Company Profile & Product In Depth:
HISTORY
One Link, headquartered in San Francisco, California is a public company traded on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board under the symbol OLKT. One Link was founded in 2002 and became a reporting company in September of 2002 through the acquisition of a public company. The Company’s services were announced at the World Travel Market in London in November of 2002. One Link’s system completed an operational pilot that same year. The Company is planning to launch its service in conjunction with Sabre Travel Network, Amadeus and PayPal, Inc. in the U.S. and Canada in late 2005.
MARKET OPPORTUNITY
In the international travel market, airline bookings have long been made and paid for efficiently. Organizations such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) have for 30 years provided recognized financial settlement services to airline members and accredited travel agents. These systems processed approximately 500 million tickets in 2002, representing over $220 billion in revenue to the airlines. Agents search for and book air tickets through various Global Distribution Systems (GDS). Agents issue the passenger tickets and take payment in full. Subsequently the airline financial settlement systems effect the settlement between the agent and the airline on which the booking was made. Although such systems have been extended to cover non-air products, it has only been on an ad hoc and limited basis. However, there is widespread demand for a universal service for all non-air travel products similar to that enjoyed by the airlines.
Today, most non-air travel products, with the exception of package tours that are limited mainly to specific European markets, are sold through travel agents on a “referral” basis. The agent makes the booking on the customer’s behalf some time in advance, and is paid his commission by the supplier some time after the booking has been fulfilled. One Link offers a transaction solution that enables booking and receipt of payment in advance for non-air travel products, thus improving cash flow for agents and travel providers such as hotels, cruises, car rental, etc. One Link will attempt to address the current need for an integrated end-to-end distribution and settlement service in the non-air travel and tourism industry. One Link believes that its service will allow all non-air travel product and service providers to benefit from the same type of worldwide systems already available to the airline industry for the first time.
The One Link service connects travel suppliers, many of whom may never have been offered an affordable and integrated distribution and settlement service, with the world’s premier travel agents that book and issue scheduled air tickets as well as the tens of thousands of additional travel agents whose primary focus is on the leisure sector. OneLink’s service will target approximately 137,000 travel agents worldwide.
Industry estimates put the value of the global travel and tourism market at $1.9 trillion in 2005. One Link will facilitate the distribution and financial settlement of pre-paid non-air products through travel agents. The Transport and Accommodation sector of the $1.9 trillion total travel and tourism market is estimated to be $1.0 trillion in 2005. The travel industry’s long-term growth rate is estimated to be over 4% per year. The U.S. tops the list of large international tourism spending countries with a market share of 12.7%, the rest of the world representing the remaining 87.3%. Of the top 15 international tourism spending countries in 2001, nine are in Europe with Germany and the UK ranked two and three behind the U.S. according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
PRODUCT
The One Link service provides travel suppliers with a direct connection and integrated payment mechanism to enable business with travel agents worldwide. Through its technical, commercial and contractual design it has created a unique opportunity for suppliers of all sizes to sell their products on a pre-paid basis through travel agents worldwide, and to receive payment, often in advance of providing the product, in their own currency. It removes the need for suppliers to negotiate individual commercial agreements with individual travel agents, and removes the tracking and administration of commission payments to agents in a multiplicity of currencies. For travel agents it offers access to a wide range of on-line bookable non-air travel products, all of which are pre-paid. The agent takes payment up front from their customer in their currency, retaining their commission for the sale, and pays the balance to the supplier through the One Link system. One Link connects the host reservation systems of travel suppliers with travel agencies via the Internet and proprietary networks around the world. One Link will use available financial systems to collect monies from travel agents in their local currencies and to effect payments to suppliers and in suppliers’ local currencies. OneLink streamlines the financial settlement process and allows both travel suppliers and local travel agencies to gain access to a wider market base.
With the exclusion of its proprietary transaction processing software, One Link has chosen to forego capital-intensive development of key systems, software, and infrastructure and instead integrate existing systems and technology with a distribution and settlement service and then apply the result to the non-airline travel segments. This has been achieved by utilizing the travel systems, experience and infrastructure of Videcom, OneLink’s lead systems development partner, the distribution network of the largests Global Distribution System vendors, Sabre and Amadeus, and the global payment solutions available from the most advanced Internet-based provider, PayPal.
to make a million bucks over night" 
