On March 16th 2011, Faithless a popular British band held a concert with an an event using NFC technology to integrate offline relationship with online SNS Facebook. This event was planned by Getyoo, the company providing this connectivity via NFC.
At the event the company gave a specially-made NFC cards to participants and asked them to tag the card to a NFC reader. For example, when taking a picture in the photo booth that has a NFC reader installed inside, pictures taken from the photo booth are automatically posted to Facebook profile. This event functions on a basic stage but it is significant in a way that NFC could be used for connection between people.
As many paople already know, connectivity between offline and mobile is one of the most attractive points of NFC technology. Though payment and commerce are highlighted as main beneficiaries, SNS is not considered as an inmportant area. But SNS is also one of the potential areas.
By far, SNS has provided an online activity and relationship. It can upload pictures or posts online. But the fatigue from this routinely repeated behavior keeps people from using SNS more eagerly. And the online service is so inclined to a virtual activity that it hardly reflects the user’s real lifestyle. So several SNS providers have adopted the concept of ‘Check-in’. But this useful method is oriented to location-related activities. The issue of interaction between friends is not solved under this SNS environment.
NFC may be a good solution for integrating offline activities and relationships with online services. Like Bump, the application which can transfer information to each other by bumping phones, NFC enables users to get offline data or build relationships by tagging a NFC phone.
For now, it is difficult to know the exact service feature of NFC in the SNS area. But in many businesses, attempts such as Getyoo’s are activated worldwide. And it will create a new trend as ‘Check-in’ did.