Deepblu, a Taiwan-based scuba diving company, is cutting out the middleman for divers looking to plan their next trip with Planet Deepblu. Rather than using an agency for extended diving trips, the community-based platform allows for open communication between diving schools and divers. What was once a drawn-out process that could take weeks has been streamlined in a user-friendly experience marketplace. The program also integrates information from Deepblu’s dive computer, COSMIQ+, which allows for a more full social media experience after the dive is complete, as it doubles as a comprehensive dive-logging application.

Taiwan-based company Deepblu is leaving no stone unturned in its mission to bring the scuba diving world onto the cloud and into the sharing economy, and one of its latest offerings is Planet Deeblu, a booking platform that is being billed as scuba diving’s answer to Uber or Airbnb.

With ocean pollution enjoying unprecedented media coverage, what better time to launch a trip-planning platform that encourages the online dive community to share experiences. Very often business-to-consumer startups in the highly competitive online travel space, can find themselves in deep, shark infested waters. But James Tsuei, CEO of Deepblu Inc, believes he has found a relatively untapped billion-dollar market, and is on a mission to create the world’s biggest online social community for divers.

In 2011, James Tsuei, a scuba diver enthusiast, decided to plan a vacation and get his Open Water Diver certification, an entry-level autonomous diver certification for recreational scuba diving. But the process of planning and finalising the trip took a whole month, which consisted of hours of internet searching for suitable destinations and finding the right dive operator, along with multiple postings on dive forums looking for advice.

lmost two years to the day since its formation, DeepBlu has 20 employees and has already expanded with a branch in China.The company is not just another activity content site, but has a marketplace and other tools to give dive schools, shops and kit suppliers a way to reach customers.

The Deepblu COSMIQ+ Dive Computer is a diver’s best friend. You can think of it as a smartwatch for divers, though actually, it’s more of a wearable computer. The COSMIQ+ is a refresh of the original COSMIQ model, but this time around you’ll find a lot of great new features.

Divers searching for an affordable dive watch will be happy to know Deepblu have launched COSMIQ+, a fully featured dive computer that has log cloud syncing as well as rich social sharing features. The Taiwanese startup consists of a team of enthusiastic divers with a tech background. What makes their dive computers unique is the social aspect. Enabled by a platform via the Deepblu mobile app for smartphones, its grown to over 40,000 active members to essentially become a “Facebook for Divers”. A place where users can connect, make friends and get inspired for their next diving adventure.