1. Location based
social networking
Alex Housley
@ahousley
Navigation & Location Europe, Amsterdam - 11th June 2009
2. Total Hotspots
• Global Wirefree Community - impartial
helping people find Wi-Fi connectivity
• Founded by Alex Housley in 2004 to “scratch
an itch” whilst studying Business Computing
at City University
• Experienced management team (ex-
Microsoft, D&B, PWC)
• Clients include leading service providers,
venue owners and technology companies
• iPhone app recently launched in partnership
with Rummble
3. Rummble
• Easy way to share the places you love
• Aiming to become #1 location based
social discovery platform
• Developed a unique trust algorithm -
enabling relevance & speed of discovery
• Founded by Andrew Scott: 9 years mobile
experience; 4 startups; successful exit of
web development company
• World class board, advisors backed by
leading academic research
4. LBS in 2004
• Higher Cost - location lookup, data usage,
international roll-out
• Lower Usability - small screen size, UI flexibility
• Less Awareness
• of social software
• of location based services
11. Travel Guides Websites Mobile Socnets
Search Engines
12. Travel Guides Websites Mobile Socnets
Search Engines Mobile Services
13. Social Explodes
• > 200 million Facebook users.
• 700k new users each week
• > 30m accessing via their mobile
device.
• Twitter is “going nuclear”.
• Growth across all demographics.
23. Browser vs App
• Arms race to build apps for each platform
• Objective C takes approx 5x code to
comparable web app!
• 30s to compile and launch
• 5x longer than web apps - via @JofArnold
24. Browser vs App
• UI responsiveness
• JSON vs XHTML
• Currently no access to camera or compass
• Google believe mobile web is the future...
25. Next Generation
Mobile Mapping
• Dots on mobile maps clutter easily.
• Rummble takes maps beyond “what’s
where” and “A to B” routing.
• Mobile maps and lists of results have
relative pros and cons. What happens
when combined?
26. Neighbourhood View
• Won TeleAtlas’s Global
Award 2009 -
“Disruptive Innovator”
• Helps users decide
which direction to
physically go
• Quicker than clicking
individual map items
30. iPhone 3G S
• Google Map Views (Mapkit)
• Dynamic Map Markers
• Safari - geolocation API and offline support (Google Gears)
• In-App Purchases
• Compass
• Peer-to-Peer (Gamekit) - talk over bluetooth, share geocontent.
Not so convinced about bluetooth...
• Graphics - 3D support
• Find (and wipe!) my iPhone
• Push Notifications
32. Windows Mobile
• Microsoft are taking location seriously
• Live ID - open ID provider since Oct
2008
• Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK
• Excellent Handsets Coming Soon...
• Device variation - resolution, input, etc
• Fluid.net Controls - touch gestures
compatible with WM 5+
• Total Hotspots / Rummble winners of
most improved app at Mobile
Incubation Week
33. Windows Mobile
• Microsoft are taking location seriously
• Live ID - open ID provider since Oct
2008
• Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK
• Excellent Handsets Coming Soon...
• Device variation - resolution, input, etc
• Fluid.net Controls - touch gestures
compatible with WM 5+
• Total Hotspots / Rummble winners of
most improved app at Mobile
Incubation Week
34. Mobile Local Information
Browser SMS App
50.00
37.50
25.00
12.50
Source: comScore Mobile 0
2008 2009
41. So, where’s the money?
• The location based services
opportunity is huge!
“The (User Location Market) …
• Location is a commodity. will nearly triple in revenue this
year, to $1.3 billion from $485
million in 2007, and will reach
• Lower barriers to entry.
$8 billion in 2011.”
Gartner Research
42. So, where’s the money?
• Location is now a commodity
• Premium Model
• Subscription / Micro-payments
• Advertising / Commission
• By-products - API, data, business process
43. Privacy
• Lack of understanding?
• Opt-in
• Granularity: who? location accuracy? time?
• Prompts: app or system level?
44. Dank je!
• alex@totalhotspots.com
• @ahousley on Twitter
• Download Total Hotspots or Rummble for
iPhone.
• Register and stay in touch for news about
other platforms!