Situated alongside one of Milan’s canals, the site of the
former Richard Ginori porcelain factory, which dates back to 1830, now plays
host to a cluster of creative businesses, including the Italian headquarters of
CircleMe. (The company also has a London branch based in Silicon Roundabout in the City). The completely redeveloped Richard Ginori complex, which covers
an area of over 60,000 square metres, also houses companies such as Strenesse,
Momo Design, Della Rovere, la Fornarina and MDF as well as communications
agencies and photographic studios.
Il Circolino, a chic bar located in the ex-Richard Ginori
centre and a favourite haunt of CircleMe staffers, provided the perfect setting
for an evening of relaxed chat with CircleMe users and friends and the chance
to discover the new Second Generation apps for PCs, tablets and phones.
With the mercury hitting 36C on the hottest day of the
year so far, we sipped complimentary ice-cold drinks and enjoyed an excellent
barbecue from Il Circolino’s budding chefs. The CircleMe team mingled with
guests at the venue, which features a glass floor through which you can watch
the table football matches taking place downstairs.
Making it new
CircleMe has completely updated its interface and introduced a new user-experience that builds on the app’s existing ability to curate your passions and share them with a network of people you can “trust” (CM's equivalent of friending). The app now boasts 1 million interests that you can “love” (by clicking on the famous CircleMe heart icon). Over a thousand stories and new content items are added every day from 6,500 sources and two hundred thousand interest groups.
CircleMe has completely updated its interface and introduced a new user-experience that builds on the app’s existing ability to curate your passions and share them with a network of people you can “trust” (CM's equivalent of friending). The app now boasts 1 million interests that you can “love” (by clicking on the famous CircleMe heart icon). Over a thousand stories and new content items are added every day from 6,500 sources and two hundred thousand interest groups.
A brand new feature of the CircleMe experience is the
Calendar, which allows you to access a customised calendar featuring all the
nearest events linked to your unique set of passions. There are already 55,000
events in over 4,500 locations mapped onto the CircleMe Calendar.
As Giu D’Antonio, CEO of CircleMe pointed out as he
demonstrated the new app on a widescreen Mac to guests at the party, you can
flick through a virtually endless feed of stories, news and updates relating to
your passions – anything from your favourite bands to the latest must-see
movies. A new feature is the categories menu bar than you can swipe in from the
side. This allows you to refine the view to specific groups of passions based
around particular media, such as Music, Books, Movies, etc
As Startupbusiness reported recently when the network’s
Android app went live, CircleMe has signed an agreement with Kiver to
distribute music online in mp3 format, which users can download according to
their passions and their level of activity on the network. The downloads on
offer include music from leading artists. (For example, glancing at the app, I
see I can download free tracks from
artists such as Katy Perry, Lana Del Rey, The Killers, Queen and The Rolling
Stones, etc.)
Users can also benefit from a tie-up between CircleMe and
moo.com, the UK-based online business card printing service, which rewards
users with 50 free cards personalised with their passions.
CircleMe has been growing steadily. According to WiredItalia it is strongest in the UK, US, Italy, France and Brazil.
Niche and easy does it
While CircleMe has expanded considerably and added a wealth
of new features it remains something of a niche product in the face of the “big
beasts” of the social networking world: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, etc.
However, as Giu pointed out, the aim of CircleMe is not for users to simply
grow ever-larger networks of contacts, but rather to deepen and enrich the
experience of sharing passions within a trusted circle of like-minded people.
I personally think CircleMe could do more in this area to
build on the existing functionality of its apps, especially the ability to
“plant” a passion by adding geo-location data and its under-utilised “To do”
option. As I explored in an earlier post on this blog, I also think CircleMe members
could have a more pro-active role in curating information and content, which
uses a “push” model to provide an updated feed to users’ devices based on their
passions. I would like to see more of a physical community developing around CircleMe –
and I think one way they could achieve this is to have more live events, such
as this excellent party, as well as providing opportunities for users to meet up at gigs and special screenings of films they have "loved". There are considerable opportunities for combining
CircleMe’s ability to gather and share cultural passions with a more
face-to-face experience, which would involve users and allow them to be more
active.
A night to remember
So, overall this was a great evening and a nice chance to
meet the lovely CircleMe team, who are all passionate and committed about their
app. I’d like to say a special thanks to Giu, Elena and the CircleMe team – as well as the excellent Il Circolino – for
their hospitality.
Looking forward to seeing you all again at the next event!
