Wikets, Inc., a young social commerce startup, announced today that it has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from venture firms Andreessen Horowitz and Battery Ventures, as well as from six angel investors, including Robert Davoli of Sigma Partners. The startup will use its seed capital, says Wikets co-founder and CEO Andy Park, to ramp up hiring and prepare for the release of its eponymous iPhone app, which will reward users for providing and sharing recommendations on products and places to their friends — while on the go.
From this brief description, Wikets may sound a little bit like a game-ified rewards system overlaid on, say, Yelp. While the Wikets team is not yet sharing all the details of the app’s UX — as the team is busy putting the finishing touches on the app ahead of its expected release date in early October — nut, to be sure, Wikets is more than a Yelp with badges, designed instead around social commerce, around helping users discover and connect with like-minded people based on shared favorite places and products.
The social graph is becoming (if it hasn’t always been) the source of our most trusted recommendations; while Netflix’s impressive recommendation engine relies on a complex concoction of algorithms, and other familiar services might prefer similar machine-enabled (or hybrid) recommendation systems, it’s hard to argue against good old human curation and friendsourced recommendations. Especially for the very simple reason that they come from those we trust — people who know who we are, what tastes and preferences define us, or what makes us tick.
Park identifies this trend in many people: When a friend takes one up on a recommendation, they are inherently showing trust in that suggestion, and by extension showing trust in us, so Wikets is therefore designed to reward friends for offering valuable, actionable recommendations on products and places (as well as the ability to discover like-minded strangers who will have the possibility to become trusted sources themselves).
The application will combine the social graph with friend filters and geolocation as the foundation for those trustable recommendations. And, instead of becoming a mobile source for people to add photos of products or favorite places, Wikets will offer (through various partnerships with retailers, etc.) a full, searchable database so that people can focus on suggesting products and places they love to people who will no doubt feel the same way.
Wikets will allow users to connect directly with each other, share preferences, and receive updates via email et al on what their trusted sources are recommending. When another user takes one’s suggestion, both users are then rewarded with points. Once users accumulate a certain number of points, they will be rewarded with real prizes. At this point, Park says, those prizes will likely take the form of gift cards.
Yet, as the app will be free (with made-for iPad and Android apps on the way), Wikets will need to keep its eye on the formulation of a killer business model. Although the team has yet to solidify its plans for monetization, likely revenue will come in the form of taking a cut when a user’s recommendation turns into an actual purchase, be it of a product, a hotel room, etc.
Wikets can also become a great platform for brands to leverage to find their most loyal customers, their most passionate advocates, and likely the types of prizes Wikets is offering might come in the form of featured products offered by partnering brands.
Be that as it may, Wikets is keen on making sure that its “social” features are not simply cut-and-paste Facebook and Twitter integration. While users will be able to blast product recommendations out via their favorite social networks, look for the app’s social components to circle around how it takes a user’s preferences and location to identify the things they like and connect them with people who have similar interests. Users will then be able to go buy those products right from the app.
As to who is behind Wikets? The startup was founded by Andy Park, Vijay Manwani, and Ravi Reddy, who formerly built data center software provider BladeLogic, which was sold to BMC Software in 2008 a year after its IPO.
Stay tuned for more.
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