The View from Our New Digs!

iPling is moving up in the world, literally, to the 36th floor of Spear Tower, part of the 1 Market complex right on San Francisco's Embarcadero. Our new address is 1 Market Street, Suite 3600 Spear Tower, San Francisco, CA 94105. We have such a great view that we wanted to share!

While we were building our technology and business alliances and conserving cash we reluctantly closed our former Financial District office on Montgomery Street and operated from cyberspace. Now that we have a commercial product in Mexico and are close to launching our iPhone app for the US market we wanted to reestablish our physical presence in San Francisco.

Stay tuned to the blog, there are more exciting announcements coming in the near future.

iTunes Store... here we come!

14 days we've heard! So here we go with our instant classifieds app for the iPhone. Good ol' V1.0... we'll make little noise for the time being but if you happen to have an iPhone around then download the app (actually wait until November 10), post a few ads and let us know what you think by sending an email to feedback@ipling.com. Any and all comments are greatly appreciated. Yours truly, the iPling tech team.

Hitting More Milestones...And Something to Ponder

iPling is moving forward toward our goals! iPling Anunciate al Instante (Instant Classifieds) soft-launched in Mexico City last month. Our technology partner, Spime, is working on some issues that arose with scaling, but in general the service was received with enthusiasm and we're looking forward to ramping up the promotion engine shortly.

We're also preparing to submit the iPhone app version of the service to Apple later this month, a move that will open up Instant Classifieds to the US market. We're really excited about the US potential and will let you know as soon as it's ready for download.

Finally, on the list of what we're reading, did you see this article in Monday's New York Times? At iPling we believe necessity is the mother of invention, and there's lots of necessity in developing economies. That's why we love to keep an eye on mobile innovation around the globe, even in countries that aren't normally on the technology radar.

October should see some big announcements from iPling. Stay tuned and we'll keep you posted here on the blog!

Hard work, no play

Hi there to all,

Altough Virginia has been keeping you informed of many relevant stories I have to admit that it's been way too long since my last post. I've been focused on getting things done, traveling to Mexico City on a monthly basis and time just flies by. I actually just got back last Friday to say hi to my wife and kids and I will be heading back down for another two weeks in a few days.

The great news to briefly tell you at this point is that we have an agreement in place with Telcel, the largest cellular carrier in Mexico, and we have finalized the marketing and operating joint ventures that will allow us to effectively launch our "anúnciate al instante" service by the end of this week. Our launch has been carefully drafted and is targetting some of Mexico's busiest commercial districts. We will be planting a few seeds and then will create the buzz for the word to get around. the timing seems just right and all our hopes are riding high.

Our iPhone app has been delayed by a few last minute requirements form Verizon Wireless, but things should be resolved within the month and we expect to have a fully functioning iPhone app ready for download on the U.S. and Mexican iTunes stores sometime in October.

Below are a couple of examples of the many different (case spacific) flyers that are being distributed in Mexico's Villa Coapa neighborhood, as I'm writting this note. We'll post some pictures of the action in the streets in a few days.

thanks for your interest in iPling... please stay tunned!

Anunciate al Instante Now Live in Mexico!

In the latest step toward bringing our iPling Instant Classifieds product to market in Latin America, our Anunciate al Instante service is now live in Mexico on Telcel short code 99123. The service will officially launch in the next few weeks, and coming shortly afterwards, the US version.

It's exciting to see all of our plans and hard work start to take a firm shape at last. Stay tuned for here on the blog for the latest news as the countdown progresses!

Google Sees the SMS App Opportunity

"In many places around the world, people look to their phones, rather than their computers, to find information they need in their daily lives."
--Google, June 29, 2009

We were interested to see this announcement by Google yesterday. Like us, the search giant understands that there are markets with millions of users who don't have access to a full-featured computing device but are avid cell phone users, so they're releasing a suite of SMS applications for search, sharing information, and exchanging goods. And, Google says, they'll be paying more attention to this space going forward. For now, Google's SMS services are focused on Africa.

Google's Trader SMS app works a lot like iPling Instant Classifieds, offering buy, sell, and browse functions through text messages. At the moment, Trader is only available through one carrier in Uganda.

