Billed by its founders as a ‘visual endorsement engine’, Udorse is launching today at the TechCrunch50 conference a couple of months after word got out that the startup raised half a million dollars in seed funding from The Founders Fund and convinced Peter Thiel to join its board of directors.
So what the heck is a visual endorsement engine and why on earth would anyone need it?
Udorse allows you to link your Facebook profile to your account using Facebook Connect, enabling the web service to fetch all the photos that you share on the social network as well as the ones that your friends have shared with you. Items in the photos can then be highlighted using the Udorse dashboard, after which they function as actual online product endorsements – or ‘udorsements’ as the startup refers to them – made by yourself, publicly. In other words: showing anyone who cares what you think is cool.
In the example shown on stage, Udorse co-founder Geoffrey Lewis picked a photo of him and a friend who works as a fahion designer. Endorsing in this case is done by selecting an item – the dress she’s wearing – and identifying it with a description and associated brand name, with the extra ability to add links and commentary to the highlighted item. Every time someone sees the photo and clicks the associated Udorse icon or link, they are able to gather more information about the product or directly be referred to the website where it can be bought. Udorse also comes with a useful search engine that allows you to browse product endorsements made by your social circle based on type of item, brand or tags that were used to identify products.
When someone ends up on a product website from a Udorse partner brand – which any type of business can easily sign up for online – following a referral link on a ‘udorsement’, the person who highlighted the item is entitled to 25% of the commission fee in case this person purchases the product as well. The referrer can choose to get cash payment for the tracked referral on his PayPal account or instantly donate it to charity.
Udorse is going live today with Armani and American Apparel.
In my opinion, this is a really well thought-out concept that fits the social nature of Facebook perfectly and particularly the hugely popular photo sharing activity on the social network.
Expert panel Q&A:
Q- Marissa Mayer: I really loved it. I always thought that this was one of the way social networks going to raise money.
Q-Paul Graham: Are there places where you can and cant run these photos? Technically-
A: Can serve them on the Facebook platform, working on plug-ins for blogs, behind the scenes it depends on Javascript.
Q-Tony Hsieh: I thought this was one of the more passionate presentations. But I think its weird for you to get paid for me to dress like you as your friend.
A: You can opt in to share endorsements. You can also donate the revenue to a charity.
Tony Hsieh: It’s sort of creepy, wearing the same outfit as your friends.
A: The technology will let you see other items from different stores and brands.
Q_Marc Andreessen: Do you have any thoughts on distribution?
A-We have a part-time journalist on staff to figure out who are the top influencers who share photos on line. Partners, like American Apparel, are also excited about pushing the app out to users.
Q-Marissa Mayer- Apparel might be a big space, but also electronic gadgets might be good for this. You might have a model around cooperative buying.
A: In the end, we are aiming towards anything that can be included in a picture.
Q-Paul Graham: Are there classes of sellers who are particularly excited about this?
A: We’re getting traction from apparel retailers, hoping to make progress with additional brands.
Video:
Pictures:
Extra coverage:
TC50: Udorse lets you tag your photos with product endorsements VentureBeat.
Udorse: Give Product Placement a Chance The Noisy Channel.
TechCrunch50: Udorse is a Visual Endorsement Engine Trends Updates.
uDorse – Earn Money From Your Favorite Brands (TC50) SheBlogs.
I like the concept. But I wonder why would anyone ever go to the udorse website. To see the pictures they can already see on facebook? The javascript plugin seems to offer more promise.
This is a good idea for the stuff that don’t have personal attachment to it. Apparell is bad for this. People define their own styles et al. But of course on the flip side, it helps individuals to better mix and match and borrow styles from their friends but work it in a different way.
But I think it is a direct hit with none personal stuff like furniture, electronics, flowers etc.
One of my favourite startups so far. but frankly, udorse should be a feature not a destination.
Having Founders Fund on board make it probably to see a facebook acquisition. this would be one of facebooks best revenue models IMO!
I missed the demo, it’s an interesting & scary idea. How intrusive is it? My first reaction is that I would un-friend anyone who throws even subtle advertising on their FB page even faster than I would unfollow someone sending paid tweets.
But that may just be me. I’m curious whether this would work or generate backlash.
Nice Job, Trevor! I had no idea you were into startups.
- The guy who sublet your apartment in boston
Would have to agree with Jason, another avenue to continually pitch friends to make money, complete turn off
Doesn’t pixazza do this? They are funded by Google, no?
I agree with the comment someone else already made; why would anyone go to the udorse site to view pictures they’d already seen? The idea is good, though. I’ve often thought it would be cool if someone like Flickr just incorporated this feature so people could click things in photos if they wanted to buy them.
Loved the guys enthusiasm but as a standalone app I don’t see it being a winner. As an idea existing sites can use, its a great idea.
Same idea as Pixazza but with a slight variation.
really liked it. It’s a product, not an App. needs to be own product because there is a lot more than just facebook people share pictures on many platforms and one way to endorse that cuts across all is a good idea. presenters seemed on top of their game. pixazza is a far worse execution in this, and pixazza has like 10x the money than Udorse based on crunchbase
Interesting idea, poor execution. They HAVE to move their content to fb and others. Their handy dandy beta code is tc50.
I’ve made this comment elsewhere, but I might as well make it here too:
The social networking thing is pretty much a waste of time imo. As others have said, who wants to go to the Udorse site, or install an App in FB just to be able to mimic their friends. OK, people are influenced by their friends, but they don’t want to be clones.
Where this does have great potential is as a platform for publishers to generate more revenue from their content. If the likes of Perez Hilton’s blog, or any of the thousands of fashion and celebrity blogs, used this platform they could make money from the photos on their site. People are influenced by celebrities and fashion trends more than their friends.
Forget the naff social networking.
His presentation did make me cringe quite a bit though…