FourSquare competitor SCaVeNG(R)ing for attention, launches LevelUp and takes on Groupon.

by Martin Henwood

SCVNGR first tackled FourSquare’s dominance of the virtual check-in space by acknowledging the fact that FourSquare is really a game. They addressed this by adding more gaming components to the model, such as, creating challenges or tasks to complete before receiving rewards of discounts or coupons from retailers.

FourSquare responded by revamping its user interface with more ‘leveling up’ type features, plus adapting it as a ‘nearest retailer’ finder. It then added a ground breaking “spend $5, save $5“ promotion, launching its first trial mid March 2011. 

Why ground breaking? It is the first mobile check-in system offering the ability to simply check-in to a retailer’s location and receive a discount by paying with a specific credit card – in this case, American Express (AmEx). 

AmEx debit the amount saved straight back to a user’s account, sending an alert at point of purchase. This is made possible by an innovation developed by AmEx called the ‘Smart Offer’ API – allowing for developers to build ‘digital coupons’ on top of the AmEx product.

SCVNGR have come back fighting with a Groupon angle, offering a similar process of coupon-less discounts – but using it for pre-purchased offers.

SCVNGR recognised potential weaknesses in the Groupon model, both from a consumer’s view of limited deal times and a retailer’s view of their commission structure. 

SCVNGR tackled both of these issues through offering an extended deal time allowing more offers available at any one time. And for the retailer they have a cheaper, performance driven, commission structure.

The retailer now benefits with SCVNGR not being rewarded until a customer ‘Levels Up’ and becomes a returning customer. Groupon takes 50% from each transaction, whereas SCVNGR is receiving nothing on the first, but then only 25% on subsequent transactions.

SCVNGR have said they have put these models to the test and are confident that they can convert customers in to loyal regulars. [ Link ]

Outdated Loyalty

Both FourSquare and SCVNGR have recognized the opportunity of innovation through combining game mechanics with a real digital coupon enabled by AmEx and its Smart Offer API platform.  

For sometime it’s been thought that, many current loyalty systems have become outdated and boring for consumers and, subsequently, have lost any sense of ‘fun’.

One idea, in an attempt to keep the consumer’s attention longer, is to try some of the concepts that keep gamers addicted. By comparison, and in the case of LevelUp, the more you use the discount (3 times), you get leveled up and receive a better offer.

Of course these techniques are not new, they are repackaged to connect with current consumer interests and meant to be more fun. Interestingly, combining this with the AmEx Smart Offer system, makes the process of engagement almost ‘frictionless’, meaning that, once you have connected your AmEx card to Level Up, you don’t have to do much else. No need to print or tell anything to the cashier. No friction.

SCVNGR tackled pre-purchase, whereas FourSquare is tackling the other consumer gripe of ‘I’m here and now what’ scenario. Combine both of these techniques together and you have the future of loyalty in motion. 

I personally prefer one loyalty system per brand, one card, one app. Its easy to track and easy to get your head around, compared to many credit cards ‘I do everything’ type of loyalty system. A thousand shops and a different promotion for each. It sounds like it makes sense, but in my opinion, people just become confused.

We are seeing apps tackle this confusion, one per bank or credit card to tell you where you can use these promotions, but could you really be bothered? It breaks away from the whole point of brand engagement. One app per brand allows a brand to really engage fully and produce promotions that suit the consumer, which really leads me to my next point.

I don’t see the trend continuing with FourSquare or SCVNGR for bigger brands, I think their customers are the smaller shops, but for the likes of Starbuck’s and large retail stores who will build their own more engaging applications. 

It is difficult to deliver a comprehensive brand experience without a dedicated solution, although I’m sure companies will develop a lower cost ‘white label’ solution for retailers with less budget.

Disruptive Times

The real technology enabler here is simply connecting the credit card system to different types of mobile interaction, something that already works in other areas, for example, auto top-up systems and NFC (Near Field Communicaton) travel cards. Used for many countries travel networks, when your balance drops to zero it is automatically topped up from your credit card. No more hassle and consumer bliss.

The innovation is building a platform around that process and add an API for third party developers to build new and interesting applications and solutions.

More companies need to follow suit, developing communities around their existing products, producing new revenue and leveraging other creative minds and business acumen.

A second revelation, is that AmEx is apparently giving third parties access to consumer information, including transactional data. Something unheard of in the past, this could finally set a trend of transparency with credit card companies having to work much closer with both brands and suppliers.

