Getting People to Share Information

Presenter: Philip Kaplan, Blippy
More than ever, we’re sharing private details of our lives on places like Twitter and Facebook.  Kaplan started a website called Blippy which takes the concept of sharing private information one step further.  The site  asks users to register their credit cards and then socializes your purchases from marketplaces such as iTunes, Amazon, Zappos and many more.  In essence, it tells your Blippy friends what you’ve bought, and allows them to get your feedback and review of the product.

Kaplan outright says, “the only people who care about privacy are old people.”  He goes on to show examples, such as the telephone.  When the telephone came out, there was a huge concern about lack of privacy – people could hear your calls, someone might listen in, etc.  Even more recently, as little as two years ago, people avoided Facebook, considering it “creepy.”  Today, there are over 600 million users of Facebook worldwide.

Kaplan’s feeling is that people have never shared this type of information simply because they have never been able to.  Today, over $1 million in purchases are shared every day on Blippy.  Kaplan feels that more people will share if they see value and a reason to do so.  Thus far, users of Blippy see value in knowing what their friends are purchasing, what they might endorse, if they like what they bought, or even seeing how they might be paying a different amount (like a gym membership) for the same service.

Ultimately, Kaplan feels that people will share if you give them a way to, and he feels that as “old people” move out of the space, a younger generation will be more comfortable – resulting in growth for Blippy.