Must Have iPhone Apps
Powwow

　　Like Foursquare? Dig Groupon? Powwow combines the best of both in this super app. Check in, bring friends and get deals at all kinds of places in Beijing. Best of all it's bilingual, so you can network with all your friends. We hear some of the people behind Clubzone are involved in this app, so expect a bevy of hip and beautiful Chinese people to be using this one. Price: FREE.

9个必须安装的iPhone Apps
Powwow

　　玩聚Let's Powwow,是一款集合了类似Foursquare, Groupon等时下最热门功能的手机应用程序。用户可以用该程序迅速搜索周边场所并获取优惠价格,同时还可交友互动分享品质生活。该程序的最大便利之处在于中英双语即时切换,最大限度的满足了不同用户的使用需求。目前为止,已有不少用户注册使用Powwow并获得良好反响,来期待更多的用户加入吧！购买：免费。

——CITYWEEKEND

Let's Powwow: a Chinese LBS That Puts Deals Before Check-Ins
Let's Powwow: 一个中国LBS服务公司,其理念是“Deals Before Check-Ins”。

　　Chinese start-up Let's Powwow is a unique location-based service (LBS), social network, and group buy/deals site. Located at letspw.com, the site has nine employees now, and is notable for having a triumvirate of founders from China, Italy, and the US.

　　玩聚Let's Powwow,作为中国一家刚刚起步不久专注于LBS领域的科技创新公司,因其统合了社交网络、优惠券、团购多种应用而独树一帜。聚焦Let's Powwow,公司现已有9名成员。值得注意的是,公司的三位创始人分别来自中国、意大利以及美国,这就是公司秉承“包容、创新”文化理念的原由。

　　Rather than just focusing on check-ins or brands, Lets Powwow instead aims to connect its users more closely with actual venues, create hyperlocal deals, get users to “redeem” deals at venues, and encourage people to bring along friends to a store. There's an iPhone and Android app to accompany the site.

　　相对其他大多数LBS简单地专注于签到或品牌推广,玩聚Let's Powwow则更多地致力于建立用户与商家的直接桥梁——玩聚券“Deal”。一方面,场所通过设置玩聚券给与用户利益回报（打折、优惠等）；另一方面,玩聚券鼓励用户邀请好友互相分享,提高用户与场所的互动度。现在Let's Powwow已经推出iPhone, Android两个版本供用户使用。

　Let's Powwow seems less like fellow Chinese LBS Jiepang.com – whose CEO we interviewed recently – and more like the Indian Geosocials. That's because both Geosocials and Let's Powwow put less emphasis on check-ins and are instead oriented towards being hyperlocal and 'game'-like.

　　Let'sPowwow似乎不太像中国的LBS应用“街旁”,更多的像Geosocials——面向美国用户的印度LBS应用。这是因为Let'sPowwo和Geosocials一样,并不将重点放在签到上,而更多的专注于“Deal”“Game”等功能的开发。

　　To find out more about Let's Powwow and where it's heading, Penn Olson talked to its American CEO and co-founder Adam Guli (pictured below):

　　为了更加深入了解玩聚Let's Powwow,Penn Olson对玩聚的CEO同时也是创始人之一的Adam Guli进行了专访。

1. What inspired you to launch this start-up?
1. 是什么契机触发你开始这项计划的呢？

　　Well I have been part of start-ups in the past – always the guy working for someone else. I gained a real taste for the freedom and fluidity of the whole experience, even though each project ended in failure. I learned a lot from those failures to hopefully give me some insight into how not to make the same mistakes. But ultimately it was working for huge organizations and not having my ideas or strategies amount to more then a pat on the back and a “What are you going to do for me now” attitude.

　　过去我也参与过几项计划,那个时候我并不是创始人。在那些经历中,我真实的感受到了一项计划带来的那种自由的、变化的感觉,即使那些计划最终都以失败而告终。但是正因为这些失败,将来我才不会范相同的错误。从根本上讲,这些失败给予我更好的组织能力和战略思考能力,而不是仅仅心血来潮的一拍后背便拉上好友说“走吧,让咱们干一番事业去吧！”这样的态度。

2. What kind of financing did it take? Have you had some venture capital backing?
2. 到目前为止,你们已经进行过风险融资了吗？

　　My two co-founders and I started with a pooled US$40,000 to start this thing. It meant we had to be creative in how we spent our funds. Over the past year we have had seed funding and some angel funding of nearly $200,000. We are in major fund-raising mode now and hope to bring in some bigger fish to help take us to the next level.

