Read the rest of this entry »

New iPhone App Version Lets Users Send ‘Where are you?’ Notifications to Friends, Takes Meeting Up Beyond Text Messages

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – August 9, 2010 – Loopt (www.loopt.com), the leading location-based social mapping service, today announced a new version of its popular iPhone application. The new version of Loopt expands the product’s Friend features, with new capabilities to connect and meet up with friends around town.

Loopt’s ability to make real world connections between existing friends is the most popular feature in the application. The Ping feature takes this one step further, allowing users to find and meet up with their friends in one click. Users can access the feature from the Home Grid, the application’s main page, and can Ping friends individually from the Friends or Map tabs.

The feature lets you start a real-time location sharing session by pushing a notification to your friends that you want to know where they are. Friends then open up the Loopt app, which will update their location and send a “pong” back. The user’s map will light up with friends’ locations and updates. In less than a minute, you find out where your closest friends are, and you can arrange to get together.

“The ability to communicate with your friends specifically about their location is really important,” said Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt. “Loopt friends tend to be a closer, more intimate group than most have on Facebook or Twitter, mostly people you’d hang out with regularly. This feature shows how location sharing can elevate our everyday mobile interactions.”

Controls:

The feature will only send messages to those who don’t have a recent location in Loopt. It’s voluntary for the friend to respond with their location; nothing is shared unless they open Loopt to “pong” back. Additionally, the feature won’t send messages to anyone who has turned Ping alerts off, or who has chosen not to share their location.

Loopt also added the following features today:

• Background Location settings on the Home Grid – Responding to the popularity of this feature, launched on the iPhone on June 24, the Background Location switch is moving to the Home Grid, the main screen on Loopt. With Background Location settings activated, users are able to receive alerts when friends are nearby (you can select which friends to share with and for how much time), even if Loopt isn’t running in the foreground. You can receive those updates via push notifications. 72 percent of Loopt users share background location with some or all of their friends.
• Advanced search/filter functionality from the map – This feature will allow users to “filter by location” (such as restaurants, bars, coffee shops, family oriented locations) when searching on the Loopt map.

Loopt v3.1 improves the user experience on the app that more than 4 million users on more than 100 different mobile devices in the United States use to find location-based content and make connections between friends. The free iPhone app also runs on the iPod Touch and is available through the Apple App Store and at www.loopt.com/iphone or www.loopt.com/ipod.

About Loopt

Loopt is the leading location-based mobile social mapping company. Loopt produces a suite of mobile applications including Loopt, Loopt Pulse for iPad, and Loopt Mix, to allow users to discover the world around them. Loopt products use location on mobile phones, iPad and iPod touch devices to help their users find and enjoy the friends, places, and events around them right now. The Loopt services have more than 4 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. Loopt is available on over 100 phones, including iPhone. (See www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.) Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls. Find Loopt on twitter.com/loopt and facebook.com/loopt

Contact:
Sharon Howell
Loopt, Inc.
press@loopt.com
650.230.6069

New Rewards From Paul Frank and Element Now Available via Loopt’s Unique Mobile Rewards Game

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA– July 21, 2010 –  Loopt (www.loopt.com), the leading location-based social mapping service, today announced that it has added new real rewards to the company’s popular mobile game, Loopt Star, from top brands, Paul Frank and Element. The new deals and incentives include store discounts available to consumers when they visit specified locations.

Loopt Star allows users to play with friends and gain Achievements (virtual bragging rights), coupons and other rewards for checking into specific locations. Loopt Star also lets users optionally share their location with friends on Loopt Star or through Facebook.

“With Loopt Star, everyone wins. Consumers get real rewards for playing a fun game with friends, while brands can effectively drive traffic and purchases at stores in a completely customized way that best fits their individual needs,” said Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of Loopt. “The rewards we’ve added today will give consumers more opportunities to interact with their favorite brands, and we’re excited to see such a strong response.”

New Deals Available to Consumers

• Paul Frank — Check into any participating Paul Frank store and get an instant 20 percent discount off your purchase. Users can also win the Paul Frank Super Fan Achievement. Participating stores are in Chicago; Costa Mesa, Calif. (South Coast Plaza); Las Vegas (Fashion Show Mall); Los Angeles; New York; and San Francisco.
• Element — Check into the Element Times Square store in New York and receive an Element Eco-Water Bottle plus a 10 percent discount off any purchase of $75 or more. Users can also win the Element Fan Achievement.

Existing real rewards available include free music from Loopt Star, with songs from cool artists like Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Mos Def and others, when checking into any participating bar in the United States and receiving the Loopt Star “Discover The Music Around You” Reward.

Brands can use Loopt Star to create fun, engaging campaigns that deliver foot traffic, connect with customers, build a strong community and increase their Facebook fan base. Loopt is working directly with top brands to customize all aspects of Loopt Star, from the activity needed to earn the reward, to the type of virtual or real-world reward earned.

Campaigns and Achievements are continually becoming available and can be found on the Loopt blog at http://blog.loopt.com. For more information about Loopt Star, go to www.looptstar.com.

About Loopt
Loopt is the leading location-based mobile social mapping company. Loopt produces a suite of mobile applications including Loopt, Loopt Pulse for iPad, and Loopt Mix, to allow users to discover the world around them. Loopt products use location on mobile phones, iPad and iPod touch devices to help their users find and enjoy the friends, places, and events around them right now. The Loopt services have more than 4 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. Loopt is available on over 100 phones, including iPhone. (See www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.) Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.

About Paul Frank Industries
From its modest beginnings as a Lo-Fi accessories company in a SoCal beach town garage, Paul Frank Industries has steadily grown into a globally recognized, iconic brand. Creating relationships through exciting collaborations and strategic licensing partnerships, today Paul Frank merchandise includes apparel and accessories for all ages, books, stationery, eyewear, home décor, bicycles and more. Paul Frank Industries features artistic and entertaining designs inspired by their love of avant-garde, modern influences and everyday objects. Paul Frank products are available at world renowned retailers including Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Fred Segal, Colette, Selfridges, Beams and flagship Paul Frank store locations. To see what’s new and exciting at Paul Frank Industries, visit paulfrank.com http://www.Paulfrank.com.

About Element
In 1992 the Element seed was planted. Our goal was simple, to be the best we could be, in the most honest and ethical way possible. We joined together to elevate what we all truly believe in. Today, we continue to create the art, direction and message on a constant path to bring progress to skateboarding. We are more than a business; we are a family, all on the same journey for the growth with-in ourselves, Element and all that surrounds us.

Go Places, Find Friends, Get Stuff — Loopt Star Brings Rewards from Major Retailers and Organizations to Mobile Consumers via Unique Mobile Rewards Game

Mountain View, CA., – June 1st, 2010 – Loopt (www.loopt.com), the leading location-based social mapping service, today launched a first-of-its-kind mobile rewards game called Loopt Star that lets consumers check in to compete with friends and win real-world rewards from retailers and organizations.

With the new Loopt Star, users play with friends and gain Achievements, coupons, and other brand-specified rewards for checking into specific locations. Each participating organization can offer a unique reward for fulfilling specific actions such as: check in a certain number of times, or with a specified number of Facebook friends. Loopt Star also lets users optionally share their location with friends.

Loopt Star offers retailers a virtual loyalty card, allowing them to connect directly with their customers when they’re out and about, driving foot traffic and encouraging repeat visits. It offers retailers and businesses a unique “cost per visit” business model.

“Hyper-local advertising should be about much more than simply clicking on a banner ad—it should be about connecting with brands and getting rewarded for loyalty. Brands want to turn their existing customers into better ones,” said Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of Loopt. “Loopt Star enables brands to create customized campaigns that reach their customers in a completely targeted, interactive way that rewards the behaviors they want.”

In addition to brand-specific customized rewards, Loopt Star will also allow the person with the most check-ins at a specific place to become the “Boss” of that location. Leaderboards allow users to compete with their Facebook friends to for the most check in points. Dozens of hidden Achievements will also be available to Loopt Star game players at launch — to be won when certain check-in actions are performed.

