Fist-Bump Money Transfers? PayPal App Update Makes It So.
Do you remember the billionth app downloaded on the App Store? It was Bump, a free app that lets you swap pictures and contact info by bumping two iPhones together. The concept was simple, the app was cheap, and lo and behold: people like gimmicks. For a while, Bump was a chart-topper.
PayPal has long had a free app on the App Store, which provided mundane features like managing your PayPal account. (Who needs that?) But recently, they added a new feature: just like Bump, PayPal’s app now allows you to exchange things by simply bumping phones. The difference is that PayPal lets you actually exchange money with the person you’re bumping phones with.
It looks like a gimmick on the surface, but the feature is actually pretty useful. If you’re using an iPhone and have a PayPal account, you can download the app from anywhere and quickly complete a transaction. The process is painless, requires no exchange of information, and it’s free. What more could you want?
It’s a neat feature, that’s for sure. I can just see it now: instead of paying the normal way, you’ll bump fists with an iPhone clenched in your fingers. Passersby will stare in bafflement, but that’s okay—because you’ll know that you’re at the cutting-edge of technology. Yeah, you could pay for stuff in cash, but this is the twenty-first century!
Yeah, it’s silly, but it’s still cool. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If you have a PayPal account, it’s probably worth downloading the free app just to manage your account and check your balance. And, hey, if the opportunity arises…bump-money-transfers are the way to go.
Category: Finance
Released: 2008-07-11
Price: FREE
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Fist-Bump Money Transfers? PayPal App Update Makes It So.
Where, a Geo App Launches a Local Mobile Ad Network
Where, a geo-enabled local search and recommendation service by Boston-based uLocate Communications, has launched Where Ads, a hyper-local advertising network. The company is launching the new network because it believes that its access to carrier infrastructure gives it an ability to deliver hyper-local and contextually relevant content and by extension highly targeted local advertising.
According to Dan Gilmartin, uLocate’s VP of marketing, the company has decided to scrap running generic ads (such as ones for ringtones and chat) on its app and replaced them with local ads (for local merchants that also include special offers and deals) they aggregated from partners such as Quattro Wireless, a company acquired by Apple. Upon launching these new ads, the company saw click throughs almost triple and boosted their CPMs.
“About 30 days ago, we reached to some other mobile content publishers assuming they were dealing with the same issues we had, poor ads that degraded the app experience and low revenue,” he said. The company launched Where Ads with ten publishers who will run ads from Where’s ad network.
I like this move by the company: it is not only solving the problem with low relevance of mobile ads, it is doing so by building what could potentially be a sizable business. Where offers its app on multiple mobile platforms including the iPhone and has seen its app downloaded over 10 million times.
Originally posted here:
Where, a Geo App Launches a Local Mobile Ad Network