With Apple and Facebook potentially driving new models of payment, including virtual currencies, it only makes sense for credit card companies to try and innovate new digital payment platforms before someone else does it for them.

AmEx have clearly done that here and produced a system that allows developers to build great commerce experiences, the timing being perfect with the suspected launch of an Apple iPhone that includes NFC capability.

Something Google has already announced it is working on with its partnership with Mastercard and CitiBank [ Link ], while Samsung and Blackberry have also announced future releases, including participation of Telco’s Orange and T-Mobile also getting in on the act with a partnership with Barclaycard [ Link ], although the Telco’s are more focused on their SIM cards and ‘Mobile Wallets’.

Actually the concept of the mobile wallet is really something driving the whole NFC adoption, the timing is right. Consumers have acknowledged their interest in both mobile commerce and interaction in new loyalty methods. There is enough proof that that the idea won’t just fall flat on its face.

There is probably still sufficient time for so called digital coupons to flourish and by the time NFC mobile payments are actually a reality, the consumer will be open to the idea of a mobile wallet anyway. It will make it much easier to see the benefit.

My feeling, though, is that while all this takes place, it will still take some time to see these newer loyalty methods take shape. Marketers and brand owners in general have been much slower in the uptake of consumer driven social media. It takes time for people to adapt their knowledge and the tech industry will need to produce various platforms to enable the brands and their marketers to truly engage with their brand loyalists.

FourSquare and SCVNGR are an example of the beginning of these new mobile marketing platforms. But we have a long way to go in integrating all the other marketing tools in to this idealist framework. CRM, feedback, competitions, promotions, analytics, the list is a long one.

That said, NFC mobile payment could definitely trigger the next big disruptive change in marketing focus, while social media has been extremely challenging to the practitioners of traditional advertising. Mobile adds yet another layer of complexity to this already fragmented industry. Certainly digital coupons could prove to be a precursor to that trigger. Brands that experiment now will set themselves up to hit the ground running when it eventually does kicks in with force.

FourSquare / AmEx Test

SCVNGR Presentation

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Originally posted by Sarah Kessler – MASHABLE

Gigwalk wants to put your smartphone to work. On Wednesday the startup is launching its platform for on-demand, on-location task completion.

Businesses can use Gigwalk to post simple projects that can be completed by anyone who has a smartphone. A project might, for instance, ask users to take photos of a restaurant’s menu and answer a series of questions (i.e. “Is the establishment wheelchair friendly?”).

Using an iPhone app [iTunes link], Gigwalk members — or “Gigwalkers” — sign up to complete tasks near them in exchange for between $3 and $90 per task.

It’s not exactly a fulltime job, but it is an easy way to score some fast extra cash. The highest paid Gigwalker in the six-month long private beta earned $2,173 for 277 completed “gigs.”

“Every single iPhone or Android is a node in a network,” says co-founder and CEO Ariel Seidman. “We’re trying to activate that node and say that it actually contribute to a workforce.”

During the private beta period, GPS maker TomTom sent Gigwalkers to specific street corners to verify map factors like street names. It wouldn’t have had the funds to check the accuracy of their maps by driving every road themselves. Similarly, Motorola employed the Gigwalk workforce to scope out the positioning of its phones in Verizon stores after the carrier started selling iPhones. Local directories, consumer research firms and real estate companies have also signed on.

Before Gigwalk, Seidman says, many of his corporate customers had turned to Craigslist to fill these mini-positions.

Standard (and typically much cheaper) crowdsourcing platforms like Mechanical Turk often aren’t options because there’s no way to verify that the person completing an on-location task actually left his or her computer to complete it. A smartphone-based platform, on the other hand, has GPS.

There isn’t an extensive filtering process that determines who becomes Gigwalkers, but so far a “street cred” reputation score that rewards people who do consistently good work with more complex and higher-paying tasks has been sufficient. People who don’t meet a task’s stated standards don’t get paid for that task.

For full article >>

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FilmOn, one of a few over-the-top video providers seeking to rebroadcast content on the Web, said Tuesday that users can stream live TV via Facebook to their friends.

FilmOn said that it has published an API by which users can view content on the company’s site, then share it with their friends via Facebook. The users will then have access to several minutes of live video rebroadcast from TV stations that FilmOn has partnership agreements with.

