It seems that everyone theses days is checking into every location that they go near, whether they enter or not. While I understand that getting people into stores is a store owners dream, the real goal, which is what MyTown would like to exploit, is to have them pick up and buy products.
“Location is just a way to drive them to the store, but ultimately people want to actually be able to sell products, so this is one step away, getting closer to the finish line to point of sale.” Booyah’s founder Keith Lee says. “And that’s really where we want to go in terms of validating activities that you do in the real world.”
To validate products, the new update makes MyTown the first location based check-in app that includes a barcode scanner like the one that you see in RedLaser. Using the iPhone’s camera, users can scan codes and instantly unlock any points or promotions that the item has stored.
Ultimately, Keith Lee wants users to be able to walk into places like Wal-Mart and see various coupons that the store offers. The company doesn’t have a full set of retail partners involved yet, but a few have jumped on, as well as a “very large mystery consumer products company” that will be announced in August.
Someday, Lee envisions companies starting scavenger hunts and treasure finds to drive the MyTown gameplay even further. With 2.5 million users, there probably won’t be any shortage of companies that will be looking to MyTown to drive their products of the future.
There is no release date set for this update, but I’m hoping that it comes out fairly soon. The release is out now, so go get it, it’s free!
[Source: TechCrunch]
