If you’ve ever been shy to ask a girl (or a guy) at a party for her phone number, you can now say ‘You’re hot, can I poken you.’ That’s one way the Poken can help you. Wait, what the hey is a Poken?
The Poken is a little usb device with a very low powered rf-based technology to transmit and receive data. When it “touches” or “high 5″ or rather “high 4″ another Poken, it will send and pick up personal details like a person’s name, contact details and social media profiles. The info can’t be seen of course until it’s uploaded to a website which means the Poken is totally dependent on a person having access to the web. If you can read this, no problem for you.
How much information is shared with someone can be easily managed through the website at doyoupoken.com. The discrete option will send limited details and the normal option will send everything in your Poken profile. By pressing the button on the Poken twice before touching another Poken will switch it to discrete mode and ensures private info won’t be exchanged.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwyxsyEXD70[/youtube]
Some call it a business card replacement and some call it the offline social media tool. Whatever it is, it’s basically a quick way to collect personal information. At first glance, it looks like a toy for a kid. It might even remind you a bit of the tamagotchi. The bright side of this is, the technology won’t intimidate technophobes which do make up a large segment of our population. There are huge opportunities in this little thing. Keep the usb and the rf transmitter/receiver and this thing can take on any shape. It can be customized into the shape of a brand’s logo for example and become a badge that identifies a brand’s fan or another fun way to expose a brand to the fan’s network of friends.
Beyond social networking and branding, businesses can use it to collect customer information to send promotional emails and hopefully encourage the customer to buy more. Imagine this, say you run a cafe. Every time someone visits your cafe and taps his Poken with your cafe’s Poken at the counter, you’ll be able to collect his details along with details of his purchases. Over time, you can find out what his favorite drinks are, how often and what time of day he likes his beverages. This information can help you customize more effective promotions. Like, if you have a frequent customer incentive, you could reward him with his favorite drink free on his next visit. If he hasn’t tried your muffins, how about sending him a free trial Poken coupon (“delivered to his Poken already”) that he can redeem by tapping on your Poken?
Similar to the concept of Touch and Go, the Poken also has the potential to store currency like Poken dollars. Tap it at a retailer’s Poken and the value will be deducted from the Poken account on purchases. No need for cash. Dollars could be bought with real money or earned as a form of reward, again for being a loyal customer.
The Poken can also come in handy in medical emergencies making information like blood type, allergies, existing medical conditions and emergency contact information available to paramedics. Talking about healthcare uses, wouldn’t it be fun to have a kid wear this in the pediatrics ward rather than a wristband?
What I’ve described above are just ideas of what may be possible with the Poken. The challenge is getting more people to carry one. It’s not cheap at the moment (suggested retail price is US$25 each) which means initial demand might have to come from the corporate sector. Any brands up to bringing Poken in in a big way? I’ll be your fan.
Background
Poken was born in Belgium and became a hit in Europe (re: TechCrunch’s interview with the Poken startup in July of 2008). Japan joined the craze in March this year and it is slowly spreading to the rest of Asia. The KL twitter community was introduced to it by Eric Yap at a tweetup yesterday. Eric, a Malaysian currently living in Japan is here looking for a business partner to launch the Poken. If you’re interested to know more or buy a Poken from Eric, he can be contacted on Twitter as @kenloo or by email beingyap@gmail.com.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BReCQOUnsYY[/youtube]
Related:
Poken apart and back again. See what’s under the hood as YK dismantles the Poken.
