Skout, a location-based social network similar to the likes of Loopt and BrightKite, has decided to take a new approach to mobile-based networking. In conjunction with the upcoming release of its first iPhone application, the site has decided to abandon its role as a standard social network, and is instead reinventing itself as one of the iPhone’s first location-based dating services.
CEO Christian Wiklund says that location-based functionality is increasingly becoming a commodity, and that networks are going to have to do something to differentiate themselves. While some of the larger networks do offer some features that involve flirting and meeting new people, Wiklund says that because these are only secondary features people will probably use them less.
The iPhone app is planned for release next week (you can see a preview of it below), and doesn’t seem to be too different from the apps we’ve seen from Loopt and BrightKite – it seems that the biggest difference will lie in the intent of its users.
To coincide with the new iPhone application, Skout will also be revamping its homepage to reflect its new goals. Fortunately Wiklund says that 83% of Skout’s 20,000 active users were using the network for dating and flirting already, so the switch shouldn’t be too jarring. The company has also brought on a set of new advisers to help guide its new position as a dating site, including match.com founder Gary Kremen.
I think that’s there’s a definite market for dating apps on the iPhone and other smart phones, but I question if there is demand for yet another dating network – many people already belong to established sites like Match.com and eHarmony, and won’t be eager to deal with yet another one. But if Skout can form partnerships with some of these established sites, offering either white-labeled application or importing their accounts into Skout, then it could do very well for itself (the site has already been in talks with some, but won’t say who).
hmm.. not sure if I like this. Will it survive? With the growing number of “chatlines” to find yourself a lover, I find myself wondering how many people actually use these things.
Hey,
Forget iPhone! The Next Generation Smartphone is here. Ever heard of Palm Pre?? They say it is far better than iPhone.
Check out some pics and videos from the Consumer Electronics Show, North America.
http://raaroore...re-is-here.html
This will work if they partner with plenty of fish, and no other,
Skout will have lots of chances for deals with big dating players. They are the Social Networking tool at iDate. This means all the people at the conference will be using Skout check out whose going. http://www.idate2009.com
It’s too bad these iPhone social networking apps don’t integrate with existing (bigger) networks.
I feel like I have to recreate my network in order to take advantage of these apps.
Is that true or is there a workaround?
shub.me is a “place based” mobile web app in early beta that does exactly that. We use Facebook as the network so you don’t have to recreate your network all over again. You don’t even have to register. And because it’s a web app it works on any phone with a browser. http://shub.me
Skout is also Mobile Web and has “significant” traction. We are on all web enabled mobile phones and look pretty good. We have a significant number of users not on iPhones. Our iPhone app is just icing. btw. Anyone can break Facebook TOS to pull user over but I’m not sure I would want someone adding me to a network through my friends without my approval.
helps thatnks
http://www.cashcratescam.com
@redg – sounds good, but I just wanted to clarify – shub.me does not break the Facebook TOS nor pull users over nor add people to a network, with or without their approval.
Another useless iPhone app? But being an iPhone developer myself, I find these apps doing much better.
http://www.newgadgetsguru.com
They should just get right to the point and create
A GPS Sex Locator like this mock up
http://www.fornicatur.com
LoL
LOL
http://cashcratescam.com
“reinventing itself as one of the iPhone’s first location-based dating services.”
“reinventing” ???
is anybody thinking what I am?
Who stops half way through a business plan and re-invents/repurposes the service?
*confusing*
fail.
I really don’t want to be a downer either. I’m just calling it.
You may not remember a massively multiplayer game called ‘Game NeverEnding’. It had a cool photo upload capability built into it. While the game never took off, you likely know the photo uploading tool. It was called Flickr. Ludicorp, changed the focus of their company and was successfully acquired by Yahoo.
Good startups are nimble and adjust to the changing marketplace even if it means a different focus.
“You may not remember a massively multiplayer game called ‘Game NeverEnding’.”
No I don’t.
“It was called Flickr.”
Lots of startups were acquired shortly after their creation 3-4 years ago.
This company now has 20k people going WTF?
I wish them the best though. Fast cash acquisition time is over. This is brutal fight for paying user time.
Back in 2005 all you had to do was post usage stats and a paying client list of 1000 or more, and you were acquired, period.
We did it as well. It was similar in 2000, and now we’ll have to wait until 2010-2011. This isn’t the same environment. This company is going to be out in the cold at least until then if they can keep their users.
GNE was cool for a number of things, but their file upload was buggy as all hell.
I found my girlfriend on POF or PlentyOfFish.com, that is where I would recommend people go to find a significant other. All the best in 2009.
@ scout locator you”ll be able to find anything good. the killer ipone app is the safari tab to the internet. time to poke a hole in the mobile myth.
TrueLocator.com – next to perfect
Yeah, because the Safari tab let’s you use stateful tools, and the safari tab lets you interact with other applications like Android and the broadcast receiver.
Oh, and of course the safari tab lets you ping back longitude and latitude to give the user some insightful information depending on where they are.
That safari tab is getting damn useful my friend. I hear one day, ONE day, it will run JAVA (so close)!!! But the java will not have any access to the iPhone SDK.
We waste countless hours working on our Android and iPhone apps because we could have done it in 5 minutes in the “safari tab”
Learn some Dalvik J and some objective C and get back to us.
