make the platform successful, but we also want to contribute to the community, because there is no such existing tool in the market at the moment.
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It means there are no similar services elsewhere in the world?
There are some other people working on geolocative audio, like <a href="http://voicemap.me/" target="_blank">voicemap.me</a>, but they only concentrate on doing spoken guided tours, so it is simply for the guided tour market. Meanwhile, what we are creating contextual audio, which is different from guided tour.
It is a soundmap platform, not serving the tour industry directly, although it can be used for that purpose. We are creating a flexible open access platform to creating soundmaps.
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Have you thought of partnership with local tourism departments/tour operators?
We have already negotiating with local tour agencies at the moment to get content on the platform. I cannot say more because the deals have not been finalised yet. But we are excited because we have a huge number of people around the world interested in the platform.
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Does the negotiation include deals in other countries besides Vietnam?
Yes, Europe and Asia.
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What is the most difficult part of developing this service?
It is deciding what features to put into it. Because it is a flexible platform, people will ask for different features. As it is a new platform, I would like to try all of the features to see what we can use. It takes some time to decide on the exact feature set to go on the platform. In terms of development, it is probably the trickiest thing. In terms of building the business, it is about getting as many content producers onto the network as possible in order to grow the content base.
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Are you nervous with the upcoming pitch in Singapore?
Yes, we are, because it is a brand new platform. Nothing like this has been tried before. Hopefully at the Singapore demo, we will be able to show something cool.
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You have signed up for mentorship from the Innovation Partnership Program (IPP). What do you get from the program?
We have gone through two rounds of pre-selection, but they still have not made the pick. So we are waiting for them to open the grant calling aplication. They have individual talks with the startups and help them apply for the fund, because they want people to be as prepared as possible to demonstrate what they are going to do. They love our pitch and we have got great feedback from the IPP. It was a really positive outcome.
Also Read: 
<a style="color: #ff0000" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/vietnams-tech-startup-echoes-plans-soundmap-cities-3656/">Vietnam’s tech startup Echoes plans to soundmap more cities</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/ipp-offers-free-funding-for-vns-startups-3915/">IPP offers funding grant to Vietnam’s startups &amp; incubators</a>

Echoes, a startup that transforms the tourism experiences through geo-locative soundmaps, has recently caught the eyes of incubators and the press.

Vietnam's locative audio platform Echoes seeks deals with local organisations

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