GyPSii

Last updated
GyPSii
Type of business Private
Type of site
 Geosocial Networking
Available in English, Spanish and Chinese
Founded2007
Headquarters
Amsterdam
,
Netherlands
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerGeoSentric, OYJ
Founder(s) Daniel Harple, Sam Critchley, Rich Pizzarro, John Drefahl, Gavin Nicol
URL Gypsii.com
Launched2008
Current statusOperated by Sina Weibo

GyPSii is a provider of geosocial networking applications and services for the iPhone, iPod, iPad, BlackBerry OS, Android and Java-based phones, Symbian S60 and S40, Windows Mobile and MID notebooks. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with offices in Asia and the United States.

Contents

History

According to co-founder Daniel Harple, while cycling around Amsterdam in 2007 searching for nearby restaurants with his mobile phone browser, he realized the need for a software application that would allow friends to easily track and share locations and activities with each other. The previous year Harple had met GyPSii's other founder, Sam Critchley, who had been working on a location-based mobile URL geolocation application, a2b, originally based on a database of restaurant and other landmark locations, since 2004, and which had launched and received some international press coverage in 2006. [1] After meeting, Harple and Critchley came up with the idea for GyPSii whilst meeting in a café in Amsterdam [2] and began to collaborate on the new service. Their application became the Amsterdam-based company, GeoSolutions BV, doing business as Gypsii. Shortly afterward, the resulting startup was acquired and merged to Finnish company Benefon, later known as GeoSentric OYJ, parent company of GeoSentric Group. [3] [4] At this time GyPSii received early press coverage noting the role positioning technologies would begin to play in mobile social networks. [5]

GyPSii was launched in time for the 2008 Olympics in Bejiing, where the app's real time blogging enabled event results, videos and pictures to be "broadcast" instantly via GyPSii. [6] Shortly after its launch, Harple predicted GyPSii "could have more users in one year than Facebook had in three." [7] GyPSii added about 1 million new users in China in the last quarter of 2009. [8] By May 2010 the company reported it had reached over two million users, [9] and in June 2010, added 130 million subscribers in Latin America as part of a deal with mobile operator Telefónica. [8]

In 2009, GyPSii was a Webby Award winner in the Social Networking category. [10]

In 2010 Sina Weibo entered into a joint venture with GeoSentric's GyPSii. Sina eventually took over operations of GyPSii services such as the Chinese language location-based mobile social networking application called WeilLngDi, as well as the location-based photo-sharing service similar to Instagram called TuDing. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

In September 2010, Harple resigned as Executive Chairman and Group CEO, but continues as a major shareholder and lead inventor/patent-holder to GeoSentric and its technologies. [3] [17] [18] [19]

Products

GyPSii

GyPSii's "social, local, mobile" application utilizes GPS to allow mobile device users to search for and identify their contacts locally or internationally and add a real time, location-based element to social networking. Compatible with other social networking sites, GyPSii allows location-specific functionality to be transferred to a user's Facebook page, showing their own location in relation to friends locations. GyPSii technology also lets users view blogs, news, events and social media content, filtered by location. [3] [20]

Mobile phone users can create user-generated content in real time using GyPSii, [21] The GyPSii Application programming interface and resulting User Experience has been likened by company officials to "a window into the management of your social fabric and your interaction with people, not just on GyPSii but on other social networks." [22] GyPSii's underlying database of user information can additionally be used to target advertising. [23]

In October 2008, GyPSii's PlaceMe application, which lets users geotag photo, video, and audio recordings to be shared with friends, was given a Symbian Star Developer Award, as voted by Nokia subsidiary Navteq. [24] [25]

GyPSii's iPhone app was launched in 2009, allowing user-created places and experiences to become Internet-searchable destinations that are available for friends and communities to share and comment on, not only in GyPSii, but also across other social media such as Facebook and Twitter. [22] China Unicom has also partnered with GyPSii, using its technology to bundle GyPSii on all iPhones in China and launch a China-based social networking application for the iPhone called Unispace. [3]

OEx (Open Experience)

Launched in February 2009, the GyPSii OpenExperience API (OEx) is a platform as a service for incorporating location-based social networking functionality, location context, advertising, and user generated content into embedded mobile clients and 3rd party applications. The OEx API is the same platform on which GyPSii's own clients are built. [26]

Tweetsii

In March 2010, GyPSii launched Tweetsii, a real time app for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms featuring user created tweets, images, reviews, comments, checkins, and tips with the ability to build an index of places, with updates from Twitter users and other location-based services including Gowalla and Foursquare. [27]