For now, the content partnerships FilmOn have signed aren’t fantastic – in addition to a WB feed, users can select from Ion Television, the BBC, Al Jazeera, ITV, the U.K.’s Music 4, and others. Users also must buy a monthly subscription, which begins at $14.99 per month, or $19.99 per month including adult channels. FilmOn also provides subscribers with the ability to stream up to six movies from FilmOn’s nearly 40,000-title film library per month. Users can download a free app for their iPad or Android device, which allows the content to stream via either a 3G or a Wi-fi connection to their mobile device.

“It’s really to generate awareness that there is live TV available, both on mobile devices and the computer,” said a spokesman for FilmOn .

For full article >>

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Facebook commerce is the topic at the front of every brand marketer’s mind, and retailers are starting to explore how they convert “Likes” into actual purchases. Here’s a look at five ways retailers have had success with Facebook commerce.

1. Pop-Up Shops and Insider Shopping Events

In August, Rachel Roy launched a pop-up store on Facebook. The insider shopping event gave the brand’s Facebook fans early access to Roy’s new jewelry line — a collaboration with British R&B artist Estelle. The pop-up store, which lasted three days, boosted Rachel Roy’s fan base by 25% in the first day and 100% by the end of the campaign. The Facebook Page was acquiring 1 fan every 1.5 seconds. The collection featured an exclusive, limited edition piece that sold out in only six hours.

The Rachel Roy pop-up shop was built on a software-as-a-service solution created by Fluid Social Fan Shop. Peter Goldie, the vice president of marketing at Fluid Agency, an ecommerce firm whose clients include Diane von Furstenberg, Nine West, Theory, Vans and Coach, believes that retailers need to create engaging social merchandising experiences that increase a brand’s fan base while driving transactions.

“Marketers are always looking for ways to drive customer purchases,” Goldie said. “Having limited edition, time sensitive sales helps retailers drive sales without having to discount.” Goldie added that pop-up shops are a great way for brand manufacturers to test the ecommerce waters without going into full-scale website development.

“Few retailers are delivering premium Facebook shopping that not only rewards fans but pulls them into a deeper relationship with the brand,” Goldie said. “Slapping a store on Facebook doesn’t deliver. Fan Shop enabled Rachel Roy and Coach to create immersive brand experiences that fully integrate shopping as well as the shopper’s wider social network.”

2. Private, Fan-Only Sales

In August 2010, Philadelphia-based Kembrel launched a private shopping community for students that sells clothing, books and computer gadgets at 40-75% off — and they did it entirely via Facebook. Kembrel’s summer beta period successfully attracted more than 20,0000 registered student members. This initial growth was mostly organic through word of mouth, with little reliance on traditional marketing.

“The total market is 17 million students and every year, they spend over $300 billion. Now two-thirds of that $300 billion dollars [goes toward] school, housing, food and essentials; there’s $100 billion dollars spent on apparel, shoes and accessories and that’s the market we’re going after,” said Cherif Habib, Kembrel’s CEO.

What makes Kembrel’s private sale model unique is that the marketing strategy completely relies on the social behavior of participating college students to drive consumption. The product assortment is tightly curated by young buyers who understand the student market. The day-to-day student activities are also student-run. To date, there are also more than 250 brands that have signed up to reach students through the Kembrel platform.

“College students spend two to there hours a day on Facebook. By bringing our store to where our customers spend the most time online, our goal is to provide them with the most convenient and relevant shopping experience,” Habib said. Kembrel is taking student relevance a step further by launching an internship matching service for fashion students who sign up for the site, connecting the shopping experience to the community.

3. Wish List Features: Bulgari

Luxury retailers are starting to explore Facebook as a revenue channel as well. In February, Bulgari launched a wishlist feature via Wishpot, a universal wishlist and registry service that lets retailers save things from stores all around the web as well as on Facebook. Bulgari fans can also purchase select jewelry through the app.

“Bulgari has developed entry-level priced jewelry, leather goods and perfume perfect for the Facebook audience. A new customer, who’s never been in the Bulgari store on Fifth Avenue can access the brand in the comfort of their Facebook world,” said Ruth Staiman, president of The Fashion Office, a luxury marketing consultancy. “The opportunity to create a personalized luxury gift for a Facebook friend priced at $370 with a portion of the proceeds going to Save The Children is nothing short of brilliant.”

Staiman believes that luxury brands should be looking at Facebook to offer diffusion lines while keeping the integrity of their brand sound through unique Facebook Pages. Developing a presence with interactive components is key.

