[Italy] Rome-based iWikiPhone, a social network for iPhone users where they can discover, share and discuss the best apps, has closed a €250k round of funding. The money comes from a number of private investors and also from Egolab, a Rome based company specializing in online media. Egolab has provided 100k of funding by way of services and a cash investment in return for 20% equity in the company.
With 100,000 apps available from the iPhone App store, finding the good ones is becoming increasingly difficult. iWikiPhone’s answer is that the best way to discover the most interesting and relevant apps for Apple’s smartphone is through recommendations from friends and from knowing which apps your friends are actually using.
The most interesting part, however, is that they also plan to crowdsource ideas for new iPhone apps from the iWikiPhone community. Users will be able to suggest apps and make money. The “idea owner” will be paid $500 and a share of revenue generated through selling the app in the iPhone App Store, which of course is how iWikiPhone plans to make money too.
Luca Di Persio, one of the founding partners of Egolab, was immediately enticed by the concept: “…among the most important things that characterizes today’s online environment is collaboration, and with that, the ability to overcome traditional barriers of communication by bringing together those who have the ideas and those who can execute these ideas”, says Di Persio.
iWikiPhone was founded in June this year by the former CTO of start-up dooyoo.com, Luca Di Cesare, 40. Since leaving Dooyoo, Luca has worked as a DoubleClick consultant at Google, and after reading Wikinomics he was inspired to launch iWikiPhone.
I’ve embedded a video below that explains how the service works.
