AviaSales.ru was launched in January 2008 as a convenient RSS feed founder. However, the site was of interest to many travelers, and therefore grew up in an independent project.

Initially, special offers data obtained from public sources, from other sites and newsletters from airlines, later was added a special search algorithm, and in February 2009 the first tickets have been purchased.

Today, visiting TimesNet.ru Kalinov Constantine, founder and director of the project.

- Konstantin, hello! Tell us briefly about yourself.

Good afternoon! I was born in St. Petersburg and in the same graduated from the Academy of Internal Affairs. All that was then little to do with my education as I was engaged in Internet-Content projects and hosting. Well, the winter of 2009 there was AviaSales.ru.

Which, of course, I have taken away my free time, but given the opportunity to combine what I do and know how to love - to travel and work with the traffic.

- How much do you travel?

Just last week I was on Phangan. And now going to Java, Borobudur want to see - it is the oldest Buddhist temple, who accidentally found in the 19th century by the British. Here we have a lot of interesting things around, especially for those who are able to search for flights.

- What place, in your opinion, is worth a visit every tourist?

Paris. It is mandatory. I still remember his trip from St. Petersburg to France by car. Watch for changes in the window - not with the incomparable pleasure.

- Tell us about the startup, how and under what circumstances, the idea to create a project, who was the mastermind?

The project idea came from my own need for cheap tickets. I always pretty much flying and wanted to somehow optimize costs. No I do not particularly inspired it, I just wrote a script and put it in the template WorldPress.

- How do you assess the current state of the Russian tourist market web? What are the main differences between the Russian tour web market from the West?

Russian turistichechky online market is still at the very beginning of his career. If the Internet has come more than half of both, it is far from all of them travel abroad or have a plastic card. From the viewpoint of the audience perspectives enormous. You just need to choose the right tools to work with this audience.

And therein lies the main difference between our market and western. Here everyone is trying to subjugate the product or of the collaborations are not out of the question. For example, selling tickets and I do it very well, so why not give the sale of hotels in which I have little sense of the partner?

That's all the difference, because in the western companies are together to win, offering the user more and more integrated services, and we like to try to lay eggs in one basket.

- How many people stood at the origins of the project, how many people are working now?

The project started I joined a little later content manager, which collects information about the sales of the airlines. Now over AviaSales.ru it employs over 30 people and we are constantly growing.

- What investments have been made in a startup? Do you have an investor or circumvent their own means?

No financial investments in start-up was not. All that earned the project immediately embarks on the development of this principle is still used today. We fully closing costs associated with the growth of the company, at the expense of their own profits.

- What difficulties have you encountered in the initial phase? How to overcome them?

Fully lack of money was the main difficulty. Although, due to this we have become who we are. No budget expert - OK, deal with this yourself. That is, we are able to work without a budget. So it turns out that a lack of we "converted" to the undoubted merit.

- What would you change, do differently if the same project started now?

Nothing would have changed. I would repeat everything from the beginning of one to one.

- What is the business model of the project?

For 4 years we have gone through different ways of monetization. Initially, it was the advertising model, because traffic to the blog, which is a significant AviaSales.ru rihodil, now it affiliatny principle - we earn a percentage of sales of a particular ticket.

- After some time, after the launch, the project became profitable, and when I came to self-sufficiency?

Since the initial investment in the project amounted to RUR 0 0 cents, then the very first affiliate ad brought a profit. Of course, it was not income in the usual sense, but self-sufficiency occurred in the very first months of work AviaSales.ru.

- How do you see yourself prospects of further development of your business?

We attribute its growth with an increase in the number of users from Russia, who are able to find and pay for a ticket online. For them, we are planning to expand the product line - now on AviaSales.ru you can pick up a hotel and in addition we are interested in rental cars and we are now actively developing this area.

At the same time, we try to go to the Asian markets. Already prepared a draft gocheap.travel which is associated with our most optimistic expectations.

- What are your major competitive advantage in the Russian market?

In addition, we have combined 15 agencies in its search, which gives the user the opportunity to really choose and compare the price of a ticket, we pay special attention to the control of prices. This means that if you have found us a ticket from Moscow to Paris the same 10 000, and that is how much you pay for it.

Currently, not all search engines can provide such precision. Often during the transition to the agent and sometimes cost grows significantly. We are working to ensure the price in our search was final.

- What forms of advertising do you consider the most effective, what use?

In this case, about 50 percent of the traffic provides SEO. All the rest - it is direct and results of the partnership program. Almost any website or blog can become our affiliate, starting mesmerize their content, and often much more effective than the same context.

- On the selection of some professionals should pay special attention. How do you choose (pick up) key employees? What qualities should have a candidate? Is it easy to get to your team and what it needs to do?

At the moment, we are looking for programmers working in Ruby. Nothing much to get us there, under Jobs wwwaviasales.ru/vacancies given test task the results of which we are beginning to talk about the move.

- How active you are taking part in the life of the project today?

Around August last year, I was entirely focused on food issues, that is, moving away from operational management, I am busy with the development of search and marketing.

- How many hours a day do you work and how to plan your time? Whether at the weekend?

Standard 8 hours. Of course, sometimes it is necessary to stretch and time of commercials to 12 hours, but generally the case. At the weekend I also try not to work, but does not always work.

- How do you have a team decides to develop new features? How do you decide on the need of an innovation?

All changes are discussed with the management team. Each service has its own manager and it is in this range, we are discussing innovation.

- What will change on the Internet in the next 2-3 years? Which areas will be the most popular and profitable?

According to my ideas, everything is going to mobilize the Internet. That is, now that the tablet can be bought for $ 200, and a huge selection of smartphones, is changing the entry point to the network. And, of course, you can earn, if you have time for all these changes.

- Based on your experience, what would you recommend to those who are just planning to start an internet business?

You just need to pick up and do. For you no one will come up and will not do as well without you - without ceremony. Every day on the Internet there are hundreds of projects, and how many of them will bring real money is not clear. Then you just need to try, to go into the matter with the head and exactly succeed.

Thank you for the interesting interview with Constantine. We wish you success in your personal life and prosperity in business AviaSales (AviaSeyls).