4. Facebook Ecommerce Apps

Are you a small- to medium-sized retailer that wants to set up shop on Facebook on a shoestring budget? Well, San Francisco-based Payvment has created a solution for you — and it’s free. The company’s software allows retailers to create Facebook storefronts that accept payments via credit cards and PayPal.

Payvment’s ecommerce Facebook app allows anyone with a retail store to set up shop on Facebook and create a compelling storefront, complete with discount offers, incentive programs, and the ability for customers to complete their purchases within Facebook. The app even prompts buyers to become a fan of a store in order to receive exclusive deals. The app offers unique features for shoppers as well, allowing them to carry their goods with them across thousands of Payvment-powered storefronts on Facebook.

According to Payvment’s CEO Christian Taylor, the company was setting up 250 new Facebook retailers each day as of last December, and hosts more than 40,000 with 750,000 items for sale. Notable shops include Grayce By Molly Sims, Yes To Carrots and Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim UK.

5. Full Ecommerce Integration

In fashion, sometimes a retailer has to go big or go home, and that’s exactly what U.K. retailers ASOS and Young British Designers have done. In January, ASOS launched the company’s entire 150,000 product catalog on Facebook in hopes of increasing revenue from mobile commerce, which currently amounts to just $1.5 million, or about 3% of its revenue.

Young British Designers launched a fully-integrated Facebook store a few hours after the ASOS store went live. Both stores allow consumers to buy designer items, search products, add items to their basket, edit cart contents and check out securely. Both have also have integrated social shopping features. Customers can “Like” items and share and tweet products that they purchase.

A third retailer, Tesco Clothing, has generated over £2 million (approximately $3.2 million) in sales over the past year through its U.K. Facebook Page. Tesco tracked its activity on Facebook using vouchers, finding that a campaign called “Friday Frenzy” resulted in more sales in two hours than it would usually get in a week. Though successful, Tesco has shut down the Facebook shop due to staffing and budgetary constraints.

“Full ecommerce integration stands to benefit companies with a strong or sole ecommerce focus, particularly independent or boutique firms looking to stand apart from larger conglomerates,” said Jessica Quillin of Quillin Consulting, LLC. The concept of a Facebook store is to combine direct marketing and online shopping into a fully-tailored, streamlined retail experience. Online fashion and luxury retailers, especially those that sell high-end goods, are a natural fit for full ecommerce integration simply because they cater to a sophisticated demographic with busy lives who likely crave a more personalized, quick-access shopping experience.”

For full article >>

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Express began selling its entire catalog of merchandise on Facebook Tuesday, becoming one of the first major fashion retailers in the U.S. to do so.

Users can now visit the Shop Express tab on Express’s Facebook Page to browse, search save and purchase Express’s inventory of apparel and accessories for men and women. The publicly traded company has also baked in many social features, including the ability to “Like,” pieces, post comments, recommend items to friends and post their purchases to their Facebook Walls. One needn’t even “Like” the Page to have access to all of this functionality.

Inventory, pricing, wishlists and comments are automatically synced across Express’s other web and mobile sites, creating a seamless shopping experience across platforms and devices.

The goal, Jim Wright, senior vice president of Express’s CRM and ecommerce team says, is to make shopping for Express merchandise as convenient as possible. “We continue to look for ways that the customer can interact with the brand on their own schedule and at their convenience, so that we bring down as many barriers as possible,” he says.

Thus far, U.S. retailers have lagged behind their UK counterparts in offering full ecommerce on their Facebook Pages. UK apparel retailer ASOS made its entire 150,000-product catalog shippable on Facebook in January, complete with product search and secure checkout, followed shortly by another UK fashion retailer, Young British Designers.

We expect many other retailers, both large and small, will quickly follow suit.

For full article >>

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Originally posted by WILLIAM NG – INCENTIVE

FarmVille, the Facebook social game, engages over 10 million people daily, who spend hours harvesting virtual crops and collecting “farm coins,” “farm cash,” and “experience points.” Players track their friends’ progress on Facebook and also help each other in accomplishing specialized tasks for virtual rewards, dubbed “coopetitions.” Each month on Foursquare, two million players gain virtual points and achievement badges by checking into places.

The fanatical devotion to social network games has not gone unnoticed by loyalty marketers. Retailers and brands are now ramping up the social capabilities of their websites, giving away virtual points and merit badges and using other “game mechanics” such as leaderboards, ranks, and avatars to engage customers. In one example, Intuit, the maker of TurboTax software, has established virtual points leaderboards in its online community to recognize message board members who give out useful tax advice the most.