WeiLingDi

In March 2011, GyPSii partnered with Chinese web portal Sina.com to launch WeiLingDi, a Chinese language location-based mobile social networking application that allows users to share their location and status, broadcast events and updates, find friends, and earn rewards points and badges. In 2011, analysts speculated that WeiLingDi could generate substantial income from advertising and data analysis services based on Sina's 100 million users. [28] [14] [15] [12]

TudingMe

Powered by GyPSii technology, TudingMe is a location-based social photography application that lets users personalize and share photos to Facebook, Twitter, Sina, Sohu, 163, Renren, Kaixin and QQ accounts. Features include 21 custom image filters, tagging and organizing of photos, and location auto-adding so users can find and interact with friends nearby. A China-specific Instagram-like photo-sharing version of the app is called "TuDing", which means ‘thumbtack’ in Chinese. With the release of a Windows phone 7 version, TuDing covers all major smartphone platforms including iOS, Android, Symbian and BlackBerry. The company reported more than 4 million users and uploads of over 6 million photos in December 2011. [29] [30] [11] [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

Sony Mobile Communications Inc. was a multinational telecommunications company founded on October 1, 2001, as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson. It was originally incorporated as Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, and headquartered in London, England, until Sony acquired Ericsson's share in the venture on February 16, 2012. On April 1, 2021, Sony integrated its electronics businesses including Sony Mobile into one company called Sony Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sina Corporation</span> Chinese online media company

Sina Corporation is a Chinese technology company. Sina operates four major business lines: Sina Weibo, Sina Mobile, Sina Online, and Sinanet. Sina has over 100 million registered users worldwide. Sina was recognized by Southern Weekend as the "China's Media of the Year" in 2003.

Twig Com Ltd. is a mobile telecommunications company founded in 2011 and headquartered in Salo, Finland. The company develops and manufactures personal safety and GPS tracking products and software for worker protection, telecare, and asset tracking applications. The operation was originally started in 1988 as mobile phone manufacturer Benefon who began research on GPS safety phones in 1995 and launched the first commercial GPS/GSM safety phone, the Benefon Track, in 2000. Twig Com Ltd acquired Benefon's Twig business from GeoSentric OYJ through a purchase agreement signed in January 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile social network</span> Social networking on mobile devices

Mobile social networking is social networking where individuals with similar interests converse and connect with one another through their mobile phone and/or tablet. Much like web-based social networking, mobile social networking occurs in virtual communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loopt</span> US technology company

Loopt was a company based in Mountain View, California, United States which provided a service for smartphone users to share their location selectively with other people. The service supported iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Phones. Loopt's services had more than five million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. Their applications offered a variety of privacy controls. In addition to its core features, users also had the ability to integrate Loopt with other social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ovi (Nokia)</span> Former Internet services by Nokia

Ovi by Nokia was the brand for Nokia's Internet services. The Ovi services could be used from a mobile device, computer or via the web. Nokia focused on five key service areas: Games, Maps, Media, Messaging and Music. Nokia's aim with Ovi was to include third party developers, such as operators and third-party services like Yahoo's Flickr photo site. With the announcement of Ovi Maps Player API, Nokia started to evolve their services into a platform, enabling third parties to make use of Nokia's Ovi services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Here Technologies</span> Netherlands-based mapping data company

Here Technologies is an American–Dutch multinational group specialized in mapping technologies, location data and related automotive services to individuals and companies. It is majority-owned by a consortium of German automotive companies and American semiconductor company Intel whilst other companies also own minority stakes. Its roots date back to U.S.-based Navteq in 1985, which was acquired by Finland-based Nokia in 2007. Here is currently based in The Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foursquare City Guide</span> Location-based social networking service

Foursquare City Guide, commonly known as Foursquare, is a local search-and-discovery mobile app developed by Foursquare Labs Inc. The app provides personalized recommendations of places to go near a user's current location based on users' previous browsing history and check-in history.

Brightkite was a location-based social networking website. Users were able to "check in" at places by using text messaging or one of the mobile applications and they were able to see who is nearby and who has been there before. The service was created in 2007 by Brady Becker, Martin May, and Alan Seideman who previously founded the SMS notification service Loopnote. In April 2009 Brightkite was acquired by mobile social network Limbo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symbian</span> Discontinued mobile operating system

Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS is a descendant of Psion's EPOC, and was released exclusively on ARM processors, although an unreleased x86 port existed. Symbian was used by many major mobile phone brands, like Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and above all by Nokia. It was also prevalent in Japan by brands including Fujitsu, Sharp and Mitsubishi. As a pioneer that established the smartphone industry, it was the most popular smartphone OS on a worldwide average until the end of 2010, at a time when smartphones were in limited use, when it was overtaken by iOS and Android. It was notably less popular in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sina Weibo</span> Chinese microblogging website

Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging (weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users as of Q1 2022. The platform has been a huge financial success, with surging stocks, lucrative advertising sales and high revenue and total earnings per quarter. At the start of 2018, it surpassed the US$30 billion market valuation mark for the first time.

