Post by kaima on Mar 31, 2010 6:00:13 GMT -7
New German Phone App for Consumers
Scan Barcodes, Make the World a Better Place
By Christian Teevs
No more poring through the small print on the packet. New barcode-scanning software for mobile phones allows consumers to check what's in the food, whether the product harms the environment and even how the firm treats its staff. The German inventors insist that they're not idealistic do-gooders -- they just want to realize their idea, and make money.
When he first came up with the idea, Benjamin Thym came up against a lot of skepticism. Give up his well paid job as a management consultant? Start a company that makes free software for mobile phones, at the ripe old age of 27?
"My family thought I was crazy," He says and grins. That was back in 2007. His mother only really understood what he was up to a year later, when he was able to show her how his original idea worked, using a mobile phone.
In 2007, together with two friends, the Berlin native launched a start up: barcoo. At first everything was self-financed. Later on they also received a grant from European Union business development funds. Their idea was that consumers should be able to find out more about a product and its maker by scanning the item's bar code with their mobile phone.
The results of the scan would show the price, the ingredients and since this week, whether the manufacturers practice corporate social responsibility -- that is, whether they operate with what is known as the triple bottom line where success is not measured just in terms of finances, but also in terms of how employees are treated and what impact the business has on the environment.
The Traffic Light of Social Responsibility
The software can be downloaded free in the Apple store for iPhone applications, from Google's Android market and on the firm's own Web site. Working together with the WeGreen research project, being run by the Berlin School for Economics and Law, Thym's company bundles together information about a company's rankings, company statements and user-generated ratings. Gathering together information from 18 different studies on social responsibility, the products are rated using a simple traffic light system -- green, orange or red.
However the "sustainability traffic light" is not aimed at hurting certain businesses or branding them as irresponsible. Thym says that It is more about encouraging transparency and about gathering as much information as possible. Which is why it does not worry him that the traffic light system often comes up with contradictory values, showing both negative and positive values, for many companies.
The Traffic Light for Healthy Eating
According to barcoo, more than 500,000 people have downloaded the application, not least because of the traffic light system for groceries that is also integrated into the system. On a mobile phone, the application signals information that consumer advocates and doctors have long wanted to see on food packaging: red, green or orange symbols that indicate, among other things, how much fat, sugar and salt content the item has.
Which is why consumer organization Foodwatch welcomes barcoo, just as much it welcome barcoo's competition Codecheck, which has the same function. "It is becoming clear that the traffic light system is a suitable instrument for the labeling of groceries," says Foodwatch spokesperson Martin Rücker. But the software cannot be the ultimate solution. Thym sees it this way too: "The grocery traffic light belongs on the packaging," he says. "But as long as that isn't happening, one can inform oneself using this software."
Consumer Contradiction Makes for a Market Niche
"With many consumers, there's a huge difference between what they want and what they get," Thym says. "According to surveys, 40 percent consider themselves to be critical consumers but only four percent actually practice this when in the stores." This is the contradiction that gave Thym and his business partner, Tarik Tokic, 31, who came from the price comparison Web site woabi, their market niche.
They don't see themselves as do-gooders or idealists. After studying business informatics, Thym worked as a management consultant for Deloitte and then for the Boston Consulting Group subsidiary, Platinion. Did his former jobs give him a guilty conscience and inspire him to bring this sort of well-intentioned software to market? "It really was not like that," says Thym, who is 29 years old now. "I just always wanted to found a start-up."
Thym and Tokic also hope to earn some money with barcoo, through advertising sales and the few cents commission they get for each scanned product that is then ordered through an online shop.
Scan Barcodes, Make the World a Better Place
By Christian Teevs
No more poring through the small print on the packet. New barcode-scanning software for mobile phones allows consumers to check what's in the food, whether the product harms the environment and even how the firm treats its staff. The German inventors insist that they're not idealistic do-gooders -- they just want to realize their idea, and make money.
When he first came up with the idea, Benjamin Thym came up against a lot of skepticism. Give up his well paid job as a management consultant? Start a company that makes free software for mobile phones, at the ripe old age of 27?
"My family thought I was crazy," He says and grins. That was back in 2007. His mother only really understood what he was up to a year later, when he was able to show her how his original idea worked, using a mobile phone.
In 2007, together with two friends, the Berlin native launched a start up: barcoo. At first everything was self-financed. Later on they also received a grant from European Union business development funds. Their idea was that consumers should be able to find out more about a product and its maker by scanning the item's bar code with their mobile phone.
The results of the scan would show the price, the ingredients and since this week, whether the manufacturers practice corporate social responsibility -- that is, whether they operate with what is known as the triple bottom line where success is not measured just in terms of finances, but also in terms of how employees are treated and what impact the business has on the environment.
The Traffic Light of Social Responsibility
The software can be downloaded free in the Apple store for iPhone applications, from Google's Android market and on the firm's own Web site. Working together with the WeGreen research project, being run by the Berlin School for Economics and Law, Thym's company bundles together information about a company's rankings, company statements and user-generated ratings. Gathering together information from 18 different studies on social responsibility, the products are rated using a simple traffic light system -- green, orange or red.
However the "sustainability traffic light" is not aimed at hurting certain businesses or branding them as irresponsible. Thym says that It is more about encouraging transparency and about gathering as much information as possible. Which is why it does not worry him that the traffic light system often comes up with contradictory values, showing both negative and positive values, for many companies.
The Traffic Light for Healthy Eating
According to barcoo, more than 500,000 people have downloaded the application, not least because of the traffic light system for groceries that is also integrated into the system. On a mobile phone, the application signals information that consumer advocates and doctors have long wanted to see on food packaging: red, green or orange symbols that indicate, among other things, how much fat, sugar and salt content the item has.
Which is why consumer organization Foodwatch welcomes barcoo, just as much it welcome barcoo's competition Codecheck, which has the same function. "It is becoming clear that the traffic light system is a suitable instrument for the labeling of groceries," says Foodwatch spokesperson Martin Rücker. But the software cannot be the ultimate solution. Thym sees it this way too: "The grocery traffic light belongs on the packaging," he says. "But as long as that isn't happening, one can inform oneself using this software."
Consumer Contradiction Makes for a Market Niche
"With many consumers, there's a huge difference between what they want and what they get," Thym says. "According to surveys, 40 percent consider themselves to be critical consumers but only four percent actually practice this when in the stores." This is the contradiction that gave Thym and his business partner, Tarik Tokic, 31, who came from the price comparison Web site woabi, their market niche.
They don't see themselves as do-gooders or idealists. After studying business informatics, Thym worked as a management consultant for Deloitte and then for the Boston Consulting Group subsidiary, Platinion. Did his former jobs give him a guilty conscience and inspire him to bring this sort of well-intentioned software to market? "It really was not like that," says Thym, who is 29 years old now. "I just always wanted to found a start-up."
Thym and Tokic also hope to earn some money with barcoo, through advertising sales and the few cents commission they get for each scanned product that is then ordered through an online shop.