A unique spin on location-based social networking and gaming with a healthy dose of algorithmic utility
Originally published on the MomentFeed Location Blog.
Whrrl offers the standard check-in feature made popular by Foursquare. It also offers the ability to upload photos around places (so does Gowalla). And it deeply integrates gaming mechanics (so does SCVNGR). The best features, however, are entirely unique to Whrrl.
Whrrl’s parent company, Pelago, has been around since 2006. Its founders have deep experience in the areas of online consumer behavior and recommendations through years spent at companies like Amazon, Overture, and Yahoo!. This is evident in Whrrl’s design, mission, and user experience as they apply many of these same principles to the physical world.
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Scan barcodes to unlock digital content, attach content, and receive promotional offers. Welcome to the product checkin.
This was originally published on the MomentFeed Location Blog.
Stickybits is based on a relatively simple principle: turning objects into media. The company was featured in our 10 Ways Geolocation is Changing the World.
Using an iPhone or Android app, users can scan the unique barcode for any product or thing to which a barcode is attached. This unlocks a digital realm, if you will, that is associated with that barcode. Within this realm you’ll find a stream of content that includes photos, videos, reviews, and potentially coupons if it’s a consumer product like Campbell’s Soup or a can of Pepsi Cola. The best content gets voted to the top, and each scan is geo-tagged with its latitude and longitude.
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Location-based gaming is more than a niche activity. It’s scaling and represents a tremendous opportunity for brands to encourage deep engagement with their products and places.
MyTown is a location-based game from parent company Booyah. The company’s founders have games like World of Warcraft to their credit, so they know gaming.
MyTown is the dark horse in location-based services. It receives relatively little press compared to Foursquare or Gowalla. This is partly because it’s not so much a social networking app as a mobile game where real-world places are central to how users play. MyTown isn’t taking on Facebook, nor does it have a direct competitor to generate the tension and drama that feeds the tech press. What MyTown does have is more than 3 million users, each of whom spends an average of 65 minutes per day in the app, according to the company. This translates into 62 million checkins per month, the vast majority of which are in the US because the company only recently expanded to select international markets. And it’s only available for iPhone at the moment.
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If people can engage with locations through their smartphone devices, why not turn this activity into a seamless, loyalty-rewards program for businesses of all sizes?
Originally posted on the MomentFeed Location Blog.
PlacePop is as simple and straightforward as location-based apps come. The company has built a virtual loyalty card that is available for iPhone and Android devices. This turnkey solution is primarily designed for small and mid-sized businesses that want to move away from the plastic cards while offering something more interactive, valuable, and, let’s face it, cool for end users.
The above presentation does an excellent job of illustrating the value proposition for merchants and consumers, as well as showing the very simple setup process. Consumers use the app and merchants use a web interface/application to track and manage their program. Dead simple.
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The marketplace for check-in apps i.e. ways to network and engage locally will become much more fragmented when brands, universities, and small publishers discover DoubleDutch.
This was originally published on the MomentFeed Location Blog.
The dynamics of location-based services and social networking present an entirely new set of challenges for entrepreneurs and marketers. On the one hand, having scale at the national level means 100 million users or more. On the other hand, scale can be reached locally with just tens of thousands (and a focused marketing effort). These are the economics (and physics) of LBS. It’s also the business case for DoubleDutch.
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