Village Voice Media has always been about location. Their publications (which include Villiage Voice, SF Weekly, and 12 others) are highly tailored towards specific cities. So it makes some sense that they’d get into the mobile social location space that is getting so hot right now. But you might not have thought it would be with a happy hour app.
But that’s exactly what Village Voice Media is launching tomorrow alongside app developer GoTime. Happy Hours, is an free application for the iPhone, Android, and the mobile web. With it, you get access to some 15,000 happy hours in 30 different cities around the country. You simply load the app up, tell it where you are (which it can know automatically on the iPhone and Android phones), and let it show you happy hours close by.
While happy hour apps are nothing new (here’s another one we covered not too long ago), most are small and based around one city, or a handful of cities. Happy Hours is nationwide, so it’s good for traveling. Also, thanks to the Village Voice association, it has a range of data about establishments such as atmosphere, type of food served, etc — not to mention full reviews, when available.
The app launches tomorrow for the following 30 cities: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Broward-Palm Beach, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Orange County, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, Washington DC.
Check out more in the video below.
O yeah….
Also: we pay for all your drinks!
Okay maybe not “all” … but if you see me around, seriously, hit me up … :)
Wow, you’re gonna invite a ton of drunk stalkers, LOL! Seriously though, very cool app – who can’t use a national happy hour finder?! I’m assuming/hoping it will be provide info as to what the happy hour specials are at each venue? That would be fantastic!
Ok, Alexia…see you soon.
I can see the commercial now: want to get drunk for cheap? There’s an app for that. Awesome.
say what ? lol
Will the happy hours be curated in any way? Or will this be a massive list?
Congrads to the GoTime guys. It’s been a great app here in Seattle and it’s fantastic that they are bringing it nationwide. Village Voice made a wise choice in working with this team.
Listen to Alexia. If you spot her–or myself for that matter–at a bar, show us the app on yer phone and we’ll buy a round. (This could get mighty expensive in Austin during SXSW, but we will take that chance). It’s a solid app. I have been using the text version, and it has come in handy in recent trips to NY, SF and Seattle.
^ Best boss EVER.
Best boss’s pet ever! j/k!
thank for article
Awesome app. Great work guys!
Any chance of integrating this with the app from Alcoholics Anonymous? :D
I’m a little biased, but the official Happy Hour App is still my favorite. http://boomtownapps.com
Thomas, I was about to try out your other App until I realized it was going to cost me $2 – that’s a pint glass in my world.
Ok stop patting yourselves on the back. I see the astrosurfing is in full swing. Do I blame you for being trolls? Of course not, I would have done the same thing.
Again, a case of people who grew up being very socially isolated and through this they are trying to be free at some subconscious level. This application will not buy you what is missing in your lives.
Amendment to previous drink offer–Brian Kroub gets two rounds.
You owe me a whole night of rounds Billy, too bad I quit drinking. Unlimited Diet Pepsi’s maybe??
GoTime Happy Hours app is amazing, but the GoTime team is much more than a group of ‘App Developers’. They are an innovative and dynamic startup based in Seattle. I think their involvement in this project is severely underplayed, but glad the app is getting featured here.
Cool. I’ll be covering this on Thursday’s Scott Fox Online Marketing Show at 2pm ET (11amPT/7pm GMT) at http://www.ScottFoxShow.com.
Congrats GoTime!
I too am biased for the Drink Specials App (drinkspecialsapp.com) but go me, these apps are only as good as the data inside them. These things change quite a bit, and the directory needs to update faster than can be done by a single editor/author.
Drink Specials is a free iPhone app (agree with @Brett above that these deal finders need to be free) lets users constantly verify and update bars and specials. So the crowd source approach will work in more than 30 cities and 15k happy hours.
To me, all these apps are variations on a theme, but to compete, it’s really all about timeliness of data (check) and ability to scale (check). If you need reviews, go to Yelp/Urbanspoon/CitySearch…it’s what they do. We’re a drink special finder, plain and simple.
Let us know what you think! Love to see more apps in the space…shows us we’re onto something,
Congrads to the GoTime guys. It’s been a great app here in Seattle and it’s fantastic that they are bringing it nationwide. Village Voice made a wise choice in working with this team.