Loopt Star adds a key social component by being the first mobile location App based purely on Facebook Connect. Users can share their current location in real-time with all of their friends on Facebook, and alert friends via their Facebook News Feed about special offers they see on Loopt Star that are available to anyone. With its close integration into Facebook, Loopt Star allows Facebook friends stay up to date on where friends are and what they’re doing.

Customizable Rewards for Brands

Brands can use Loopt Star to create fun, engaging campaigns that deliver foot traffic, connect with customers, build a strong community and increase their Facebook fan base. Customized brand campaigns can specify:

• The qualifying retail locations
• The qualifying time of day, day of week, or time span
• The qualifying number of check in times
• Whether they need to check in with friends, and the number of friends
• Which rewards are available to friends through the Facebook newsfeed (for example, “the next person to check into Joe’s Restaurant today gets free dessert” can appear on the newsfeed to all Facebook friends.)
• Specific and virtual rewards, such as Achievements, special titles, discount coupons, etc. Special titles allow retailers to offer a custom “Boss” title and graphic to the person who checks in the most at an individual location

Loopt is working directly with top brands to customize all aspects of Loopt Star, from the activity needed to earn the reward, to the type of virtual or real-world reward earned.

For example, Loopt Star users can check into any bar in the United States with two Facebook friends, and everyone instantly earns five free songs from leading popular music recording artists. (To see the songs available to win, go to http://www.amplified.com/loopt.)

Campaigns available at launch include can be found on the Loopt blog at http://blog.loopt.com, and also inside the App itself, listed in “Rewards Nearby” on the Check In screen. Loopt Star users can expect new campaigns and Achievements to come online continuously.

Loopt Star is available starting today free for iPhone and iPod Touch through the App Store or www.itunes.com/app/looptstar. For more information about Star, go to www.looptstar.com.

About Loopt
Loopt is the leading location-based mobile social mapping company. Loopt produces a suite of mobile applications including Loopt, Loopt Pulse for iPad, and Loopt Mix, to allow users to discover the world around them. Loopt products use location on mobile phones, iPad and iPod touch devices to help their users find and enjoy the friends, places, and events around them right now. The Loopt services have more than 3 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. Loopt is available on over 100 phones, including iPhone. (See www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.) Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.

Contact:
Alice Lankester
Loopt, Inc.
press@loopt.com
650.230.6064

Paul Loeffler
On behalf of Loopt, Inc.
loopt@sutherlandgold.com
510.593.6765

New Partners SonicLiving, Zvents and Metromix; Loopt Offers Guide to Music,
Events Around You at SXSW

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – March 10, 2010 – Loopt, (www.loopt.com), the groundbreaking location-based mobile social networking service, today announced a new version of its popular iPhone application. The new version of Loopt expands the product’s Pulse feature to include tens of thousands of local events, and allow check-in to events, public Tips, and the ability to RSVP to events posted on Facebook.

Users simply open Loopt and content touting nearby hot restaurants, music venues and show times, and more appears effortlessly based on their location. For some music events, users can actually hear a sample of the band playing at a certain venue right within Loopt.

This new version of Loopt also features a full guide to the music, events and celebrations at this month’s SXSW in Austin. Loopt users can check-in at certain SXSW venues for the opportunity to win giveaways and other special offers.

Loopt now features music and entertainment content from new partners SonicLiving, Zvents and Metromix – expanding upon Loopt’s existing suite of leading content providers – including Zagat, CitySearch, Microsoft’s Bing and TastingTable. The partnerships provide Loopt users access to the most comprehensive list of local parties, hot restaurants, concerts and more. Additionally, these new features further strengthen Loopt’s position as the go-to place on a mobile device for discovering what’s happening and where to go on a hyper-local level.

“Locally-relevant content is crucial for helping people to truly discover the world around them,” said Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt. “By adding Events to our Loopt Pulse, our users can now not only find great places to eat and drink, but also discover music, movies, dance, comedy and theater events going on in their neighborhood right now.”

