@lukensok I chatted with @stevesi about this briefly last night. The conference use case is the most obvious but how else do you see people using Lynk?
@lukensok@stevesi@rrhoover Not sure if this is the product for it, but nightclubs and music festivals are potential good places for something like this
@rrhoover Right now we're actually focusing mostly on schools. High social and geographic density and the people are around each other interacting every day. A lot of our current users really like using Lynk to start groups easily w/ clubs, study groups, sports teams, etc. We're also seeing usage kick up at parties and mixers on campus :)
@basche42 Definitely agree that the night club and music festival benefits are huge. We experimented early on with night clubs in Hong Kong and will probably revisit that angle again in the future. One of the tricky things about that use case is getting new people to download the app in the night club, where cell reception/wifi are often weak.
@lukensok yes - quite the chicken and egg problem.
perhaps launch events where you pipe in some wifi through a mobile WAP? Bring it around the city?
(I thought about something like this when I first read about Firechat last year)
@rrhoover A few more example use cases/user stories:
- After a cocktail party, you met 20 people, forgot half their names. Open Lynk to get a face and first name for everybody you met there.
- At a concert and curious if your friend is still there or if she left already. Just check if she's nearby.
- Looking for your girlfriend at a restaurant but can't seem to find the place, then you notice she pops up nearby as you're messaging her to ask where she is (this has actually happened to me a couple times)
- Walk into a movie theater, don't want to wait in line. Get a message from the theater's account when you walk in offering to let you buy the ticket right on your phone. (this one isn't happening yet, but I can't wait for the day that sort of experience becomes commonplace)
@stevesi exactly. Achieving critical mass is not a tactic or even a strategy for a network effects product. It's essentially your goal.
Metcalfe's Law is a bitch, but from small seeds do great things grow.
So if I'm understanding this correctly, it's meant as more of a "missed connections" sort of app that you'd use to message someone you were near at some point, but don't remember their name?
Like Jonas and Adam said, this could be super useful when it reaches critical mass, but until then, there needs to be some sort of "single player" functionality that doesn't rely on other users to be useful.
@ghobs91 The missed connections angle really grew out of the strong feedback we got from users about how useful it was to them. Our next version is making it more prominent, but easy group creation is still the thing people are using us most for.
The one issue with these kind of location-based apps is that they need to reach a critical mass before being relevant. I really like the idea and execution... but it would need widespread adoption in order to be truly useful.
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@sleinadsanoj exactly. I've thought about these kind of hyper local apps before but I never took them beyond the idea stage simply because it would be extremely difficult to reach the mass required for the app to actually be useful/functional. That said, if mass could be achieved they would be fantastic.
Personally, I believe these kind of hyper local features are best suited to being bolted on to existing apps that already have huge user-bases.
Hi everyone,
Lynk co-founder here. Really appreciate the support and feedback!
Our focus is on improving connectivity between people and removing all the friction that exists in that process right now. In essence, Lynk does this by giving you a permanent digital link to everybody you meet (a "nearby history"), and a flexible and private means of messaging or sharing content with them.
While density is definitely important to unlock the really cool stuff, we're working hard on building features that offer great standalone value too. One example: the campus coffee shop can see your phone's Lynk beacon as you walk by and message you a drink coupon. So can the school bookstore, or any other venue.
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I could see this being used for customer service in a store.
i.e. A large store where the clerk doesn't want to run around from dept. to dept. The customer could open it and ask customer service questions.
If this had a web interface too it would work for this application quite well .
i.e. While walking in a mall you could get questions answered from any store in that mall.
i.e. Restaurants- ask your waiter to bring water next time he comes back to the table.
Lots of commerce applications.
Bitcoin that basic money transfers between people.
cc: @lukensok
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