　　最初,我与我的另外两位创始伙伴共同出资40,000美元来开始我们的计划,这就意味着我们必须妥善使用我们的初始基金。不过很好的是,去年我们融到了一些天使基金和种子基金,数额将近200,000美元。现在我们已经开始采取一些主要融资模式并且希望能有一些大的入资帮助我们进入下一阶段。

3. You position Let's PowWow as an LBS with group buy deals and a “game” element thrown in. How does it work for a user?
3.你将玩聚Let's Powwow定义为一项集合了团购、优惠券以及游戏的LBS服务。那么它是怎样为用户服务的呢？

　　We stress the social aspect of the app to our users. We do this by encouraging them to share their thoughts, feelings and ideas about their surroundings. The problem with LBS at the moment is that the games are focused on an individual raising his/her own status. This provides little value both to their friends and the venues they “check-in” at.

　　Our deals are aimed at identifying a venue's target customers and develop promotions that will attract that customer and his/her friends. We want each user to be a social influencer to their circle of friends so we can reward them. Moreover, we are implementing gaming mechanics that encourage group behavior, and can reward users for sharing their ‘liked” establishments.

　　我们重点为客户提供社交互动相关的服务。比如,我们鼓励用户与好友分享他们对于身边环境的想法、感受和意见。而当前的LBS领域,大家都仅仅局限于用户更新状态（例如签到）这部分,这样缺乏互动的做法对于用户的好友以及场所的意义却并不大。

　　我们的Deal,是针对识别一个场所的目标客户来进行喜好区别化的推广,这样的做法会吸引更多忠实的用户,进而再吸引他们的朋友加入进来。我们希望每一位用户通过使用Powwow,在他们的社交圈内形成一定的影响力,同时Powwow会以Deal（玩聚券）的方式去回馈用户。此外,我们正在努力开发gaming这一环节以提高用户群的活跃度,我们还将通过判断用户的“喜欢”来回报用户。

4. How do you reward a user who acts, in your words, as a “social influencer” to his/her friends?
4.那么你们如何回报那种你所定义的“social influencer”的用户呢？

　　The concept is simple. Because we are tracking the users who are frequenting a venue often and redeeming deals, checking in and ‘liking' the place, we can identify them as a possible social influencer. We can target these users via push notifications for more rewards if they bring other friends into the place. For example by saying : “Bring three friends to enjoy our lunch special and you eat for free.” Those who actually follow up and bring their friends in are instantly identified as a social influencer.But in reality, anyone who likes a place and shares the venue with their friend, and checks in with their friends at a place or event, can be an influencer. The beauty of the system is that we can make anyone into a social influencer once we know what they really like. Then we can build rewards around that to have them influence their friends to partake.

　　理论上这是个简单的概念,我们跟踪分析用户的行为。例如,他是否常到这个场所？是否使用过我们的玩聚券？是否经常签到？是否喜欢这个场所？我们可以通过这些判定他是否是一个潜在的‘social influencer'。然后,我们可以发送一些特别的优惠信息给这些‘social influencer',让他们为场所带去更多的消费者。例如,我们可以发送一条这样的信息：“邀请三位好友共享午间特别菜单即可获得一人免费优惠！”当用户看到信息后,的确带领好友到店用餐,我们就把这样的用户定义为‘social influencer'。但在实际情况中,那些喜欢一个场所、签到一个活动并把它们分享给他的朋友的人即可被定义为‘social influencer'。这个界定的好处在于,当我们发现人们的真正喜好后任何人都能成为‘social influencer'。我们分析他的行为,为他设计专有的回馈,继而他才会影响更多的人。

5. You've said you don't emphasize checking-in so much, and prefer to focus on a user “redeeming” stuff at a location when they buy stuff…
5.您说您并不将重点放在“签到”功能上,您更多的关注用户在一个场所“redeeming”这样的行为。能详细说明一下吗？

　　Checking in is a social act that is based on the internet world to show your friends where you WANT them to see you at. As most LBS apps do not actually care if you are at a location or not when you check-in, it decreases the value of that user for the venue itself. By creating a redeem function in our deals, the venue actually validates that an individual is at their establishment and spending money.

　　This is a lot more interesting to us because we believe if a user/customer is actually at a place and spending money, then we can make money from that. Too little focus has been put on the venues in the LBS world at the moment, and therefore little revenue has been produced for these companies. When you have the venues participate in the entire experience some interesting business models end up developing.

