While Aussie startup Roamz only released its first iPhone app 11 days ago, it has already reached 12,000 downloads, with CEO Jonathan Barouch saying the merging of online content, social media and mobile technology is at the core of company.
“Everything we’re doing is around the basis of pulling real time information from a variety of social networks and working out what you’re missing out on,” Barouch told Computerworld Australia.
“There is really interesting data out there from people that you do or don’t follow, but it doesn’t necessarily get to the right people at the right time - our aim was to create goggles for the real world.”
The company was founded in January and launched its iPhone app at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Fransisco last month which was received positively on the international stage.
Despite having backing from the startup community overseas, Barouch said the Australian startup space has only just recently come into its own after the dot com crash of the 90s.
“Back in 1999 when I started the first startup, there was a lot of money being thrown around, but when the dot com crash happened, a lot of money went overseas and the startup market was crushed,” he said.
“In the last six to 12 months, there have been a number of Australian startups who have gotten funding from the US and there has been a bit of renaissance in Sydney.”
Barouch said the fragmented nature of Web 2.0 has caused a multitude of apps to emerge, and that Roamz streamlines this data; solving a growing problem for consumers.
“We see that social media is fragmenting across Facebook and Twitter, Foursquare and maybe even Google+,” Barouch said. “People are opening multiple apps to get information, and the problem we’re trying to solve is bringing it all back to one app.”
While Roamz has only been launched on the iPhone, Barouch said there are plans in the works to rollout the app to Android devices next year.
“We’re really excited about hosting the app on multiple platforms,” Barouch said. “At the moment we’re focusing on the iPhone because it’s a neat, lovely way to launch a product, but we’re certainly looking at having Android early next year.”
Follow Lisa Banks on Twitter: @CapricaStar
Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU