Blippy.com: Sharing What You're Buying
Mar 16 2010
Retail Wrap >>

Blippy.com is a social networking site that encourages people to see and discuss what their friends and others are buying on services such as iTunes, Netflix, eBay, Amazon, and more. They can even set it up to show purchases from credit cards. While some view this as yet another internet-intrusion on personal space, converts say they discover new products and deals while reaching friends.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Justine Ezarik, 25, said she bought an app that tracks sleep patterns after she saw a friend buy it on Blippy.

"A lot of people are skeptical. They feel like they are sharing so much online already," Ms. Ezarik said. "I just feel like this is the next thing to do."

The site's founders said millions are already readily sharing more opinions, whereabouts and photos on Facebook and Twitter that many initially felt overstepped boundaries.

"People are sharing more and more on the internet because they are getting so much benefit from it," Philip Kaplan, a co-founder of Blippy told the Times. "From the user perspective, it's just a stream of cool stuff that your friends are buying. From the business perspective, it's the ultimate word-of-mouth marketing: I buy something and tell all my friends about it."

While privacy critics warn that social sites such as Blippy open up consumers to identity theft and invasive marketing, the founders said safeguards are in place. Moreover, the site provides tools to limit what people see. After credit cards or accounts such as iTunes or Zappos are registered on the website, transactions are streamlined in a Twitter-like feed. Users can opt to share those purchases with the public, with only their friends, or not at all.

But the Times found some people revealing more than they expected to. A Blippy advisor realized his friends found out he broke up with his girlfriend after downloading the iPhone app for JDate, an online Jewish dating service.

Brad Wayland, a 30-year-old executive with T-shirt company BlueCotton.com and a early Blippy fan, now only shares what he buys at iTunes and Amazon after seeing his family's monthly health insurance bills show up on Blippy.

Adapted from Source: www.retailwire.com, 8 March 2010