Telenav, Inc. is a wireless location-based services corporation that provides services including Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation, local search, automotive navigation solutions, mobile advertising, enterprise mobility and workflow automation. The company’s headquarters are located in Santa Clara, California in the United States with additional offices in the U.S., Germany, Japan, Romania, China, and Brazil.

Weibo is a general term for microblogging, but normally understood as Chinese-based mini-blogging services, including social chat sites and platform sharing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Harple</span>

Daniel Harple is an American entrepreneur, investor, inventor and engineer best known for his role in the creation of several Internet standards, among them, Real Time Streaming Protocol used in entertainment and communications systems such as YouTube, RealPlayer, QuickTime, Skype, and others. Harple has been called a visionary, an Internet pioneer, and a "serial entrepreneur", founding multiple technology start-ups and playing a key role in the development of technologies like collaborative groupware, Voice over IP, and interactive screen sharing whiteboards. Harple also holds a number of core technology patents for inventions in VoIP, media streaming, real time web communications, collaborative computing, and location-based social media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jiepang</span>

Jiepang (Chinese: 街旁; pinyin: Jiēpáng) was a Chinese social networking service for mobile devices, such as smartphones. Users can download the Jiepang app to track and share life moments with friends. In July 2013, Jiepang launched an all new design in version 5.0, which evolved from its origins as China's leading location-based service (LBS) for the "check in". Jiepang helps users record and track all of their life activities, connect with friends in specific moments and explore communities of people that have similar interests.

Microsoft mobile services are a set of proprietary mobile services created specifically for mobile devices, they are typically offered through mobile applications and mobile browser for Windows Phone, | platforms, BREW, and Java. Microsoft's mobile services are typically connected with a Microsoft account and often come preinstalled on Microsoft's own mobile operating systems while they are offered via various means for other platforms. Microsoft started to develop for mobile computing platforms with the launch of Windows CE in 1996 and later added Microsoft's Pocket Office suite to their Handheld PC line of PDAs in April 2000. From December 2014 to June 2015, Microsoft made a number of corporate acquisitions, buying several of the top applications listed in Google Play and the App Store including Acompli, Sunrise Calendar, Datazen, Wunderlist, Echo Notification Lockscreen, and MileIQ.

Opera Mobile Store is a platform-independent browser-based app store for mobile-phone owners and a digital application distribution platform used by more than 40,000 developers. It is owned and maintained by Opera. Launched by a third-party provider in March 2011, the Opera Mobile Store was relaunched on a new platform, after acquisition of Handster, a mobile app store platform company, in January 2012. The service allows users to browse and download applications for over 7,500 different devices on Android, Java, BlackBerry OS, Symbian, iOS, and Windows Mobile.

Momo is a free social search and instant messaging mobile app. The app allows users to chat with nearby friends and strangers. Momo provides users with free instant messaging services through Wifi, 3G and 4G. The client software is available for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nimbuzz</span> Proprietary cross-platform instant messaging

Nimbuzz is a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging and social media and mobile payment developed by Kuraakani Online Private Limited, with the origins of its technology dating back to the early 2000s. As of March 2013, Nimbuzz had 150 million users in 200 countries. By April 2014, Nimbuzz was growing by more than 210,000 new registrations per day. In October 2014, now with over 200 million users, New Call acquired 70% of Nimbuzz, valuing the app at $250 million. Under CEO Sujit Acharya's leadership, Nimbuzz suite of applications enables users to enjoy end-to-end encrypted free calls, instant messaging, games, file sharing,social networking, mobile payments & movies on their mobile device. Nimbuzz has more than 3 million lines of code. Initially, Nimbuzz offered discounted calling rates to most countries in the world. The platform processed more than a billion call minutes and in excess of 100 billion messages a month.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Here WeGo</span> Web mapping and navigation service since 2012

Here WeGo is a web mapping and navigation service, operated by HERE Technologies and originally developed by Nokia. In 2013, HERE Technologies released this web mapping application for Windows Phone and the World Wide Web as a revamped version of Nokia Maps. HERE Technologies released the HERE Maps application to the Android platform on December 10, 2014, and later for iOS on March 11, 2015. The company changed the product name to HERE WeGo in July 2016. It is the default maps service provider for the Amazon Fire tablets and smartphones.

