The folks at Loopt are winding down – or should be – after a busy week.
On Monday, the company introduced its new president, Steve Boom, who most recently was with mig33. Yesterday, the company announced a deal to deliver assisted location services with U.S. Cellular, and in between those two things, Loopt's iPhone app was part of a plane ticket and taco truck promotion with Virgin America. (Yes, taco trucks.)
Loopt has learned a lot since its early friend finder days and it has diversified in a world where big names like Facebook and Google are getting into location in big ways and "check ins" are now common lingo. It helps to have direct relationships with carriers.
In fact, Chris Clark, director of operations at Loopt, says one of Loopt's greatest strengths is working closely with carriers like U.S. Cellular. "We've kind of chosen strategically from the outset to work with the carriers, meet their concerns and recognize their strategic and important piece to play in all of this," he says.
The deal with U.S. Cellular calls for providing the Loopt Location Platform that will give users more frequent and accurate location updates. It's part of a deal Loopt struck earlier with SnapTrack, the Qualcomm subsidiary. Loopt's Location Platform is built on QPoint location server software that is licensed by SnapTrack. Using the positioning technology, Loopt's hosted LBS solution brings advanced location solutions to multiple U.S. carriers.
E911, which wireless operators are mandated to provide, isn't "spot on" in terms of location, Clark notes. GPS solutions work best outdoors but take one or two minutes to get a really good fix. Cell tower triangulation is limited. But taking these together and augmenting them, so to speak, with QPoint, Loopt is able to obtain a quicker and more accurate fix on location. Because it's server driven, it doesn't drain the phone's battery like GPS-only location solutions do.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Loopt was one of the original LBS social networking leaders and its diversification seems to be paying off. The arrival of Boom, whose experience includes 10 years as senior vice president at Yahoo, signifies the company's move to the next level. Boom will continue to serve as chairman of Singapore-based mig33 and work alongside Sam Altman, Loopt's co-founder and CEO.
And what about that rather unusual promotion with the taco trucks and Virgin America? By checking in at SFO, LAX or one of Virgin's mobile taco truck locations with the Loopt app, participants scored a two-for-one taco deal and a two-for-one ticket offer on Virgin's new flights to Mexico. The promotion lasted for only a few hours on Tuesday, but nearly 1,300 people visited the San Francisco taco truck and checked in on Loopt Star during the promotion
The companies didn't say how many people participated overall, but Loopt's application is getting credit for helping make Tuesday the fifth highest sales day in Virgin America's history. Proceeds from the taco sales will support the San Francisco Animal Care and Control's animal rescue programs, including the Chihuahua rescue efforts.