But in more and more cases, virtual achievements are being linked to real-life rewards. Warner Brothers “gamified” its website and now awards redeemable credits to those who play its online games, comment on videos, and complete surveys; the credits can be used to acquire wallpapers, ringtones, DVDs, and Blu-rays. Fashion brand Jimmy Choo recently deployed a Foursquare scavenger hunt in London in which users got free shoes if they checked into a place where its new sneaker collection was present.

Loyal Gamesters

Kris Duggan, CEO of Menlo Park, CA-based Badgeville, whose software lets website owners award badges to loyal visitors, echoes Kirk’s sentiment. “Traditional loyalty programs are not inherently social,” he says, “but once you make them social, and status can be broadcast, people are willing to work very hard to build that status” through loyalty tasks. (You can read our interview with Duggan here.)

Kirk says loyalty programs fundamentally haven’t evolved much from their points earning and burning cycles. That predictability and lack of emotional connection have put consumers on autopilot. Loyalty managers, he says, can stimulate participants with simple gamification elements like awarding badges for doing program-related activities and letting them display the patches in their profiles on the program website. They also can create status tiers to rank the participants.

Kirk cautions that before slapping badges on everything, make sure your “game story” is well thought out. The Maritz executive notes, “If there’s nothing more sophisticated behind the badges, [retention] is not going to last. It’s going through the exercise of saying, ‘If this were a game, would it be interactive, playful, and engaging?’ All good games are special experiences, and how to apply gamification is just getting started.”

For full article >>

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Originally posted by KUNUR PATEL – ADVERTISING AGE

It’s the chip that lets smartphones communicate with payment systems at the point of purchase. While the technology has existed for sometime and is widely used in Japan, it hasn’t taken off in the U.S. because phones haven’t shipped with NFC chips. But that’s expected to change very soon.

NFC has seen renewed hope in the U.S. in recent months because Apple and Google are making moves toward mobile payments. Google has already launched the Nexus S, its second try at its own mobile handset, which ships with an NFC chip.
However, because security technology is not yet ironed out, consumers that buy a Nexus S today could really only interact with ads, such as tapping a phone to a poster to launch a website.

Apple is also expected to announce a new iPhone with an embedded chip this summer. With the hardware in place, merchants will then have to follow suit with technology at registers to accept mobile payments. Apple could also route payments through iTunes, where it already has millions of U.S. credit cards on file.

Starbucks has pioneered mobile payments and supports what’s likely the largest-scale program in the country, even without NFC. Customers can show baristas a barcode in their Starbucks app, built by developer mFoundry, to purchase coffee without a wallet at the coffee chain’s thousands of locations. For the coffee chain, it was a way to build loyalty and usage of its Starbucks Card.

“With mobile payment, the Starbucks Card platform further elevates the customer experience by delivering convenience, rewarding loyalty and continuing to build an emotional connection with our customers,” said Brady Brewer, VP-Starbucks Card and Brand Loyalty.

Beyond Starbucks, when will mobile payments arrive in the U.S.?

We’ll see pilot programs late this year and they’ll gain steam in 2012, said Drew Sievers, CEO and co-founder of mFoundry. Major U.S. wireless carriers Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have teamed up with Discover card and Barclay’s bank to create a U.S. mobile payments system called Isis. Beyond payments, the system is also angling to replace physical rewards cards, coupons and transit tickets and serve up deals and offers based on user preferences. “They are trying to create a phone wallet that competes with Visa, MasterCard and American Express,” he said.

OK, it’s kind of cool if consumers start paying for things with their phones. But why should marketers care?

If mobile-payment wallets emerge on phones, brands could seed coupons or deals within those wallets. “Think of a wallet as becoming dynamic and network-connected,” Mr. Sievers said. “It can create synergy between a payment method and an offer; it’s the ability to drive a decision at, or right before, the point of sale.” What would that look like? Think of a consumer walking down a grocery aisle being able to tap his phone on displays to load coupons straight into his wallet and retailer loyalty card. Then, after that coupon is redeemed, brands could get customer data based on the type of phone used or other purchases. “In a paper-based world, it’s anonymous,” Mr. Sievers said. “As mobile becomes more pervasive, brands get the ability to deliver even more targeted messages.”

For full article >>

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Originally posted by BRIAN SOLIS

When it came time to release Engage in paperback I was asked if there were any changes I wanted to make before going to press. The answer was an emphatic yes.  I took this opportunity not because I felt there was anything wrong or missing, I just saw a chance to practice what I preach. As such, I listened over the year to Tweets, posts, and reviews and felt the need to incorporate suggestions and requests for a different take on an important subject…engagement.

