Mobile Payments Miss The Mark; Picking Up Chicks Is The Ideal Application

from the no-need-to-make-eye-contact dept

Thu, Sep 7th 2006 8:03am — Joseph Weisenthal

There's been a lot of interest in developing new payment systems, many of them focusing on hot spaces, like mobile or social (settling debts between friends). But money is just one form of currency used among friends. In social settings, debts are often settled by buying a friend something like a beer; this is particularly so with respect to informal debts, like returning a favor. In Australia, one company is partnering with bars and clubs so that you can send someone a drink via SMS. Upon receipt of the message, the user can take the code up to the bar and redeem the drink. It's probably pointless to use the service if you're actually at the bar with your friend, but if you can't make a friend's birthday party, and still want to do something nice, it could come in handy. Of course the real killer use of this service would be if you could SMS a drink to someone else at the bar, without knowing their number. For guys who are too shy to go up to a girl and buy her a drink directly, the mobile intermediary could be just the ticket.

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22 Comments

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Guard, 7 Sep 2006 @ 8:13am

Why does it seem like a woman might find getting a drink-text a little... dorky. Plus its not like telling the bartender to get her a drink... You're making her get up, go through the hassle of getting the code taken care of, and after all that try to figure out who the hell sent it to her.
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achacha, 7 Sep 2006 @ 8:35am

"Doomed to failure" is the first thing that comes to mind. It's a hassle and when you are out drinking you are not going to waste time trying to figure out some drink code and then looks for the weirdo who can't even talk to you.
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mmrtnt (profile), 7 Sep 2006 @ 8:48am

Pittsburgh
Not really related, but there used to be a restaurant in Pittsburgh called Alexander Graham Bell's. Each table and all along the bar there were rotary-dial phones along with a map of the bar and the numbers of all the phones. You could call any of the other tables and just about anyone at the bar.

MjM
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2006 @ 9:14am

And how do you identify the lady to whom you would like to send a drink? Ask her for her phone number?
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wolff000, 7 Sep 2006 @ 9:26am

Ummm
i could see this as a great way to buy a friend a drink if you can't make it out as stated in the article. What I don't see is how anyone could use this to pick up a girl. First off all the women I know would for one be wierded out by someone they don't know sending them a text message for a free drink since they didn't give them thier #. Secondly it would be impossible to send the message without having the #. I like this article but the pick up reference is completely unrelated and next to impossible to do with this service.
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Lay Person, 7 Sep 2006 @ 9:33am

Lame...
Lame idea.

This is what a drunk with computer knowledge can accomplish.
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Sanguine Dream, 7 Sep 2006 @ 9:40am

So..
what happens when two people get together and spoof a bunch of these false messages for free drinks? The algorithm of the drink code may take a while to break but if this ever came out to the public we all know that someone somewhere would immediately get to cracking it.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2006 @ 9:41am

well, the girl could wear a shirt with her "txt" number on it....and just use it for drinks....

but i doubt that'll happen.

i do like the "virtual" idea. i know my friend's gonna turn 21 in a few days, and i won't be able to make it to his party, so i'd like to send him a drink...
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Ryan, 7 Sep 2006 @ 9:52am

spoof?
nah, it's very possible to make this unspoofable..

say you make the "code" the process number of the computer process that approved the credit card. every little program the computer runs has a process number.. assuming you look it up to make sure it paid before giving the drink... you might be able to guess one, sometime... but with all the processes a normal computer runs, you'd never be able to reliably spoof it.
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ForkBoySpam, 7 Sep 2006 @ 9:55am

Awesome
I think this is a great idea...I could also see it working for lapdances. I know I wouldn't turn away a free SMS dance.
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Jason, 7 Sep 2006 @ 9:56am

YouGotBeer.com
Actually, you can buy your friend a beer online at YouGotBeer.com for their 21st birthday. You can even schedule the notification for their birthday and they get to pick where to go to have it (US only). Also, along the lines of buying a girl a drink...at YouGotBeer.com you can create an html link to post on your blog or myspace profile so people can buy you a beer online without knowing your e-mail address. The girl would get your e-mail address in the notification e-mail so it could be a great ice-breaker to start a dialog online before meeting for a beer offline.
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Anonymous, 7 Sep 2006 @ 9:58am

SMS Ordering
I actually work for a compnay that we are pilotting this type of system tomorrow at a concert. It is pretty interesting. A person texts for their food and a waitress brings it over
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chris (profile), 7 Sep 2006 @ 10:43am

something like this in england
i thought i read a thing about cabs using SMS to let you know that they are there to pick you up, so you don't have to wait outside and the cabbie doesn't need to come inside.
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SkepticBlue, 7 Sep 2006 @ 10:59am

Easy to send a drink...
This can easily be adapted to "send" a drink -- if tables are id'ed, just allow a few spaces for text for the id (or more) and have a bar phone set up for orders.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2006 @ 11:18am

Does
anyone really think this will work?

Do women actually go for guys who are so pussiefied that they cant even walk up to them and strike up a conversation? WTF?
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OldFashioned?, 7 Sep 2006 @ 11:45am

IamNotThatOld
What happened to the good old days of learning how to accept rejection? Or, meeting people by actually talking to them? If we can reduce enough social skills out of society... we can completely become dependant on technology (not that we are far from that right now). Maybe we need to get these developers to go out and have a drink and meet people some time.
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Lay Person, 7 Sep 2006 @ 12:45pm

Again...
Just in case anyone missed my last post.

This is a lame idea.

What we have here is a thirsty drunk with low self esteem and almost out of money.

He has plenty of time and ideas about how to satisfy all his shortcomings.
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Russ, 7 Sep 2006 @ 1:26pm

Let's not forget the original point. A friend helps you more, you buy him some beer, you give a friend a lift, he gets your lunch for you. This is just one way to make it easier to do so, especially if the one being "paid back" isn't always handy, or you have a different schedule. The whole buying a girl you don't know a drink is just a brainstorming idea. I think the idea is good, but wouldn't work in real life, for most of the reason's others have already said; but let's not beat the idea up just because it was tossed out there for us.
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another fool, 7 Sep 2006 @ 3:49pm

Re: something like this in england
we have this service in australia ... it rocks ! ..
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alco, 8 Sep 2006 @ 8:52am

Toothing
don't have a clear picture of how it could work, but should be nice coupled with toothing
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MeMe, 9 Sep 2006 @ 1:28am

I dont get why you would send a drink to an anonymous person? That is just weird and an intrusion of a girls privacy. I think the idea is a friendly thing not a pick up thing.
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Nimesh, 27 Dec 2016 @ 12:54am

Digital payment will see growth in upcoming time. There is lot of potential and businesses are likely to invest in developing a mobile application or hiring an application development company for long term development but, how secure will be the systems or an application, will they able to compete in the market with these many competitors coming in every day?
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