In addition to helping users discover even more local content, Loopt v2.2 also integrates more fully into the user’s social map with expanded sharing through Facebook and Twitter, improves functionality around checking-in and sharing locations, and adds a host of searching options to more easily find places and events.

New Loopt Content Partners

• SonicLiving (www.sonicliving.com): is connecting over 50 million music fans to the concerts their favorite bands play. Services that use the SonicLiving Platform provide users with access to a world of concerts, music samples, tickets and the ability to connect with other show-going fans.
• Zvents (www.zvents.com): is the leading producer of entertainment guides online. Zvents makes it easy for people everywhere to discover, plan and share things to do in their local areas, with millions of live events and powerful search, browse, and discovery tools. Zvents powers a network of more than 285 media partners – including leading local brands like SFGate, the New Your Daily News and Boston.com, as well as major national sites and brands including MSN, Bing, NBC and AT&T.
• Metromix (www.metromix.com): is a one-stop local entertainment guide on where to go and what to do, from the hottest restaurants and bars to the latest in music, movies and entertainment. In more than 60 cities, Metromix is where users go to plan their night out and where they return the next day to post photos and reviews.

“We are excited to work with Loopt to connect music fans with the shows happening around them,” said Gabe Benveniste, CEO of SonicLiving, the Internet’s leading concert discovery service. “Our knowledge of concerts across the country adds value to location-based services beyond simply letting users find events and check-in. By having Loopt on the SonicLiving Platform, we’re bringing Loopt users relevant concert listings, music samples and universal RSVPs – setting a new standard for how fans connect to events through social media.”

Loopt v2.2 increases functionality and improves the user experience on the app that more than 3 million users on more than 100 mobile devices in the United States use to find location-based content and make connections between friends. The free iPhone app also runs on the iPod Touch and is available through the Apple App Store and at www.loopt.com/iphone or www.loopt.com/ipod.

About Loopt

Loopt is the leading location-based social mapping service that allows individuals to use their location to discover the world around them – enabling them to find and enjoy the friends, places, and events that mean the most right here and now using their mobile phones. Users can also check in to locations, share location updates, tips, photos and comments with friends and share across online social networks, communities and blogs.

The Loopt service has more than 3 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. The service is available on over 100 phones, including the iPhone, BlackBerry devices and Android. (See www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.) The company is located in Silicon-Valley and backed by leading venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates.

Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.

Contact:
Alice Lankester
Loopt, Inc.
press@loopt.com
650.230.6064

Paul Loeffler
On behalf of Loopt, Inc.
loopt@sutherlandgold.com
510.593.6765

About Metromix

Metromix is a national network of local entertainment Web sites targeting 21- to 34-year-olds with information on where to go and what to do. Metromix was formed through a joint venture between Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) and Tribune Company, two of the country’s largest media companies with newspapers, TV stations and Web sites in the nation’s top markets. Metromix recently expanded into 27 new cities extending its reach to more than 50 top U.S. markets. Metromix has received a number of awards, including an EPpy Award for Best Entertainment Site and the Digital Edge Award for Best Advertising Program. The Metromix network currently attracts 4 million monthly unique visitors and averages 61 million monthly page views with an average of 15 pages viewed per visit*.
* Omniture SiteCatalyst, Q4 2009 (average)

Contact:
Amber Tillett
National Marketing Manager
312.784.0357
atillett@metromix.com

About Zvents

Zvents is the leading producer of entertainment guides online, helping more than 8 million monthly users find fun and interesting things to do in their local area and thousands of event advertisers increase attendance at their events. Our network of locally branded entertainment guides reaches the largest audience of people actively looking for things to do. More than 15,000 advertisers work with Zvents every month to promote a wide range of local events and activities, including live music, performing arts, sporting events and community activities.

Contact:
press@zvents.com

About SonicLiving

SonicLiving, www.sonicliving.com, is the Internet’s leading concert discovery platform, connecting over 50 million music fans online and in-person through communities created around live shows of their favorite bands. The platform seamlessly integrates with iTunes, Pandora, Facebook, Last.fm, Lala and Blip.fm so fans can track bands, receive automatic concert alerts and purchase tickets to shows when they are announced.