References

  1. ↑ Mika, Niclas. "Satellite navigation finds its way to phones". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2016-08-14. Retrieved 2016-07-24.
  2. ↑ "Gypsii combineert virtuele en echte wereld". Prof News/Het Financieele Dagblad.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  3. 1 2 3 4 Geron, Tomio (March 16, 2010). "Locating Latest Mobile Craze, Tweetsii Debuts At SXSW". The Wall Street Journal, Venture Capital Dispatch. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  4. ↑ "Geosentric Oyj Company Snapshot". corporateinformation.com, Wright Reports.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  5. ↑ Mika, Niclas (19 July 2023). "Positioning phones to create new social networks". Reuters.
  6. ↑ Roberts, Bena. "GyPSii Mobile LBS stroke Social Network Revisited". Dec 2, 2011. Go Mo News - Strategic Mobile News. Archived from the original on 2008-12-25. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  7. ↑ Shannon, Victoria (March 6, 2008). "Social Networking Moves to the Cellphone". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  8. 1 2 August E. Grant; Jennifer H. Meadows (25 June 2010). Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals - Role of social media. Focal Press. pp. 255–. ISBN   978-0-240-81475-9 . Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "GyPSii Tops Two Million Users". May 19th, 2010. GyPSii.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-28. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  10. ↑ "GyPSii – Explore Your World". The Webby Awards. webbyawards.com. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  11. 1 2 "Sina to turn 100 million Weibo users into treasure trove". Shanghai Daily, Mar 04,2011. ebnew.com. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 Shenshen, Zhu. "LBS service is next for Sina". Shanghai Daily. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  13. ↑ "Weibo.com". wwjunction.com. Archived from the original on 30 July 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  14. 1 2 "Sina Microblog Launches GyPSii-Powered LBS Platform". Marbridge Daily. Marbridge Consulting. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  15. 1 2 Lu, Gang (5 March 2011). "Sina Launched Check-in Service, Follow Celebrities' Whereabout". Technode. Tech Crunch. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  16. ↑ China, Incitez. "The first Weibo Phone by HTC and Sina". China Internet Watch. Incitez Pte. Ltd. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  17. ↑ "CHANGES IN GEOSENTRIC OYJ'S MANAGEMENT". September 22, 2010. EuroInvestor.co.uk. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
  18. ↑ "Genasys and GyPSii Sign Strategic Agreement to Offer Location-Based Social Media Solution to Telefonica's Latin American Mobile Subscribers". February 12, 2010 (Press release). Business Wire (Berkshire Hathaway). Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  19. ↑ "Company Overview: GeoSolutions, B.V". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  20. ↑ "'Friend locator' could become next craze for social networkers". AFP News. Feb 12, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-02-21. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
  21. ↑ Cieslak, Marc (7 March 2008). "Rise and rise of the GPS mobile". Click, the BBC's flagship technology programme, Friday, 7 March 2008. BBC. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
  22. 1 2 Salz, Peggy Anne. "One Mobile Search To Rule Them All? GyPSii CEO Dan Harple Talks Location Services, Open APIs & Cool New Ways To Record/Search The Real World On The Move". May 25, 2009. MobileGroove. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
  23. ↑ Mika, Niclas (Feb 13, 2008). "Telcos battle as Net brands go mobile". Reuters. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
  24. ↑ Glazowski, Paul (26 October 2008). "Mobile Social Network GyPSii Gets Nokia Love and a Symbian Star Developer Award". October 26, 2008. Mashable Tech, Mashable.com. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  25. ↑ "Symbian Announces Winners Of The Star Developer Awards". October 23, 2008. SymbianFreak.com. Archived from the original on 2014-12-25.
  26. ↑ "GyPSii Launches OpenExperience API". February 19, 2009. IntoMobile.com. 19 February 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  27. ↑ Ricknäs, Mikael. "Location-based Twitter App Comes to Android". PC World. IDG. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  28. ↑ Alison, Diana. "Foursquare Copycat Launched By China's Sina". March 07, 2011. InformationWeek. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  29. ↑ Millward, Steven. "With 4 Million Users, Is TuDing the Closest to Being China's Instagram?". 12-07-2011. Penn Olson - Asia Tech News. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  30. ↑ Chiang, Ben (19 December 2011). "Photo Sharing App Tuding Launched Windows Phone 7 Version". December 19, 2011. Tech Node, China Tech News. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.