Your bandwidth is extremely limited over 2g(which is often the case even for those with some 3g coverage), the app must respond immediately or it will be interpreted as garbage.
Even if you use no LBS, and none of the package features that can’t be implemented via PHP or some web technology
http://code.goo...e/packages.html
Your online web app still would not be usable on a day to day basis for most people. The best you could hope for is a successful RSS feed.
The web is painful to use on these devices. You can not ignore building both an Android and iPhone implementation of your software. Blackberry you can skip, but not those 2.
To say otherwise is not to have used these phones enough to know what you’re talking about.
Chris,
We built Skout to work on “all” web enabled mobile phones. You would be impressed with the amount of users we have with smaller mobile web devices in 2G networks.
redg-
Redg,
We only have 2 developers and a graphics design lady and one person to sell ours.
We’re not going to go into Device Central CS4 and test everything. Or worse buy all those candybar bricks and use their proprietary SDK like RIM’s.
On a side note have you ever developed for Blaze?
It’s not even in Device Central.
It’s a waste of time.
Our project is about building the most efficient product in the least amount of time for *most* users.
Most business users that we aim at do not use crappy phones. The same people that use the $39 GPS phones from various providers are the same people that are going to be too cheap to pay for our application.
As far as I’m concerned there are 2 GPS mobile platforms that matter. iPhone and Android. RIM is going chapter 11 soon.
Not sure about the demand yet, we have location via google maps and most users can’t figure it out and rely on tags, http://www.sweetr.net/tag.php but with the number of iphones predicted to ship over the next two to three years who knows, niche for sure at this point..best of luck
There’s definitely a business somewhere here but the technology needs to be really polished and as several people have mentioned it would make sense to partner with a dating network to get the userbase.
__________________________
http://kisalt.net/d2
This was a new information for me. thanks a lot!
Is there any option to privacy in this app? Most of the features could be found in social networking internet sites but Skout should introduce some additional attrative features to catch eye of existing users. For new users, any way trial and error works more often! – Internet techies
you guys are fkn iPhone centric, there are plenty of other platforms, Android to name just 1 other
the nubmer of posts on iPhone related stuff is disgusting, are you on the payroll?
Really doubt if this is even necessary
http://stuckinf...es.blogspot.com
At rippll we have been running an LBS web app for a while which we are (no suprise) about to launch as a GPS app. We experience 2 groups on our site: real friends and flirters, however I doubt anyone has ever used the service to meet a stranger for a date.. Apart from ‘Geo-blogging’ it seems that geo-social networks are still in the novelty space on the whole.
However we are now starting to explore the potential to bring local deals and calendar events to our users which starts to add real value to the user experience..
Http://www.rippll.com
Http://www.rippll.com
Does anyone remember the similar Japanese gadget in the late 90s that received some Western press coverage? It was basically a little beeper that would beep when you passed a member of the opposite sex in the street who had entered details that you had stated a preference before.
There’s definitely a business somewhere here but the technology needs to be really polished and as several people have mentioned it would make sense to partner with a dating network to get the userbase.
Yes! Free traffic for Scout.com! Yet another company that fails to understand that the MOST important part of your online business is the domain name.
Even though I like the concept ’cause it’s a bit different than most dating sites, I found the implementation and design a bit sub-par.
Simple…………Deadpool
They need hardwork to enter this market. There is big player like plenty o fish
I think this is a very interesting idea… has not been much innovation in the online dating market except from WooMe and some others.
Good luck guys!
How is the demographic distribution of iPhones? I would bet there is a 90-10 distribution from what I’ve seen in Sweden so far.
I’ve been using Dating DNA for some time and they have a fantastic website. Everything they do is 100% free and they don’t clutter the site up with advertising, like POF.
Dating DNA was the first to do online dating on the iPhone, and they have a new version that is coming out in a week which is REALLY amazing. They have been showing demos of it to users.
I looked at Skout’s website and it looks like they are far behind Dating DNA in both features and user base. Only 12 women in my area, compared with hundreds on Dating DNA.
I don’t get what the difference is between these guys and a company like meetmoi. Meetmoi has been around for a while and I know several people who actually use it and really enjoy it.
Has anyone checked out Skout’s new site by the way? They used almost the exact same layout as meetmoi and even have the same blue and orange color scheme. Pretty funny stuff if you ask me…
Daniel,
Checked it out…. colors are different, search box is standard across any dating site… a map makes sense ,,, and you guys don’t have chat. I don’t see us as real competitors. BTW right now we are free. How bout you check it out.
redg-
Hey guys,
Just wanted to give you the latest scoop on SKOUT. We just launched our new iPhone app today! It’s completely free and available in stores now. It allows you to chat and meet people on the go! Try it out today and get back to us with your thoughts and comments. We look forward to hearing from you! Email your feedback to: iphone@skout.com
Download the iPhone App here: http://snurl.com/bm4nw
Learn more about the App here: http://www.us.s...h/iphoneapp.jsp
Barbara
SKOUT keeps sending me a spam. Subject line is “Some people who think you’re hot on Skout. Here’s who they are:”.
I do NOT have an account on SKOUT. Several times I’ve clicked the unsubscribe link and confirmed it (”You have successfully unsubscribed”), but those SPAMMERS keep sending the stupid emails.
SKOUT is a freakin’ spammer. Please do not promote these guys until they stop spamming.