In what looks like a very good fit, location-based service WorkSnug is partnering with Skype to help mobile workers locate Skype Access-supported WiFi locations in coffee shops using its augmented reality app for iPhone.
Skype Access lets users pay for WiFi on a per-minute basis using their Skype credentials and credit at 200,000 hotspots, provided by the likes of BT Openzone, Boingo, and Barnes & Noble. While WorkSnug’s iPhone app and service helps mobile workers locate potential working spaces – coffee shops, libraries, formal co-working spaces etc. – and provides ratings on such things as Internet connectivity, “community feel”, power sockets, and, more to the point, the quality of coffee.
Its official reviewers – called ambassadors – operate in various cities (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham, Brighton, Brussels, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Leiden, London, Madrid, Manchester, New York, Oslo, Paris, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Stockholm and The Hague), although back in April WorkSnug ‘opened up’ to enable users to add workspaces.
The new Skype tie-in, to go live in November, is being described as a “co-marketing agreement” and should give WorkSnug much needed exposure. It will see the WorkSnug app being listed as the preferred location tool on the relevant pages at Skype.com and further afield. The two companies will also launch a joint marketing campaign to encourage users to review Skype Access locations through WorkSnug, with those that do receiving Skype Credit. And since Skype Access locations are more prevalent in the US, the partnership could ultimately help the UK startup bag more mind share across the pond. Currently, around 70% of WorkSnug’s users are in Europe, with 25% in US and 5% spread across other parts of the world.