News Release: Ground-Breaking Mobile Classified Ad Service Fulfills a Mexican-American Entrepreneur's Dream

SAN FRANCISCO, November 16, 2009—When iPling Inc.’s ¡Anunciate al Instante! (Instant Classifieds!) mobile-phone-based classified advertising service launches in Mexico City this month, it will be the culmination of a dream for Manuel Monroy, a Mexican entrepreneur working in Silicon Valley. Monroy’s vision is to provide simple yet revolutionary tools wherever mobile technology can be leveraged to connect and empower people. Equally gratifying to Monroy, the ¡Anunciate al Instante! service will first be available in his home country and come later to the U.S. Too often in Mexico it has been the other way around, with U.S. services belatedly migrating south of the border.

Monroy explains, “While the world is in the midst of a mobile revolution, most emerging markets remain wide open for creative localized solutions. When we looked at the decades of stagnation of Mexico’s classified ad industry we just had to step in. If our launch goes as planned, iPling will soon host the largest second-hand and personals marketplace in the country.”

¡Anunciate al Instante! operates entirely through text (SMS) messages, meaning it’s available to virtually everyone with a mobile phone. Initially it will only work on phones served by Telcel, the country’s dominant carrier, but Monroy is in talks with other carriers to ensure that the service is ubiquitous in the near future. Using the service is as simple as sending a text message. Using the Short Code 99123 you can post an ad to sell, barter, or rent goods and services, as well as post jobs, events, and personals ads or manage your account. Users can browse listings by entering keywords and categories, and correspond safely/anonymously among themselves. Each message sent through the iPling gateway costs MXN1.50 (roughly US$0.11).

¡Anunciate al Instante! improves upon traditional classified ads because it’s available for posting or browsing any time, anywhere you have your mobile phone—instantly, whenever it’s convenient or timely. In addition, the service is location-aware, automatically ranking browsing results according to the proximity of the interested parties. For example, if you want to trade a DVD with someone within walking distance; if you’re looking for a handyman in the neighborhood; or if you want to buy a used TV without having to pay for shipping and wait for delivery, iPling’s ¡Anunciate al Instante! is at your fingertips, ready to connect you with people nearby. It’s also affordable, costing only a few pesos per interaction, compared to MXN100-400 for a newspaper ad.

A native of Mexico City, Monroy earned an undergraduate engineering degree from the University of Southern California and an MBA from UCLA. He worked at Mattel, Inc., and at Andersen’s Silicon Valley office prior to moving full-time into an entrepreneurial career. For the past several years Monroy has worked with the Silicon Valley chapter of Mexico’s Technology Business Accelerator (TechBA) and has been an active speaker at Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs Red de Talentos events. He’s also served on the board of Hispanic-Net, a thriving community of Bay Area Hispanics in High-Tech. In 2007 Monroy founded iPling Inc., a company devoted to mobile, location-enabled social networking services. iPling’s first service, “Find and Be Found,” launched on June 29, 2007, the same day as the iPhone, and was soon named one of the “Top 25 Web Apps for iPhone.”

Later this month iPling’s ¡Anunciate al Instante! will be available as a downloadable iPhone application in both Mexico and the US, in Spanish and English. The ¡Anunciate al Instante! service was developed through a technology partnership with Spime, Inc., of Fremont, CA, a leading provider of location-enabling technologies for the mobile market.

OECD: Moblie Platform Fueling E-Commerce Growth

In the What We're Reading category, couldn't have said it better ourselves: According to a new OECD report, e-commerce is booming globally even as in-store commerce falls victim to hard economic times. In fact, OECD says, the global financial crisis has fueled e-commerce growth. A big driver and area of future growth: mobile e-commerce. The report, "Empowering E-Consumers," observed the phenomenon worldwide, in Europe, North America, and Asia.

The growth isn't limited to sales of new merchandise. In the US, the study says, the average e-tailer sales growth this year is 11% - but Craigslist expects twice as much, 23%. Here are links to the 47-page report and AFP's article summarizing it.

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!