Facebook and Twitter users often share updates about shopping, eating out or using products. Now, a new social network wants to reward consumers for sharing that kind of information online.
Yappem, which launched out of private beta this week, gives users a chance to earn gift cards in exchange for posting about day-to-day interactions with brands and businesses. In essence, Yappem gamifies the idea of sharing shopping updates: The more brand experiences the user shares, the more coins they will earn on the service, which can then be exchanged for gift cards to major retailers.
The goal of the service, according to its mission statement, is to provide a "niche brand-centric online community" of users who share and interact with each other about their shopping experiences. As Yappem's co-founder and CEO Justin Webb tells Mashable, "There are a lot of shopping services and a lot of brand services currently on the market, but very few of them reward with real value."
With Yappem, users can share how they feel about products, make suggestions to brands and members of the community and poll other users about purchasing decisions -- earning coins in the process. Yappem also prompts users to go on "missions" -- real world shopping experiences that they can post about later -- to earn additional credits. Yappem uses the API from Gyft, a digital gift card platform, to reward users with gift cards for sharing.
Webb and his co-founder Dave Sachse started working on the service nearly two years ago. Sachse grew up in retail -- his parents owned the store that bears his last name -- and he became interested in how brands connect with customers. Webb worked at McKinsey & Company for more than a decade, but left after Sachse approached him with the idea for the app.
The Yappem team raised $2.5 million in private investments last year.
Disclosure: Yappem is one of Mashable's sponsors for the MashBash event at SXSW this year.