Jiepang, Leading Location-Based Service Provider in China, Tests NFC-Enabled Marketing and Payment Services

Jiepang, China’s fastest-growing location-based service (LBS) provider, is testing NFC technology to help fuel the growth of its ambitious SoLoMo (social-local-mobile) business strategy, which seeks to move beyond social networking and mobile marketing promotions to provide contactless payments and other offerings.

The company’s applications, which have gained a million users in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in just 13 months, are using UPM BullsEye and UPM MiniBlock NFC tags to conduct marketing and payment trials, gaining insights into user behavior that can be used to structure new services and increase customer loyalty.

Founded on May 13, 2010, Jiepang has quickly cemented its status as China’s leading location-based service provider by developing user-friendly LBS applications for iPhone, Android and other mobile devices. Jiepang’s services let users announce their arrival at different venues; share tips, photos and comments with friends and followers; sync data with social networking profiles; and collect virtual badges and rewards by visiting special-event pages for many of the world’s leading brands.

The company has signed marketing partnerships with more than 300 global companies such as IKEA, Nike, Louis Vuitton, McDonald’s and Starbucks, and has developed an operational platform where tens of thousands of local businesses offer LBS services free of charge. Jiepang’s customers are highly engaged: At least 10 percent of its user base checks in weekly, and the company is adding approximately 80,000 new users each month.

“NFC technology is an important part of Jiepang’s growth strategy,” said David Liu, CEO, Jiepang. “Our partnership with UPM RFID enables us to use NFC technology to strengthen our mobile community, using location data to provide immediacy and relevance to social networking, marketing promotions and other services.”

Jiepang gave its NFC-enabled LBS trials a public face earlier this year, handing out 1,500 key chains and mobile phone stickers with UPM’s NFC tags to attendees at Beijing’s third annual Strawberry Music Festival held April 30-May 2, 2011. The company provided a live demonstration of NFC technology and encouraged participants to check in at booths for five different restaurant bars to obtain virtual badges and discounts. That trial was followed by a demo with Nokia at the @Smartphone Apps Expo Asia in Hong Kong on June 17-19, 2011. The company is now preparing for a larger-scale mobile commerce trial.

“We are very pleased to partner with Jiepang to deliver innovative NFC-enabled services to Asian consumers,” said Edward Lu, sales and marketing director, Asia, UPM RFID. “With their rapid adoption of new technologies, Asian consumers provide the rest of the world with a first look at how emerging technologies can reshape key processes and human behavior, creating profitable business opportunities for the world’s leading brands.”