Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, October 4, 2010
These days, James Crenshaw enjoys walking into a store, launching his favorite check-in app and scanning product barcodes with his iPhone.
And it’s not just because he can earn some intangible mayoral title or bragging rights with his friends - Crenshaw’s motivated by the prospect of earning reward points and discounts that can save him real money.
“I’m going to Best Buy more and more because I know I can check in and it’s a possibility I can get a Best Buy (gift) card,” the 25-year-old Wilkes-Barre, Pa., resident said in a phone interview.
Social check-in applications like Foursquare and Gowalla have generated a lot of buzz in the past couple of years among the tech-savvy crowd. But for most consumers, the concept of “checking in” is still something a person does only at an airline counter or doctor’s office, or that it is nobody else’s business where they are.
Now, however, developers of check-in applications like Shopkick, WeReward, Scvngr and CheckPoints are trying to lure a more mainstream audience by adding more than just bragging rights.
For example, Scvngr, of Cambridge, Mass., ran a promotion tied to the weekend’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park that offered prizes such as concert tickets at the Great American Music Hall. Users of Scvngr’s mobile phone app earned points by checking in, answering trivia questions, submitting pictures of bands and sharing their experiences on Facebook and Twitter.
‘What’s in it for me?’
Two weeks ago, Palo Alto’s Shopkick added a $10 iTunes gift cards to its list of rewards. And CheckPoints LLC, which launched its app at a San Francisco tech conference last week, offers rewards like iPads, Amazon.com gift certificates and Alaska Airlines miles.
“They’re answering the question, ‘What’s in it for me?’ ” said Randhir Vieira, marketing director for Eye-Fi Inc., a Mountain View company that is using Gowalla and WeReward to promote its Wi-Fi-enabled digital camera memory cards. “We’ve finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel for all these location-based services that people have been talking about for years.”
The growing popularity of mobile phones that use GPS technology to pinpoint the device’s whereabouts has given rise to an estimated 20,000 location-based applications.
And apps like Foursquare and Gowalla turned location-based technologies into a social game: You show up at a restaurant, bar, stadium or other venue, electronically mark your spot, and let people know you are there. And if you check in enough times in one place, you can earn the bragging rights that come with being a “mayor” of a particular spot.
Facebook Inc. is also rolling out Places, a feature that lets its 500 million users share their location in status updates to friends, although it’s still not clear how the social media giant plans to make money from the feature.
“Where you are at all times in the physical world is merging with the digital world,” said Tasso Roumeliotis, founder and chief executive of Location Labs, an Emeryville firm that has signed up about 2,000 developers for its location technology platform that works on about 250 million U.S. mobile phones.
And interest is “absurdly hot right now,” Roumeliotis said.
Bonus for being there
Although apps like Foursquare have increasingly added sponsored products or discounts, the August launch of Palo Alto startup Shopkick Inc. stepped up the check-in game by offering reward points, called “kickbucks,” that users earned by visiting a participating retailer or shopping mall.
“What was interesting about Shopkick for me is it does for the first time give consumers something for walking into the door,” said Susan Etlinger, a consultant with the Altimeter Group, a San Mateo emerging technologies advisory firm. “Shopkick was the first one to nail that right out of the gate.”
Kickbucks are also earned by scanning barcodes of specific products. Accumulated kickbucks turn into discounts, and the system can also deliver personalized coupons. Shopkick recently added Target stores to its roster of sponsors, joining Best Buy, Macy’s, Sports Authority and the nation’s biggest shopping mall operator, Simon Property Group.
Crenshaw said he also uses Foursquare and WeReward, but likes Shopkick because it leads him to “places I never knew about.”
Reward points on WeReward, which was launched by Izea, are worth about a penny each and are earned by checking in, completing tasks or sharing on Twitter, Facebook or Foursquare.
Participating advertisers pick how many reward points they want to sponsor. Eye-Fi, for example, offered 200 points if a user bought a memory card and uploaded a photo of the transaction. Some customers uploaded pictures of themselves or the store clerk with the card. Domino’s Pizza is also a prime WeReward advertiser.
WeReward users can eventually cash in points through PayPal.
“By offering real cash, we’re trying to provide real value to the people who are using the app,” said Izea chief executive Ted Murphy. “It’s not just games and ego building. With so many mobile smart phones out there, I think you’re going to see more and more people participating in these services.”
Reward points
CheckPoints, of Venice (Los Angeles County), has a similar check-in service, although it works at any retailer that sells the sponsored product. Users earn points for scanning the products’ barcodes, although it will take a lot of scanning to earn enough for an iPad, which is 150,000 points.
“We think consumers today are looking for fun, yes, but also value,” said Chief Executive Officer Mark DiPaola. “Our goal is to show that just about every shopping trip, you should be able to squeeze out a buck or two of added value.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/03/BUDH1FM04P.DTL#ixzz11XStcORY
Fresh off a 
After 
