Startup develops mobile social app

Bengaluru, March 1: What email did to revolutionise communications on the Internet almost over a decade ago, location-based services on mobile phones can do today.

Here’s a sample of what you could do by downloading a location-based application on your mobile phone from the numerous app stores online — you can see your current location on a map along with that of your friends; tag places of interest such as clubs, theatres, monuments, flyovers, restaurants with your comments; chat and invite friends who happen to be close to your workplace for a coffee.

While email services were free for consumers to use, mobile location-based services is estimated to generate a whopping $12 billion in revenue by 2014, a study conducted by Juniper Research says.

Consumer electronics giant Samsung found that location-based services are one of the top three services requested by consumers in India. Responding quickly to requests, Samsung now offers Ohe!, a “location-aware”, mobile social application on most of its GPRS enabled mobile phones. Ohe! incorporates strict privacy control features where you can change visibility preferences instantly and control who sees you, just like the option on social networking sites.

Developed by Bengaluru-based startup Imere Technologies, Ohe! automatically shows your current location on a map along with those of friends. In addition to tracking businesses, restaurants, retail outlets around you, users can also tweet and tag places for others to see, update their Facebook status and connect with other users via chat and instant messaging. You can also search for other people in your neighbourhood who are using Ohe! and chat with them if they accept your request.

“Ohe! is powered by Imere ULaP (unified location awareness platform) which is a software technology platform that brings location-awareness to applications. This platform provides application developers and service providers the ability to quickly and easily location-enable their applications. It also provides integrated digital maps and database content drawn from multiple sources for fast and accurate access to the user,” Anil Mathews, founder and CEO, Imere Technologies, says.

The company provides location based services by capturing wireless information surrounding the user from cellular tower signals and wifi signals which are converted into latitude and longitude using complex algorithms.

The latitude and longitude is further translated into actual addresses.

“We developed Ohe! as an example to showcase the capabilities of our technology platform, Imere UlaP. But in a short time Ohe! has already seen 30,000 downloads over the last five weeks from GetJar.com, which is the second largest appstore after Apple’s. And there has been 50,000 downloads since we launched in January,” says Mathews.

Imere’s technology also powers enterprise implementations — enterprises can track their assets, employees, customers and products. “Local vendors and retailers can also send information about sales, deals and offers to your mobile phone while you are driving past their stores,” adds Mathews, who is waiting to garner a few 100,000 users before building a model to monetise the platform through location-based advertising.