Contact:
Gabe Benveniste
gabe@sonicliving.com

Loopt is the First Mobile Service to Get Access to TastingTable.com’s Recommendations for Dining and Drinking in Leading U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Mountain View, CA ” Feb. 17, 2010 ” Loopt (www.loopt.com), the groundbreaking location-based mobile social networking service, today announced it has partnered with Tasting Table (http://tastingtable.com), the free, daily epicurean email about restaurants, bars, wine stores and cookshops in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington D.C. This strategic partnership continues to expand Loopt’s portfolio of best-of-breed content providers, including Zagat, CitySearch, Bing and more, so that users can quickly and easily access hyper-local information that provides real value from their mobile phone.

Loopt is the first mobile service to provide access to the Tasting Table’s dining and drinking recommendations in a format beyond the publication’s daily emails. Loopt users can find Tasting Table-approved restaurants and bars in the Loopt Pulse on Loopt’s free mobile application. Food and drink recommendations include contact details, directions, menus, editorial insights, special offers, and links to recent reviews. Loopt users can check into the restaurant and also leave Tips for other Loopt users.

Our partnership with Tasting Table allows Loopt users to access daily updates to Tasting Table editorial in our most popular cities ” not only buzz-worthy new restaurants, but also forgotten classics and under-the-radar bars.” said Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt. We want to provide our users the very best choices of content, so they can make informed decisions about where to go!

Tasting Table is unique in its approach to editorial coverage: every recommendation is based on first-hand research–not blog posts or press releases–from the publication’s trusted team of local editors who eat and live in the cities they cover. Tasting Table’s restaurants cover the following metropolitan areas: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

We are excited to partner with Loopt to provide a useful way to access our food & drink recommendations using Loopt’s terrific location-based application, said Geoff Bartakovics, CEO of Tasting Table. Our daily email subscribers receive one new great restaurant or bar idea from us daily, but we know that when you’re standing on a corner looking for a great place to enjoy an impromptu lunch with a friend, you need a better way to find our recommendations than an inbox search allows”

With more than 3 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. carrier, Loopt is the leading location-based social networking service. Loopt also has existing content partnerships with Bing, CitySearch and Zagat to provide the broadest coverage of restaurant and points of interest of any location based service.

People can download Loopt for free from the Apple iTunes store, or directly from http://www.loopt.com. Loopt runs on over 100 phones, including the iPhone, Blackberry devices and Android. See http://www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.

About Loopt

“Loopt is the leading location-based social mapping service that allows individuals to use their location to discover the world around them” enabling them to find and enjoy the friends, places, and events that mean the most right here and now using their mobile phones. Users can also check in to locations, share location updates, tips, photos and comments with friends and share across online social networks, communities and blogs.

The Loopt service has more than 3 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. The service is available on over 100 phones, including the iPhone, Blackberry devices and Android. (See http://www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.) The company is located in Silicon-Valley and backed by leading venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates.

Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.

For more information, please visit www.loopt.com.

About Tasting Table

Tasting Table is the free daily epicurean email about restaurants, bars, wine stores and cookshops in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington D.C. Each day we serve our readers a single recommendation that we have tested, tasted, sipped or supped. Our content is written by our team of local editors who live and eat in the cities they cover. Tasting Table launched in October, 2008 in New York city with just 50 subscribers and today boasts five daily editions reaching hundreds of thousands of adventurous eaters. A free subscription can be activated at http://tastingtable.com

For more information, please visit www.tastingtable.com.

