Eugene Tan wanted to combine his passion for photography and the ocean by providing an escape for his friends while at the office.
This led him to launch Aquabumps, a website which has since become a celebrated destination for those that identify with Australian beach culture. Tan is based on Bondi Beach, which is arguably the most iconic coastal landscape in Sydney. Mainly revolving around beach culture, the area is growing to become one of the more cosmopolitan places to live in Sydney.
Eugene started creating the site while working as a web developer. Its popularity has increased dramatically, and now the portal is updated daily and boasts of having 40,000 email subscribers and 150,000 unique viewers a month. Aquabumps‘ Facebook page has also amassed more than 40,000 likes.
As a result, Eugene has become almost as iconic as Bondi itself. He can be seen most mornings before Sydneysiders are out of bed, trying to capture that shot of the ocean that sums of the day. He has monetized the website via relatively uncluttered and relevant advertising formats both in his page and also on email newsletters. This provides an income stream for him to expand areas of the website, and also to travel outside Australia as a roving photographer for the site. He has also launched a gallery along Bondi beach, which showcases photos from the Aquabumps site.
The Aquabumps Gallery
Entrepreneurs in many cases work towards expanding their products or services as far out as possible, in order to reach the largest potential markets. In some cases however, the business looks to establish deeper connections with their audience or customers. Sometimes the goal of young entrepreneurs is to focus on building a profile in a specific community and creating deep connections in their stakeholders’ daily lives.
Eugene has used his entrepreneurial spirit to create a business that provides the ideal lifestyle for him, and to enrich the lives of those who live around him. It has taken over ten years of hard work and early mornings, but these days he is the envy of many a Bondi local.
