by Beth Silverstein
Los Angeles, CA -- You may not think the science of how insects fly and 2D bar code readers have anything to do with each other. Neither did mobile developer Philip Warbasse until he read an article in a backdated issue of Scientific American®, describing the flight dynamics of insect wings, that would become the genesis for his bar code reader assistant aptly named 2DGO. Now, fourteen months later, 2DGO has served over a million unique visitors, creating a wake of new clients interested in re-branding it for their very own.
The Problem
No single 2D bar code reader works on every smartphone. This poses an obvious challenge for users, who sometimes must download and try several readers out before finding a good fit. But, it also posses a serious obstacle for advertisers, who are trying to help consumers download the right reader, by making it nearly impossible to address all smartphone users with one single call-to-action.
The Solution
The solution was simple, to provide advertisers with a single call-to-action that would deliver the best possible 2D bar code reader(s) to the consumer, enabling them to successfully scan integrated media ads, no matter what type of smartphone they have. 2DGO, found online at www.2dgo.org, marked an important shift away from the traditional approach that most companies take to develop and market their bar code readers. Instead of creating another reader, 2DGO would offer the platform and the single call-to-action that advertisers were looking for - for the first time.
The 2DGO Platform
The 2DGO platform is a light and fast infrastructure that runs on 'Rails', delivering the latest in mobile detection which is used to determine a users mobile device and offer the best 3rd party bar code readers, available in the repository, for that device.
What makes 2DGO uniquely powerful is the exclusive list of readers it offers. Instead of delivering modifications of a single reader to various handsets, 2DGO offers a wide variety of FREE readers that are all guaranteed to work. With hundreds of bar code readers on the market, knowing which readers work best and on which devices comes from Warbasse's 4+ years of experience designing functional, custom QR Codes® for the entertainment industry.
2DGO's Single Call-to-Action
2DGO embraces the DOTGO SMS platform to deliver a simple url to users (currently U.S. only) via text message. The call-to-action for advertisers is "Need a Reader? TEXT 2dgo TO 368674 (DOTORG)".
Catching the White-Label Wake
In January of 2011, after months of testing, Warbasse released 2DGO to the public at no charge. People all over the world began using 2DGO almost immediately and within six months, Warbasse was working with companies large and small to give them their own branded versions. "I think advertisers realized that 2DGO could help them provide uniformity and congruence to their campaigns. Naturally, when I spotted companies that were pointing a lot of traffic to the server, i.e. getting a lot of use out of 2DGO, I would approach them to see if we could re-brand 2DGO specifically for them and our white-label program was born." -Philip Warbasse / Developer 2DGO.
| "I think advertisers realized that 2DGO could help them provide uniformity and congruence to their campaigns. Naturally, when I spotted companies that were pointing a lot of traffic to the server, i.e. getting a lot of use out of 2DGO, I would approach them to see if we could re-brand 2DGO specifically for them and our white-label program was born." -Philip Warbasse / Developer 2DGO. |
Wake capture is a phenomena discovered by Michael H. Dickinson, U.C. Berkeley which allows insects to utilize energy that would normally be lost in flight. Inspired by Dickinson's observations which appeared in a 1999 issue of Scientific American®, Warbasse saw that 2DGO could be both a free support tool and a means to capture more revenue through a well conceived white-label platform and analytics package. 2DGO's white-label package is offered well below what many other companies charge for solutions that support only one reader. Large companies like FASTSIGNS® and Neustar's® getreader.com, who both use branded versions of 2DGO, have helped contribute to the one million mark.
The Next Million
The next million users will most likely be served in under a year. In the meantime, 2DGO continues to consider new 2D bar code readers for the platform and will be releasing an update to include image recognition readers from Snap Tag® and Digimarc® this Spring.
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Contact
Contact Beth Silverstein beth@bonovoxpr.com for more information, articles and interview requests.