Media Contact:

Alice Lankester
Loopt, Inc.
Press@loopt.com
650.230.6064

Paul Loeffler
On Behalf of Loopt, Inc.
Loopt@sutherlandgold.com
510.593.6765

Kai Mathey
On behalf of TastingTable.com
press@tastingtable.com
347.994.8623

Loopt Users Get Coupons and Specials For Retail and Service Outlets Right Around the Corner in New Offering Powered by Mobile Spinach

Mountain View, CA ” Feb. 8, 2010 “ Loopt (www.loopt.com), the groundbreaking location-based mobile social networking service, today announced it has integrated local advertising that lets mobile consumers tap into offers, coupons and discounts with local neighborhood retailers. This new set of local advertising offers on Loopt is powered by Mobile Spinach, who has built a database of completely unique, relevant and hyper-targeted local offers not available through any other service provider.

For example, Blowfish Sushi, a Sushi restaurant in San Francisco, offers any signature roll for free which typically costs $10-$15 per roll. Or Palio DâAsti, an Italian Restaurant in San Francisco’s Financial District offers an exclusive 30% off dinner this week only! Loopt users can simply show their phone message at the restaurant to receive these discounts. These and other offers will be available to all users in San Francisco. Additional major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles and New York will be added during the coming months.

Loopt users can now get offers and discounts everyday on the items and events they are interested in and be able to redeem these discounts right from the handset, said Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt. We love adding fun to the Loopt experience, especially when it brings real value to our users by allowing them to save money on everyday things they want and need.

Loopt users are informed about offers from local merchants in their immediate neighborhood, and are provided directions and contact details for the retailer. Offers can be redeemed directly from the phone, or can be sent by SMS and Email.

We like to say that, Mobile Spinach is good for you and that’s because we can really inject some oomph into your entertainment and shopping without you ever having to go online or search the web, said CEO Antonio Vitti. We’re delivering this new shopping power right to the mobile handset.

The service provides local merchants with a simple, cost-effective tool to reach highly targeted audiences while providing consumers with real value through discounts and offers on everyday things they want and need.

With more than 3 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. carrier, Loopt is the leading location-based social networking service. People can download Loopt for free from the Apple iTunes store, or directly from http://www.loopt.com. Loopt runs on over 100 phones, including the iPhone, Blackberry devices and Android. See http://www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.

About Loopt

Loopt is the leading location-based social mapping service that allows individuals to use their location to discover the world around them, enabling them to find and enjoy the friends, places, and events that mean the most right here and now using their mobile phones. Users can also check in to locations, share location updates, tips, photos and comments with friends and share across online social networks, communities and blogs.

The Loopt service has more than 3 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. The service is available on over 100 phones, including the iPhone, Blackberry devices and Android. (See http://www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.) The company is located in Silicon-Valley and backed by leading venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates.

Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.

About Mobile Spinach

Mobile Spinach is a free mobile membership community that shares exclusive local merchant offers, promotions, sales, discounts and deals to its members via text message and email.

Mobile Spinach brings its members exclusive deals on events, restaurants, shopping, spas, travel, music and more.

Mobile Spinach members have power to decide what kind of stuff they would like to receive discounts on and also how often they receive Mobile Spinach Text Alerts. The customer has all the control.

For more information, please visit www.mobilespinach.com

Media Contact:

Alice Lankester
Loopt, Inc.
Press@loopt.com
(650) 230-6064

Paul Loeffler
On Behalf of Loopt, Inc.
Loopt@sutherlandgold.com
510.593.6765

Rich Wright
On behalf of Mobile Spinach, Inc.
rich@mblspn.com
415.710.9111

Loopt is the First Mobile Service to Get Access to TastingTable.com’s Recommendations for Dining and Drinking in Leading U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Mountain View, CA “ Feb. 17, 2010 “ Loopt (www.loopt.com), the groundbreaking location-based mobile social networking service, today announced it has partnered with Tasting Table (http://tastingtable.com), the free, daily epicurean email about restaurants, bars, wine stores and cookshops in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington D.C. This strategic partnership continues to expand Loopt’s portfolio of best-of-breed content providers, including Zagat, CitySearch, Bing and more, so that users can quickly and easily access hyper-local information that provides real value from their mobile phone.

