Wanted: New Friend, Must Have Bluetooth

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: June 24, 2004 3:27:57 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Wanted: New Friend, Must Have Bluetooth
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

Wanted: New Friend, Must Have Bluetooth
 Wed Jun 23, 2004 12:31 PM ET
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml? 
type=technologyNews&storyID=5495824&src=rss/ 
technologyNews&section=news>

 SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Student Gracinia Lim has made new friends thanks  
to mobile phone software that alerts her to compatible people nearby.

 She is an early customer of a service in Singapore called BEDD that  
uses Bluetooth wireless communications to scan strangers' phones for  
their personal profiles.

 The application joins a swelling number of Internet and mobile phone  
based services that offer to widen people's social networks.

 Users download the BEDD software into a compatible phone, complete a  
short profile of themselves and include a description of who they want  
to befriend, or an item they want to buy or sell.

 The software automatically searches for and exchanges profiles with  
other phones that come within a 20-meter (65 ft) radius. Matched users  
are given each other's contact details.

 "I've become close with people that I've never known before, built up  
a close clique of friends whom I chill out with, sleep over at their  
homes and go for late suppers with," said Lim, 19.

 The software, created by futures trader Stephen Carlton and Swedish  
engineer Olle Bliding about three years ago, was launched last month in  
Singapore and will be rolled out in most of Asia by year-end. It costs  
S$0.98 ($0.571) for 30 days of unlimited use.

 BEDD differs from rival services in that it relies on phone-to-phone  
transmission, running on the short-range Bluetooth technology.

 Other mobile-based dating services in Asia -- such as Singapore  
Telecommunications Ltd's MyCupid and Bharti Airtel of India's  
TrackUrMate -- exchange information through a central database. Carlton  
said BEDD has over 1,000 users in the city state and hosts  
get-togethers in coffee bars where people let their phones make their  
introductions. As the number of customers grows, the chances of meeting  
a compatible person at random in the street or on a bus will grow.

 "People spend tons of money at dating and matchmaking agencies or on  
personal ads -- for a small amount of money, this software could help  
change their lives," Carlton said.


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