　　“签到”这一行为是用户基于internet向好友们展示“你想让他们看到你身处的场所”,而现在LBS领域的多家app并不真正关心用户所在的场所或者用户究竟何时签到。而这种做法不仅对用户价值甚少,对场所的价值更是聊胜于无。但是玩聚Let's Powwow的做法是通过创造激活玩聚券这项功能,让场所真正确认用户的来访、消费等行为。

　　这对我们来讲有兴趣多了,因为我们相信当用户或者消费者到场所消费时我们一定能从中赚取利益。当前的LBS领域放在场所的注意力太少了,这也就是为什么这么多的公司无法从这一方面去实现盈利。而当你把场所作为另一相关方加入进来后,你会发现更为有趣的商业模式亟待开发。

6. You seem to be up against both LBS such as Jiepang, and group-buy sites such as Dianping and Lashou. How are you persuading clients/venues that your way is the right way (or that your users have more income, etc)?
6.你似乎在否定LBS公司如街旁以及团购网站点评、拉手,你是如何说服客户/场所认同你们的模式就是正确的呢,或者说你们的用户就会为场所带去更多的利益呢？

　　Because we add value for the venue. It is simply not enough to have people looking at or seeing what people have said about a place. Venues are more interested in seeing what are the buying behaviors their customers have. Then they can target loyal or active customers and have these customers draw similar-minded customers to their establishment.

　　Because we work with the venues in creating deals that can identify these buying behaviors we collect and give reports on what is working and what is not. We become the platform that can be used to understand gaps within the business. More importantly, because we do not populate our search of venues simply using distance, but rather in terms of popularity. That ranks personal interest and friends' interests, which is a natural ranking system. That's what happens in the venue list in Let's Powwow – it does not happen with other LBS companies.

　　In effect, we are creating a meta-game for the venues to try to bring their ranking up. It is similar to Google analytics, but focused on a 500, 1,000, or 2,000 group of search results around a particular individual. No one else does this at the moment, and it creates great appeal for our service.

　　第一,我们的确在为场所创造价值。通过Powwow,场所的拥有者首先将很简单明了的看到用户的观点和消费行为,进而他们才能正确将消费者定位为忠诚、活跃、潜在等类别,最后再将这些潜在消费者转化成他们的真正消费者。

　　第二,我们与场所依据消费者的各项行为设计特别的优惠券,使用后进行数据收集最终以报告的形式来证明哪些是有作用的,哪些是无用的。因此,实际上我们提供了一个供场所了解间隙业务的平台。更重要的是,我们并不依据用户与场所的距离进行列表排名,而是依据用户的喜好习惯,例如用户个人的爱好,其好友的兴趣等等。而这一点是其他任何一家LBS公司所没有的。

　　事实上,我们正在做一个meta-game系统为这些场所排名。这是一种类似谷歌分析的算法,但是只对用户周围500米、1000米或者2000米以内的结果进行运算排名。正如我刚才所说,其他任何一家公司当前都没有这种想法,而这也使我们的服务在现在的领域里独树一帜。

7. Because your service is more focused on venues and what users actually do in them, will this only work at high-end places, such as upscale hotels or boutique stores? Can it be scaled?
7.基于你们的服务更多的聚焦于场所这一方,那么用户又是如何参与其中的呢？这些功能仅仅只适用于那些高端的场所吗,例如高档酒店或专卖店？能按一定比例解释一下吗？

　　We are easily scalable within reason. We are targeting mid- to high-end venues. In China, the middle class demographic is expanding rapidly and there are new places popping up daily to feed their desires. We believe that through this range we have more than enough room to grow and become profitable.

　　基于之前我讲的那些理由,我们很容易上升到一定高度,而我们的目标是从中端平稳渐次过度到高端。在中国,中产阶级的人口正在迅速膨胀,新兴的各类场所也如雨后春笋般不断的萌芽发展。我们相信通过我们当前专注的领域,在将来我们将有更多的空间去适应今后的发展并从中获利。

8. Why did you decide to launch this start-up in China, rather than any other country?
8.比起其他国家,为什么你选择在中国开始这项事业？

　　300 million mobile internet users and growing! The math does not lie. We can accomplish more traction in one market then others are doing globally. Foursquare has 10 million users globally. China already has 18 million LBS users. Imagine what will happen if we can make this thing really popular. Ask [Sina] Weibo how they are doing and it gives you a hint of where our ambitions are. It's very exiting to be here. Besides, I fully believe that it will be Chinese companies re-shaping the commercial world, and we want to be part of that new shift in power.

