What is the motivation behind Woohoo Saigon and who are the people behind it?  Check out my short Q&A from the brains behind the Saigon Shuffle. 😉

Who are the people behind Woohoo Saigon?

There are only 2 people behind WoohooSaigon, you can have a look at our About Us page at: http://woohoosaigon.com/about/. Note that we two are still university students, I’m [Tris Le] from University of Western Australia (Computer Science degree) and Lennie is from Murdoch University (Marketing and The Media degree).

How did you come up with the idea for the site?

[Tris Le] The idea of WoohooSaigon.com was formed when I came back to Vietnam for holidays in early 2012. At that time, I usually got confused with knowing where to go at night, so I thought about a tool which I can seek its advice from, and WoohooSaigon.com has emerged since then. Although WoohooSaigon.com doesn’t study your choices, it does give the users the experience of randomness when it comes to choosing a place to hangout i.e. troubleless, quick and sweet.

I find this website rather helpful to those expats who are living in Saigon and have no idea where to hangout tonight. So instead of searching for hundreds of places on the search engine, why not just give WoohooSaigon a go and the decision would be quickly made?

This system is also useful when it comes to compromising when you and your friends have an argument about each other’s suggestion. A common say would be: “Alright we’re done with that, let’s now shuffle and then go okay?”

What does Woohoo Saigon offer?

WoohooSaigon offers 1 single thing (and this is what the users should expect from the system too): a decision. Just try the system out and you will understand why.

Where do you guys hang out or do you Shuffle too?

We do shuffle yes, not just because we’re the creators but we also find this fun and helpful at times. Usually we take the first random result, but sometimes we do re-shuffle to reach a result that we’re comfortable with. The whole process is just all about getting the most  out of the boring and tiring process of choosing a place to go.

As a true blue Saigonese, how has Saigon night life changed in the last 5 years or so?

Interesting question, I will be a bit brief but this is all a true Saigonese could answer:

• 10 years ago: a couple of old-fashioned Trung Nguyen coffee shops around the corner in district 3.
• 5 years ago: Trung Nguyen’s domination was gone, replaced by a bunch of new fast-serving cafes and Bệt (in 23/9 park if you know it).
• Last 2 years : theme-based cafes emerged.
• Now 2013: Starbucks time.

So what are you all waiting for?  Let’s do the Shuffle. 😉