2014 – Founding of Global Travel Assistant
Global Travel Assistant Ltd. was formed in 2014 with the goal of building global communication apps and software that leverage the combined power of humans and technology to solve unique cross-border problems in the travel, language, and education industries.
Global Travel Assistant is the brainchild of CEO, Peter Tung, who has also founded sister companies Net Marketing and Osbay -- companies that provide a full set of localization and outsourcing solutions for China, Taiwan, and Japan.
2014 – Beijing, Tokyo, Jinan Offices
Global Travel Assistant opened its headquarters in ZhongGuanCun (the Silicon Valley of China) in 2014.
In the same year, Global Travel Assistant launched small subsidiary offices in Jinan, Shandong as well as in Tokyo, Japan.
2014 – Tripper APP
Global Travel Assistant launched its first flagship app, Tripper, "The World's Local Assistant," for both Android and iOS in late 2014.
Tripper is the first multilingual human concierge service of its type to be offered through B2C through an APP. Tripper's virtual concierge service brings together global VoIP calling, a network of multilingual travel assistants, and databases of local travel resources from its key partnerships. Users get 24/7 access to live human travel assistants who help both individual travelers and businesses teams navigate their way around culturally and linguistically different countries (China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea).
Tripper was featured prominently in technode, feedmyapp, skift, and i-s.
2015 – Travel Partnerships
Using the Tripper's global communication platform and human services, Global Travel Assistant created an integrated human concierge solution that incorporated into some of China's largest travel apps -- most notably, China's Largest OTA provider, QuNar, as well as a handful of smaller niche travel apps like ShiJieBang.
2015 – Myanmar Office
In collaboration with Osbay, Global Travel Assistant opened an office in Yangon, Myanmar, further strengthening its own development team while opening up another channel for outsourcing capabilities.
2015 – Custom Travel Solutions
Global Travel Assistant created several custom solutions for members of the hospitality industry. Creating spinoff products such as a "Live Interpretation Tablet" that can be left of desks at restaurants, hotels, and more that receive many multilingual travelers.
Other solutions included taxi videos as well as tourist destinations e-boards at kiosks.
2016 – Taiwan Headquarters
Global Travel Assistant moved its headquarters to Taipei, Taiwan in 2015. The launch of Lingochat was done through the AppWorks accelerator program -- proudly graduating with the #11 class and having a successful demo day. Afterwards, they set up their own Taipei office in the 2nd floor of the same building.