There are plenty of geolocation features on social networks, but Dylan Hamilton found potential in basic check-ins to turn passing pings into true social meetups.
Hamilton paired with Trent Ohannessian to create ShareWhere, a location-based, event-sharing platform that gives friends advanced notification – weeks, hours or even minutes – before arriving at a venue or replying to an invite. The platform also connects users with specific deals based on the venue locations of their plans.
Since launching softly Labor Day weekend, the web-based application has already seen hundreds of registered users actively engaging with the service. Hamilton said the Ankeny-based ShareWhere team has been surprised with the level of activity from international users, specifically those in Europe and South America, in ShareWhere’s first couple of weeks.
In an email Wednesday, Hamilton (photo from twitter.com/dylanhmilton) said more than 60 percent of total unique traffic stems from meetups and happenings from across the globe. Such worldly traction has accelerated ShareWhere’s plans to add internationalization features to the site.
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View of the user event interface inside ShareWhere, where users can reply to events and see deals in the area. Screenshot from sharewhere.com
When a user creates an event and invites friends to join, ShareWhere issues an email (and soon a text or push notification once the platform goes mobile) and all responses collect into one location inside the service, accessible by all invited. Soon, ShareWhere will aggregate calendars and events of other social networks, like Facebook. Based on user feedback so far, the service has already included Google Calendar and iCal.
Aside from the social element to ShareWhere, the platform houses deals and discounts from area businesses based on users’ preexisting plans. Hamilton has described ShareWhere as the “Foursquare for the future” for users and “the anti-Groupon” for merchants, so businesses can begin to create relevant deals for specific groups attending events in their area.
Local businesses can create specific deals based on check-ins, location of future events and points users earn from adding and attending meetups. In the coming weeks, the bootstrapped project will issue a monthly subscription fee to businesses to tap into this service, and by October user points will become active for special offers and discounts redeemable through the platform’s local business rewards program.
As the service continues to move forward, look for what Hamilton calls a “smarter” use of external services like automated check-ins to multiple services, in addition to its current Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare integration.
