Poken announced today that it has just been ranked among the top 5 young businesses in Switzerland in startup.ch‘s list of ‘Top 100 Start-ups in 2011′.
To be honest, I’m not sure Poken isn’t getting a little long in the tooth to be a ‘startup’. Stéphane Doutriaux, the charismatic CEO, formed the company in 2007 and launched the first Poken in Jan 2009. And those who know me will confirm I have been a Poken evangelist, boring anyone who’ll listen, for at least a year. I still am, but I’m also rather more realistic than I was back then.
What is Poken?
It’s a digital business card (and more). When you meet somebody else with one, you can place them together and they will swap profiles. You get the other person’s Twitter, Linked-in, Facebook, Skype, Flickr, Foursquare and other social media IDs, and he/she gets yours. When you plug your Poken (it’s a USB stick) into your computer, it updates your contacts timeline, and your Outlook contacts database if you want.
What is so good about them?
Well, the larger Pokens can also download data, which is one of the reasons I began to be interested in them. Last year Andy Jarosz (@501places) wrote quite an influential post about how World Travel Market was bad for trees and surely there was a better way to collect brochure data. Poken seemed to answer that need.
However my main enthusiasm for them was based on their primary function – business cards. That’s because the travel sector is very active. Just in London alone, every day of the working week there are between one and three travel industry events – product launches, press conferences, PR lunches, awards ceremonies, etc etc. And among travel bloggers there are almost weekly tweetups and other get-togethers. It is an industry made for using Poken. Everybody should have one, but they don’t.
Why not?
Well, Poken just hasn’t yet achieved critical mass. I very rarely see anyone with a Poken. I know of three bloggers and PRs who have them, and I know of another six that I have given sample ones to (having prized them out of Poken HQ in order to try and promote them!). It’s not enough.
I think there are two reasons.
1) They are too expensive. The usual retail price is just under $20 (around £12). Of course the clever way to do this would be to for a travel business or PR to buy them in bulk and distribute them before events, but even then the discount is not huge.
2) They have batteries that run out after six months or so, and as a result they just get left in drawers gathering dust. Of course you can replace the batteries, if you are lucky enough to find a store with the right non-standard size battery (I can tell you there are none at Gatwick airport for example!).
Is that the end of it then?
Well, possibly not.
Recently Poken joined the Near-Field Communication (NFC) platform and has started to work with some interesting partners. In July they launched their first NFC compliant Pokens, including PokenMOBILE which puts Poken technology onto mobile phones. They started with NFC-enabled Nokia’s but NFC equipped Android & iPhones should be along soon.
This video gives a good idea of where they are now.
So, maybe not at this year’s World Travel Market, but perhaps at WTM 2012, I might start collecting brochures and press releases on my phone… and your social media business card! Are you up for it?
Image: Aymanvanbregt
Wow… I wouldn’t go for a poken, for the reasons you’ve just mentioned. But if I look at that video! Wow! That’s the way & I would definitely use it then!
I don’t want to carry around an extra item, but if it’s in the phone! Superb! I’ve just read an article about the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus (I think it’s called like that) with the new Androids system. They have that kind of exchange, that you just need to touch phones to changes your digital business cards.
If they business use it to share info, like menu cards, ingredients etc. Great!
Poor poken. They haven’t even got many comments on this post. :( I just think they’re underexposed. The problem is that – like you, and apart from you (smooth sentence eh?) – I hardly ever meet anyone who has one. They want to get themselves on Dragons’ Den. I don’t think the price point is the problem. Everyone loves Moo Cards dearly but my last order with them was £60, the second this year.
Right, we need a Poen amnesty. Ask readers to report on anyone they know to have knowingly pokened without full disclosure. Ah now, where’s the form? Get Johnny O on the case sharpish! ;)