　　这里有三亿移动网络用户的增长,数据是不会撒谎的！我们只要完成一个市场的牵引而不是占领全球份额。Foursquare在全球的用户数据是近1000万,而仅仅中国的LBS用户就是1800万。设想一下,如果我们的服务流行起来的话这将是一幅怎样的蓝图？看看新浪微博你就会了解我们的野心有多大。这是一件非常让人兴奋的事！除此之外,我完全相信,这将是中国商业格局重新洗牌的时机,而我们有信心成为新版图里的重要部分！

——Penn-Olson

Let’s Powwow：玩聚，分享品质生活
访玩聚网CEO Adam Guli

Pioneer 创业人记者_郝德秀
特约摄影_孙久睿

 “每个人都用手机”

     2011年10月24日，北京时间15点， Adam Guli 的最新动向有哪些？三天前，他签到温情地图私家咖啡馆、星巴克（机场五店）、Fountain丰泉。两天前，他签到上海虹桥机场2号航站楼贵宾厅、星巴克（机场二店）、花廊(T2店)。一天前，他签到树旁边酒吧、纳斯卡咖啡。21分钟前，他签到Cornerstone 薏。
当然，他最经常签到的地方是letspw玩聚办公室，朝阳区关东店南街2号旺座中心西塔1505室。
你打开浏览器，输入网址 http://www.letspw.com/index.php 。如果你登录，那说明你已经是玩聚23.7万会员中的一名；如果你注册，那你会发现许许多多的朋友和活动在等待着你；如果你把Adam Guli加为好友，那这位玩聚网创始人兼CEO的最新动态你就尽收眼底啦。计算一下，你和他的默契度有多高？
成立于2010年1月的Let’s Powwow玩聚，为智能手机用户提供基于位置的资讯和好友动态。不管你是用iPhone还是Android系统，都可以下载“玩聚let’s powwow”来迅速搜索周边的餐厅、酒吧和活动，并获取优惠价格。还可以和周边的朋友互动，分享你们的品质生活。
Adam Guli略带调侃地谈起自己的创业初衷。他不断强调一个事实：每个人都用手机。这个事实，意味着一个庞大的应用市场。
他和朋友讨论自己的想法。“这么有意思的想法，我们为什么不试一试呢？”于是，创业团队到位了，Let’s Powwow玩聚诞生了。
Adam Guli笑着说，他在正确的时间里，遇到了正确的人，做了正确的事。

“让别人模仿我们”

    Adam Guli是一个有大想法的人。用一句很中国的话来形容他，那就是“他在下一盘很大的棋”。目前，他正在积极开发上海市场，他最关心的是融资问题。
对公司未来的发展，他是充满信心的，因为他的团队是国际化与本土化的融合，他们创造的是与众不同的新产品。而他坚信，优秀的团队是创业成功最关键的因素。
“我关心的不是钱，而是人。我希望公司的发展能给员工带来切实的利益，能给用户带来切实的享受。”
在他的理想中，Let’s Powwow玩聚要努力成为球最顶尖的移动互联网公司，成为移动网络上白领人士获取个性化信息、建立社交网络的先锋平台，不断为用户提供更前沿、更人性、更娱乐的移动服务。对和Let’s Powwow玩聚进行合作的商家而言，他们获得了一个移动网络平台，可以更便捷地和忠实用户进行互动。这不只是通过打折来吸引消费者，更是通过玩聚券鼓励好友相聚，共同分享美食美酒和优质生活方式。
玩聚券可谓Let’s Powwow玩聚的一大特色。用户在Let’s Powwow玩聚，可以通过收藏玩聚券，以享受许多餐厅、酒吧、活动等的更优质更优惠的服务。Let’s Powwow玩聚的内容经理胡宁解释说，市场部会认真严格选择与Let’s Powwow玩聚进行合作的商家。因此，玩聚券的品质是可以放心的。
“中国经济的积极发展是无可怀疑的，但高峰之后，会迎来一个低谷——这不是坏事，恰恰相反，这是好事。如此一来，经济的泡沫成分会被挤掉，没有竞争力的公司会被淘汰。能够生存下来的，都会是有竞争力有发展前景的公司。到那时，我们就会是别人所模仿的成功对象。”
Adam Guli以企业家特有的敏锐与胆识，勾勒着Let’s Powwow玩聚的明天。
他说，成功的企业家要有抱负，有冒险精神，一定要把心中的蓝图付诸实践，而不是仅仅停留在幻想阶段。“要勇于尝试新的事物与新的挑战，不要害怕失败。”

