GiftRocket's new design has launched | Hacker News Reader

GiftRocket's new design has launched

mikekus.com

48 pointssahillavingia17 comments

  > GiftRocket uses my location to check I’m actually at the pub and
  > when my location is confirmed I get my gift. The GiftRocket
  > amount is transferred into my Paypal account and I pay as normal.

So it's essentially a money transfer between two people but GiftRocket takes their vig and the recipient needs to be at a certain location (or fake the location) to receive the transfer. Depending on the percentage, this could be abused to launder money through the pretense of a gift purchase.

We're a payments company in disguise.

I like that... Can you elaborate, or is it hush-hush?

Also, what happens when the other person doesn't redeem? (I tried to send myself the free $5 but found the process cumbersome so I didn't redeem). There will be a lot of breakage on this product, which is potentially great for you in the short run but bad in the long run.

What specifically was cumbersome?

You're essentially a money transmitter and the location hook is a facade. How have you tackled the uncertainty around the Money Transmission Act? (ref: http://www.quora.com/Aaron-Greenspan/In-Fifty-Days-Payments-...)

This isn't really a gift certificate to anywhere. It seems more like just paying your friend to go somewhere. They can redeem the gift, then spend the money anywhere.

Also I may be wrong, but 99.9% of physical stores don't accept Paypal, so your friend would already have to have the gift amount in cash or credit/debit.

Right. I see that this is a distinction from just sending my friend money via PayPal. However, it (1) requires my friend to have a smartphone and (2) makes them get a PayPal account, which most of my friends have never heard of. Also, the idea of sending a gift card through email seems very tacky to me. But then again, I may not be your target audience.

GiftRocket is a new take on gift cards. Recipients prefer cash to gift cards, but it's tacky to give cash as a gift. We're trying to capture the sentiment of a gift card (I thought of you, I thought you'd enjoy this place) without the restrictiveness of a traditional gift card.

"it's tacky to give cash as a gift."

Ouch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_envelope

Was talking about the US. There are exceptions in the US too (i.e. Bar and Bat Mitzvahs).

When I purchase the gift card, presumably I'm purchasing via PayPal. The recipient then receives the money via PayPal.

So like - I could just give my friend some money via PayPal and say "hey dude, have a night out on me".

Really like the look and feel of the site, but as someone who dislikes gift cards in the first place, it seems like GiftRocket just makes the idea more cumbersome.

One of the nice things about gift cards is their atomic portability. I don't see that here. If someone gives me a starbucks card I can re-gift it to a homeless guy on the street. Also how would "any business" work if that business has no physical location?

Almost identical to Giftly including the chutes and ladders diagram: http://begiftly.com/what-is-giftly

We launched well before Giftly. Regarding the how it works page, that's sheer coincidence. Our designer had finished his mocks before Giftly launched.

Why the downvote? The idea and implementation similarity is at least moderately interesting.

Incredible work Mike!

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