Loopt is the first mobile service to provide access to the Tasting Table’s dining and drinking recommendations in a format beyond the publication’s daily emails. Loopt users can find Tasting Table-approved restaurants and bars in the Loopt Pulse on Loopt’s free mobile application. Food and drink recommendations include contact details, directions, menus, editorial insights, special offers, and links to recent reviews. Loopt users can check into the restaurant and also leave Tips for other Loopt users.

Our partnership with Tasting Table allows Loopt users to access daily updates to Tasting Table editorial in our most popular cities “ not only buzz-worthy new restaurants, but also forgotten classics and under-the-radar bars. said Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt. We want to provide our users the very best choices of content, so they can make informed decisions about where to go!

Tasting Table is unique in its approach to editorial coverage: every recommendation is based on first-hand research–not blog posts or press releases–from the publication’s trusted team of local editors who eat and live in the cities they cover. Tasting Table’s restaurants cover the following metropolitan areas: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

We are excited to partner with Loopt to provide a useful way to access our food & drink recommendations using Loopt’s terrific location-based application, said Geoff Bartakovics, CEO of Tasting Table. Our daily email subscribers receive one new great restaurant or bar idea from us daily, but we know that when you’re standing on a corner looking for a great place to enjoy an impromptu lunch with a friend, you need a better way to find our recommendations than an inbox search allows”

With more than 3 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. carrier, Loopt is the leading location-based social networking service. Loopt also has existing content partnerships with Bing, CitySearch and Zagat to provide the broadest coverage of restaurant and points of interest of any location based service.

People can download Loopt for free from the Apple iTunes store, or directly from http://www.loopt.com. Loopt runs on over 100 phones, including the iPhone, Blackberry devices and Android. See http://www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.

About Loopt

Loopt is the leading location-based social mapping service that allows individuals to use their location to discover the world around them “ enabling them to find and enjoy the friends, places, and events that mean the most right here and now using their mobile phones. Users can also check in to locations, share location updates, tips, photos and comments with friends and share across online social networks, communities and blogs.

The Loopt service has more than 3 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. The service is available on over 100 phones, including the iPhone, Blackberry devices and Android. (See http://www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.) The company is located in Silicon-Valley and backed by leading venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates.

Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.

For more information, please visit www.loopt.com.

About Tasting Table

Tasting Table is the free daily epicurean email about restaurants, bars, wine stores and cookshops in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington D.C. Each day we serve our readers a single recommendation that we have tested, tasted, sipped or supped. Our content is written by our team of local editors who live and eat in the cities they cover. Tasting Table launched in October, 2008 in New York city with just 50 subscribers and today boasts five daily editions reaching hundreds of thousands of adventurous eaters. A free subscription can be activated at http://tastingtable.com

For more information, please visit www.tastingtable.com.

Media Contact:

Alice Lankester
Loopt, Inc.
Press@loopt.com
650.230.6064

Paul Loeffler
On Behalf of Loopt, Inc.
Loopt@sutherlandgold.com
510.593.6765

Kai Mathey
On behalf of TastingTable.com
press@tastingtable.com
347.994.8623

Mountain View, CA – November 3, 2009 “ Loopt will launch a major update designed to connect users to the most relevant places and people nearby for its free application on certain key mobile devices. This brand new version of Loopt enhances users’ ability to discover the world around them “ revealing who’s around, what to do, and where to go.

Loopt introduces Pulse, a new feature that offers dynamically-generated, relevant local content about places and events from some of the best sources on the Web. Pulse offers the power of friends’ recommendations, the Loopt community’s real-time feedback, and information from premium, local content sources to help users find what to do.

Local discovery has never been done very well, which makes it harder than it should be for consumers and local businesses to connect. If you know exactly what you want, then major online search engines are okay. But, if you want to find the best new restaurant to check out, look for local concerts happening tonight to go to with friends, or find a place that’s particularly popular right now, then you’ve probably been underwhelmed.

It’s difficult to get results from lots of different premium, local content sources at once, and it’s always great to receive your friends’ trusted recommendations on the places they like. We think we’ve taken a huge step forward on all of these fronts, said Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt.

