If social networking around where and how you spend your money isn’t your bag, then Swipely will likely make as little sense to you as Blippy, but it appears to make a lot of sense to some big names in the world of investors and backers.
Swipely has launched as a invitation-only beta service right now and, according to Venture Beat, is “more than just a Blippy clone.”
The site proclaims to “turn purchases into conversations” by pulling in all of your credit card purchases, and even other purchases and taken from emailed receipts, and sharing them with friends. The primary difference from Blippy is that Swipely does not share the precise amounts of each purchase, likely soothing some of the privacy concerns that some would have over this service.
While we’re still somewhat confused by who would want to share everything they buy with the world, we’re obviously not the target audience and there is a group of people who agree that this is something people want to do – to the tune of $8.5 million. The start-up currently has backing from several investors, including “well-known angel investors Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital, Keith Rabois of Slide, former Mint.com vice president Anton Commissaris, and prolific angel investor Ron Conway”.
Swipely asserts that “every swipe tells a story” and this we can agree with, but we have one question – do we really want to tell that story? Then again, some might see their location as far more private information than what they’re spending their money on and have the same argument over location-based check-in apps like Foursquare and Gowalla.
For my money, sharing based around purchases is an odd approach to the world and to social networking. Then again, I’m not much of a consumer and don’t really see my identity as comprised of what I buy and where I spend my money. For others – people who like collecting purses and shoes or eating at fancy restaurants around town and telling their friends about it – Swipely could be the perfect way to strut their stuff. I have to say, though, that the second I start seeing what they bought when and where show up in my Facebook stream, they’re getting the block. I just couldn’t care less.
In the end, we’re willing to bet that this will hit a niche market, but likely miss the mark when it comes to the general population.
And if you’re of the Swipely mindset, then keep an eye out for Marshall Kirkpatrick’s explanation later today of why Swipely is more interesting than I believe it to be.