“古代的古，力量的力”

    采访中，当被问及中文名字时，一直在用英语交谈的Adam Guli很熟练地用汉语回答：“古力，古代的古，力量的力。”Adam Guli在中国七年，也曾在清华大学学习过，汉语说的也不差。但是，“就像中国人说英语紧张一样，我说汉语也紧张。”他哈哈笑着说。
每年只回家一次的Adam Guli，聊起美国老家来，却滔滔不绝。他说他们一家人单独住在科罗拉多州的一处地方，离最近的邻居也有1.5公里。在那里，所有的东西都是他们自己动手做出来的，小到食物，大到房子。小学毕业的时候，他所就读的学校里总共才有7个孩子。Adam Guli说，他父亲自己经营着一家公司，这也在潜移默化中影响了他日后的创业。
“我对这个世界充满了好奇，总想发现更多，了解更多（I want to find more about the world）。”
这种源于内心的冲动，促使他离开家乡，在广袤的世界中追寻自己的梦想。

Let's Powwow Launch party
Let's Powwow,
Gather with friends. Check-in to your favorite venues. Save money.

　　Powwow Limited is a Mobile Internet company providing a location-based, Social Network, Search Engine service that is founded upon personal user needs and set preferences. Let's Powwow is a platform for information and social network, which is based on Iphone and Android system operating systems. Aiming at the elites in the city, Let's Powwow provides the most personalized mobile Internet service. Through GPS, you could not only get all the information of the restaurants, bars, gyms (and more), but also all the best deals in town. Different from “Groupon” or the traditional discounts, Let's Powwow encourages sharing the deals with friend instead of one person. Since Powwow got online, we have been adjusting and perfecting the APP itself in order to build a more mature system. Meanwhile, we are trying to focus on delivering a more convenient, saving and top-quality life style.

Beijing's own race aims to be truly unique

　　The Amazing Race, for those who have never seen the TV show which inspired the Beijing event, is usually a month-long race across the globe that is broken down into legs - each leg ending with a clue or challenge that leads to the next leg. The first team to reach the end of a leg is usually rewarded, and subsequent teams are given tasks or lesser rewards.
　　I Race Beijing will be on a much smaller scale, involving 11 venues for about five hours, in five major sections of the city. According to Guli, there will be Chinese venues as well .

——CHINADAILY.com.cn

I Race! The Great Urban Discovery

　　as foreign venues, each providing a different challenge to the teams.

　　Time Out Beijing, as a media co-host, presents the Great Urban Scavenger Hunt on Sunday 25 September 2011, organised by Let's Powwow and Mashup Sport and Social, namely 爱北京, I Race! Combining Let's Powwow's location-based mobile application with mashup's focus on social activities, the city-wide race will take teams throughout urban Beijing to uncover the hidden gems the city has to offer.

——TimeOut Beijing

Clubzone.cn & 玩聚Let's Powwow Halloween Party Bus

Clubzone.cn & 玩聚Let's Powwow Halloween Party Bus is back! Join us for the hottest Halloween parties in Beijing.

【Tech Crunch报道】What is Let's Powwow: Let's Powwow (Powwow) at its core is a Mobile Internet company providing a Location-Based, Social Network, Deal oriented platform that is developed upon personal user's buying needs. This service provides relevant information about places, people and events around the individual that pertains to that person's particular likes and interests, while giving venues the ability to track buying behaviors and engage directly with Let's Powwow users by issuing deals, promotions and discounts fitting to a person's lifestyle.

【TechWeb报道】与其他同类型LBS应用程序不同的是,玩聚Let'sPowwow并不仅仅注重“签到”功能,而是更多的关注用户的“喜好”,用户通过选择是否“喜欢”这个场所,从而影响场所的排名和影响力,如果用户选择了“喜欢”,就有机会获得该场所提供的优惠。对于商家来说也不失为一种很好的营销手段。

【LumDimSum报道】If you have an iPhone or Android, you must download Let's Powwow today. My favorite phone application, it's like a combination of WhatsApp, foursquare and city listings combined.
　　Not only is this application incredibly useful with finding venues, getting addresses in Chinese and English to show your cab driver, reading quick honest reviews and recommendations, it's also an easy way to stay in touch with friends. I can't tell you how many times I've had an hour to kill in Sanlitun (before or after a meeting) and turned on Powwow to see who's in the neighborhood to pop over for a quick hello! Instead of texting around to see where everyone is or what everyone is up to, you can just check in and see who's around you and what's going on!