WeReward’s iPhone App Lets You Earn Cash For Check-Ins

It seems like the idea of checking-in to a location, restaurant or venue has become more of a mainstream activity thanks to Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and other location-based services. Many of these services reward users with special badges or even coupons when they check-in to a certain venue. Enter WeReward, which is launching at TechCrunch Disrupt today, which has a different take on the rewards system for check-ins. WeReward, which is an iPhone app and standalone site, allows you to earn points and cash for check-ins or tasks.

The free app allows you to access a list of businesses in your area, which are tied into CitySearch’s Citygrid, where you can earn points. For example, you can earn 1000 points for checking into a certain restaurant. And if you can check-in via Foursquare and Twitter with a photo to verify you are actually at the business directly from the app. You can search for venues by subject and even access reviews and location and hours information from the app. Each 1000 points is worth 1 cent and consumers can cash in the points they accumulate for money through WeReward.

Advertisers can sponsor these campaigns for local businesses. For example, Heineken can sponsor a check-in reward a local bar. for Businesses can utilize WeReward’s self service platform to see the demographics of customer purchases. In terms of monetization, there are other possibilities with monetizing through tasks, such as application downloads, and offers.

The platform also lets businesses see who their top customers are, how many customers they want to pay per month, what their experience was and how often they purchase. WeReward seems like a unique way to provide an inventive for users to check-in; and it is also a marketing tool for businesses. In fact, Domino’s Pizza has already signed in as a partners. But it also seems like something that Foursquare or Gowalla could easily implement from their own platform.

Q&A
JH: I think you are trying to solve a problem with trying mobile and businesses to the cash register. The more charts and graphs you have the more complicated it becomes.
DG: We already have 35,000 advertisers in our network. The way we built the system it’s not just local bar x has to participate.
DG: Everyone is trying to use social media, think it’s an opportunity for interaction for agencies.
RS: I wish you came at this less from the marketing angle and more from foodspotting angle. This is too marketing focused for me.
DG: I hope we can become user-focused in partnership with brands.

Q&A Round 2
RS: Tell me about how much the user gets paid?
DG: That depends on advertiser-it’s based on what they want to pay.
RS: Is there also a way to track the ROI?
DG: We’ve talked about how we want to tier the system-