In this second edition, I cut approximately 35,000 words and 40 sections from the original. To put that in perspective, that’s over one-half the length of a standard business book. I also took the opportunity to add new sections and also introduce significant updates to each chapter.

New areas of focus in the second edition include:

– A social business takes a human touch
– The new principles of service and value to trigger shared experiences
– Facebook commerce (F-Commerce)
– ROI and measuring success
– New engagement strategies
– Updated social media tools

The end result is that Engage 2.0 delivers a focused approach to help strategists and executives craft, execute, and measure meaningful and effective social media engagement programs.

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Originally posted by PARNEET GOSAL – SeedWalker

– website, Facebook Twitter, YouTube, Flickr etc. and hence a myopic reward system that offers discounts or rewards for behavior on specific channels only and not across the entire digital eco-system.

Until now. Crowdtwist is a social loyalty and rewards platform, launched by founders Irving Fain, Josh Bowen and Michael Montero in 2009. The platform uses game mechanics and virtual currency to activate the user base and makes it fun and engaging for users to engage with a brand.

For example, each time a user deepens their engagement with a brand by “liking” the Facebook page, subscribing to the YouTube channel or subscribing to email on the website, they earn rewards points that can be redeemed to buy product later. They can also purchase virtual currency to earn rewards at a more accelerated pace. This drives a more meaningful understanding of the customer base by brands and also drives deeper, fun-filled engagement by users over time.

Crowdtwist

For full article >>

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This month has seen two major innovations that may well play a big part in helping publishers adapt to changing reading habits, with a little help from Al Gore. Both are focused primarily on the e-book and tablet market, two markets with meteoric growth projections.

Only 7% of online adults read e-books today, but Forresterpredicts that the e-book market will rise to $3 billion by 2015. Similarly, U.S. tablet sales are projected to grow at an annual rate of 42%, with 20.4 million units expected to be sold in 2015 according to Forrester.

The first innovation is geared towards frictionless self-publishing and is the brainchild of former Apple employees Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris. Their digital creation tool, called Push Pop Press allows writers and publishers to transform their books or magazines into interactive iPad and iPhone apps. What makes this app quite exceptional is that anyone – you, me, Stephen King or that bastion of online publishing, Conde Nast – can use the tool to create rich, graphics-heavy, interactive e-books with zero programming skills required. A lot depends on the stability of the app and the user experience, but if done right this could spell some pretty big changes for publishers and consumers alike.

Al Gore’s Our Choice from Push Pop Press on Vimeo.

To begin with, it will allow publishers to finally deliver an online mobile reading experience that’s in line with how readers like to consumer content on the go – in quick snippets, with the ability to easily navigate between sections using rich interactive features. Publishers will also be able to circumvent high costs associated with hiring app developers, a development that may well spell doom for Adobe’s Creative Suite that is currently the go-to default platform for tablet periodicals. Finally, Push Pop Press could turn into a lucrative revenue generator for publishers given the high rates that advertisers are willing to pay for iPad content. Oh and lest we forget, Al Gore’s latest book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Planet Crisis just became available on Apple’s App Store, thanks to Push Pop Press.

The second innovation in online publishing takes a diametrically different approach and is based on the premise that apps fail when it comes to user experience and that tablet users will consume content much the same as they’re used to doing in the offline world. Recently debuting the platform at TechStars NYC, CEO Jason Baptiste sells OnSwipe as “insanely easy tablet publishing.” It allows publishers to completely circumvent app stores and offer rich, browser-based navigation that mimics the offline reading experience…and then some. Readers can swipe from page to page, access hidden commenting and sharing features, and save content to queues for later reading. While the user experience is seamless, OnSwipe seems to be focused more on the content provider. Unlike existing smartphone and tablet apps, editors won’t have to repurpose website content – all existing content will seamlessly slot into templates at no cost to the publisher. What makes OnSwipe especially compelling is the rich ad experience with built-in GPS optimization and social features that would be a boon for location-based advertisers willing to pay big bucks.

OnSwipe has seen some early success with a planned integration with blogging platforms WordPress and Tumblr this spring. Co-founders Jason Baptiste and Andres Barreto have raised $1 million in their first round of financing and are backed by VC firm Spark Capital and super-angel Ron Conway.

Push Pop Press

OnSwipe

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