[April 09, 2012]

Wrapp Starts Asian Social Gifting Expansion in Taiwan

Wrapp, the first social gifting app for giving your Facebook friends free gift cards to top retailers, is coming to Taiwan and other major markets throughout Asia.

Wrapp makes it fun and easy to give, receive and redeem gift cards using mobile devices or the Web, and allows Facebook friends to contribute to the presents.

For merchants, Wrapp is a proven, discount-free customer acquisition and retention platform for conducting performance-based campaigns. With Wrapp, retailers use friend-to-friend marketing to drive highly targeted in-store and on-line sales, and have real-time access to aggregated campaign and customer demographic data.

"Taiwan is Wrapp's beachhead for introducing our unique social gifting service to Asian markets where gift giving is culturally an everyday event," said Bruce Chen, Wrapp's country manager based in Taipei. "Since we don't own ecommerce businesses - and promise to never start one - we can assure Asian retailers a conflict-free, long lasting relationship built on innovation and real value creation."

Wrapp is now available in the U.K., Norway and Sweden, and soon in the U.S., Germany and France. Since mid-November when Wrapp began its commercial introduction some 160,000 people have given their friends more than 1.3 million gift cards that can be redeemed in stores operated by over 50 major retailers.

Every gift card given that is posted on the recipient's Facebook timeline or wall is seen by approximately 80 percent of their friends. Participating merchants report that sales average at least four to six times the value of a free gift card offered on Wrapp.

"All social gifting services are not created equal," said Wrapp CEO Hjalmar Winbladh. "Wrapp's approach and business model is totally different from the copycats that have sprung up since we invented friend-to-friend marketing. Unlike the clones, ur interests are 100 percent aligned with our retail partners, as they should be when you share confidential customer data."

How Wrapp Works

To get started, download the Wrapp mobile app from Apple's App Store or the Android (News - Alert) Market, or use the web app at www.wrapp.com, and connect the Wrapp app to your Facebook account.

Wrapp will immediately start alerting you about friends' birthdays, and all you have to do to celebrate is choose a free or paid gift card offered by one of your friend's favorite brands. The gift you give appears on your friend's Facebook wall, so all of his or her friends can add to the present if they want.

To collect a gift card you click on the link sent to you in email, text message (SMS) or on your Facebook wall and automatically download the Wrapp app. When you're ready to use a gift card, you select the Wallet tab in the app, and the gift card you want to redeem. Then, press the Redeem button, and present the gift card and its barcode displayed on the phone's screen to the cashier, who will scan the barcode and complete the transaction.

"One of the cool things about Wrapp is the gift cards you get are kept in your phone, so they're always in your pocket when you're ready to pick out something you really want," said Chen. "And because we work with Facebook, Wrapp users anywhere in the world will be able to give gifts of real value to their friends and family living in Taiwan."

Wrapp was started last year by Wrapp's CEO, Hjalmar Winbladh, and a small team of entrepreneurs in Sweden, including Andreas Ehn, Spotify's (News - Alert) first chief technology officer; Magnus Hult, who played a key role in building Spotify's original technology and platform; Aage Reerslev, founder of mobile browser maker Squace; Leo Giertz, founder of Barefoot Hackers, one of Sweden's most acclaimed iPhone (News - Alert) development shops; Fabian Mansson, former CEO of H&M and Eddie Bauer, who now serves as Wrapp's chairman; and Carl Fritjofsson, strategy advisor to Groupon.se. Winbladh co-founded Sendit, the first mobile Internet company, where he served as CEO, and took it public in 1997, before being acquired by Microsoft (News - Alert). In 2006 Winbladh co-founded Rebtel, now the world's largest independent mobile VoIP company.

"Wrapp is well funded by our board members Niklas Zennström, co-founder of Skype and CEO of the London-based venture firm Atomico, and Reid Hoffman, co-founder of the social network LinkedIn (News - Alert) and partner at Greylock Ventures, and we are making significant investment here to insure success for Taiwanese retailers," said Winbladh.

About Wrapp

Wrapp is a social gifting service for celebrating friends' occasions with free and paid gifts from attractive brands. Wrapp allows friends to contribute to gifts, and makes it fun and easy to give, receive and redeem using mobile devices and the web. Founded in the first half of 2011 by a group of serial entrepreneurs, Wrapp is based in Stockholm, with offices in the U.K., U.S., Germany, France and Taiwan. Celebrate with friends every day at www.wrapp.com.

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