A new mobile app, Tipsy Koala will tell you where the party’s at
‘Accha dude, now we’ve landed in New York where do we go to party tonight?’ A standard line that the hip-young might use when arriving in any major city. So the friend pulls out her mobile, punches the app Tipsy Koala and wham the screen fills with details of clubs, pubs and night spots in that city. Just time enough to put on the designer gear and hit the party scene.
Back in April 2015 I wrote the article Business Aspirations in which I mentioned Vibs Dixit, a young IT specialist, who was considering writing an app for the party scene for the younger set. At the time, the app was a mere thought in the imagination with much work ahead to nut out the concept and develop it into a genuine app.
Fast forward to the present with Sachin Vij joining the team and the app is now fully developed and already available for free download from both Google Play and the Apple App Store. The purpose of the app is to help you easily find a venue for an evening’s entertainment in most major cities of the world right on your mobile phone.
Either you select a location or, if your location services are turned on, the app will find you and show you all the venues for night life activity wherever you are. It will show you the latest pictures of venues, their addresses and websites. You can also get advance notice of special discounts and upcoming events in clubs. There is also a check-in feature which allows you to make your own list of favourite clubs.
If participants seek anonymity and do not wish to use their photos when posting comments they can select from a number of cute koala images referred to by the creators as Koalatars, short for Koala Avatars. Most importantly the app is secure and free of ads. Comments posted on the app by participants stay on the app and are not forwarded onto other social media sites. So as Vibs said “what happens in Tipsy Koala stays in Tipsy Koala”.
According to IBISWorld August 2015 expenditure on pubs, bars and nightclubs in Australia alone increased at 2.5%pa to $17bn for the current year. With the app being geared to very many countries it is easy to see the astronomical worldwide entertainment expenditure the app is aiming to get a toehold in. Even though the target audience for Tipsy Koala is 18-30 year-olds, it is still a sizeable chunk with considerable disposable income. And that is the under-pinning of the revenue model for Tipsy Koala.
The marketing process for the app is already being rolled out. There are to be ongoing Tipsy Parties in different clubs in the metro cities. For instance, a very successful Tipsy Party was recently held at the London Tavern a nightclub in Adelaide. The next party being planned is to be at a club in Sydney in the near future, with others to follow in Australian metro-cities, India and elsewhere.
If the likes on Facebook and the numbers downloading and registering with the app is anything to go by then Tipsy Koala looks like a success raring to happen. When asked what they really wanted from their app the reply was quite clear. As Vibs said “it is quite obvious that our age-group want to have an easy way of finding somewhere to party in the evening. Whether it is for dancing or a drink we want to find it easily”.
With Tipsy Koala, it looks like the boys have done it.