Another area that’s never been done really well is delivering relevant local coupons. This delights everyone when done well, and we’re thrilled to bring you special offers when you’re near retailers, restaurants, and many other establishments in this new version of Loopt. You can save these coupons, get directions to or call the establishment, and then redeem the coupon once you’re there. We’ve had a fantastic response to these coupons from our early testers, said Altman.

Loopt is proud to join with NAVTEQ. NAVTEQ LocationPoint Advertising enables Loopt to provide highly targeted and relevant offers and promotions in a mobile environment when and where consumers are making shopping and purchasing decisions. Further, it provides a means for monetization of applications in a manner that actually enhances the user experience.

With NAVTEQ LocationPoint, Loopt users who are looking for nearby friends and a place to meet can view offers from nearby merchants such as coffee shops and restaurants that match their needs. Merchant locations are displayed and merchant services and special offers can be advertised with rich graphical promotions and mobile coupons, as well as engaging calls to action including: Click-to-Call, Click-to-Coupon, and Click-to-Route.

Loopt is also proud to partner with Zagat, the world’s leading provider of consumer-survey based information. Zagat’s quality, trusted information is based on the collective experiences of thousands of avid consumers.

We are excited to offer the Loopt community access to Zagat’s top lists and information about special Zagat events in their area, said Nina S. Zagat, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of Zagat Survey. “It is our mission to provide consumers with Zagat content wherever they are and whenever they need it.”

The new Loopt application also offers updates to its core service, including improved check-in functionality, the ability to rate local places and events, and a feed of the latest activities of friends listed in real-time.

Loopt is currently supported on more than 100 mobile devices across all the major U.S. carriers. Go to http://www.loopt.com to sign up for Loopt.

About Loopt

Loopt, based in Silicon-Valley and backed by leading venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates, has created an interoperable social-mapping service that allows individuals to use their location to discover the world around them “ enabling them to find and enjoy the people, places, and events that mean the most right here and now using their mobile phones. With Loopt, individuals will always know who’s around, what to do, or where to go. Loopt is available across all the major U.S. carriers and supported on over 100 mobile devices. Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.

For more information, please visit http://www.loopt.com.

Loopt®, an interoperable social-mapping and communication service, announced that its service is launching today to consumers through the Android Market, Google’s new mobile application store.

Loopt users can share their location between carrier networks with fellow Loopt users on AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Boost, MetroPCS and T-Mobile. Loopt is currently supported on more than 100 handsets including the iPhone and BlackBerry and is now available on select phones with the Android Market. Android is an open and compressive mobile operating platform developed by an alliance of leading technology and wireless companies including Google Inc., T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and many others.

The Loopt experience in the Android Market offers all the core Loopt features including background location updating which enables users to receive alerts when a friend is nearby. Users can also switch between map modes for a satellite view of their friend map or to monitor traffic delays. Beyond sharing their location and status information with friends via phones, Loopt users can also easily share their information with popular Web services such as Facebook®, MySpace® and Twitter or personal blogs and Web sites.

“From the start, our goal has been to build a ubiquitous interoperable network in which customers don’t have to worry about who has what provider or mobile device,” said Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of Loopt. “This focus is combined with a commitment to delivering compelling consumer location services and effective privacy standards.”

Loopt is available for free in the United States from the Android Market beginning today. For more information about Loopt please visit www.loopt.com.

About Loopt

Loopt, based in Silicon-Valley and backed by leading venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates, has created a truly interoperable and accessible social-mapping service that is available across multiple carrier networks and supported on over 100 mobile devices. Leveraging the latest location technology, Loopt changes the way people connect, share and explore in the real world. Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and easy-to-use privacy controls for subscribers. Loopt works with leading mobile, social networking, and online privacy and security organizations such as The Family Online Safety Institute, Cyber Safe California, ConnectSafely.org, Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee, Progress & Freedom Foundation’s Center for Digital Media Freedom, and the Internet Safety Task Force. Loopt is also TRUSTe certified. For more information, please visit www.loopt.com.

Contacts:

Erica Jostedt
Sutherlandgold Group for Loopt
ej@sutherlandgold.com
415.848.7172