It's exciting to see Google starting to pay attention to the potential of SMS; it signals a new round of interest, innovation, and technology enhancements. This summer is a great time to be launching iPling Instant Classifieds!

Start the Countdown!

Ok, so a year ago if we'd taken a poll, who would you have voted Most Likely to Succeed in 2009? iPling or...Lehman Brothers?

Well, the world is an unpredictable place, but we've been promising an exciting new product debut in Latin America and, undeterred by global financial meltdown and pandemic, our indefatigable CEO Manuel Monroy has marshalled scarce resources, kept the core team in place, brought on a strong technology partner, and hammered out key deals with Mexican cellular carriers to make the dream a reality. Now the product is ready and after the last business pieces fall into place over the next couple of weeks, sometime in July we'll go live with the pilot of iPling Instant Classifieds in Mexico City.

Initially the service is available on the dominant Telcel network. Before long we'll be adding more carriers to broaden coverage. Unlike our original Find and Be Found US application, it doesn't depend on an iPhone. If your phone can send and receive text messages, you can participate.

Later in Q3 we'll release an iPhone version of the application for the US market.

In a nutshell, iPling Instant Classifieds lets you post, browse, and correspond about brief, location-aware classified ads for goods and services via text messages. Users are untethered from a computer and free to connect any time, anywhere the need arises. Twitter's exploding popularity has opened the door to a wide range of SMS-based interactions. iPling Instant Classifieds is a logical evolution of the SMS medium in a commercial and transactional direction.

We can't wait to take the wraps off of our launch promotions and get the ball rolling. Check back here on the blog soon; we'll keep you posted as the clock counts down!

What We're Reading: NY Times on Skyhook Wireless

The New York Times had an interesting profile today on Skyhook Wireless, the location lookup service that powers the iPhone and other devices. At iPling, we see location awareness as a powerful new dimension in the information matrix, one that's only beginning to be fully exploited. Kudos to the Skyhook team for their paradigm-changing vision and innovation. We're on board!

Anticipating a Launch in Summer '09

We've been working hard on iPling Instant Classifieds products during the first months of 2009 and want to give a progress report. We anticipate launching with a large Mexican partner within the next three months. Negotiations continue with a couple of companies while our development group is finalizing the app, which we're currently testing in internal alpha. We're also interviewing Mexican PR and marketing firms that can help us take this long-anticipated service live with a big splash.

At the same time, we're working on an iPhone app for the instant classifieds, localized for the US market. We look forward to making it available in the App Store mid-summer. The global recession, funding and credit crunch, swine flu, and the complexities of a new startup have all slowed things down over the past several months, but the original vision of freedom, empowerment, and connection that have motivated iPling from Day 1 continue to burn brightly, and we're all committed to bringing our new services to market in 2009.

Stay tuned to the blog for updates on the availability of our new apps.

Happy Holidays from the iPling Crew!

All of us at iPling wish you happy holidays as we close out 2008! This has been a busy and exciting year for iPling. We kicked off 2008 with our fun Macworld Treasure Hunt event in January. Shortly afterward, we expanded features and added new languages (including Portuguese, Chinese, and Italian) for our flagship "Find and Be Found" service.

Based on the frequency of tags users were placing in profiles, Plingers predicted Barack Obama's election back in March. In April we initiated a new product, iPling Instant Classifieds, and signed an LOI with a large mobile carrier in Latin America to launch and host the new service in their market.

iPling was frequently in the news in 2008. We saw nice coverage from Dow Jones Venturewire, Venturebeat, KillerStartups.com, and the Best iPhone Apps blog. We were also nominated for the AlwaysOn Global 250, a list that highlights "the top 250 private companies from across innovation" and aims "to identify leaders and future leaders."

The iPling family expanded in 2008. To get Instant Classifieds up and running faster we joined forces with Spime as a technology partner. Both SMS and iPhone versions of the Instant Classifieds app are scheduled to go into testing in early 2009, as we continue to negotiate specifics of marketing and launch. In October we welcomed Jorge Guzman Herrmann to the team. He's based in Mexico City and is facilitating our Latin American operations.

Turning the page on a challenging business environment in 2008, we have high hopes for iPling in 2009 and look forward to sharing more information here in the blog as plans firm up. In the meantime, have a great holiday season with friends and family, and we'll pling you in 2009!