A recent start-up application service called SpotOn provides consumers with a data collection service, taking things like Foursquare check-ins, Facebook likes and other information all in to consideration. This then provides a number of choices tailored to the individual. Importantly, the app doesn’t require all friends to have it in order for choices to be made, meaning that your friendship group will be represented as long as they use one of the social networking services or location services purported by the application.
It’s also possible for friends to recommend different merchants to the service by rating them through a lovely petal interface. While it provides user accounts distinct to the service, the fact that it incorporates a pre-existing social graph means that it avoids the zero start problem faced by many new location or data services.
The SponOn maps service takes into account how many of your friends have been to specific venues or rated places highly to suggest different places to go. CEO Gauri Manglik said, ‘In short, we take your digital preferences, whether it be Facebook Likes, Foursquare checkins or anything else and make them useful in the real world.’
The system advertises through daily deal affiliates- as this may be useful for those customers who are already using the service. The app is currently bootstrapped but an iPhone app version is supposedly coming soon. The service could end up being very popular, but considering the relatively low number of check-ins being utilised on average among friends, it will require a significant friendship group in order to create the tapestry of venues required to promote regular visits to the app.
