Koprol’s belated anniversary press conference today hashed out several announcements regarding new features and enhancements to both the mobile site and the desktop site. While not as dramatic as Facebook’s event held last night in Palo Alto, Koprol’s event emphasizes the direction it’s taking in terms of growth and user engagement.
Yahoo! Indonesia country manager Pontus Sonnerstedt said on a statement, “Koprol… delivers digital experiences that engages people’s passions and interests. With the internet being an integral part of our lives, we have made it a priority to enhance the service offerings on Koprol to make it easier for users to socialize on our platform.”
Koprol introduced its revamped user interface along with a number of enhanced features including “Onboarding” that makes it easier for new users to check in and understand the site, “People Finder” to connect with people nearby, “Hovercard” to display people’s profiles without having to go to their individual pages, “Hot Tags” which are hashtags promoting the most popular topics being discussed on the site, as well as “Koprol Stamp” which rewards users for being social.
As we mentioned previously, Koprol’s new layout is still not the default interface that people get when they login to Koprol, instead, members have to direct their browsers manually to http://new.koprol.com to experience the latest version.
You can see from our earlier post that new site implements a design that would not look out of place on a tablet or other touch oriented device. It has large buttons and controls, adopted a look that is consistent with its Android app as well as having the same feel as Yahoo! Messenger for iOS.
Business profiles
One feature that was also focused on during the press conference was Koprol for Business. Since February, there has been 3000 business profiles published on Koprol. The company highlighted local startup RockTo as an example of a local company that takes advantage of Koprol for Business.
Koprol co-founder Satya Witoelar showed that since maintaining an account at Koprol, RockTo has experienced a 50% rise in traffic to its website and gained a larger group of more engaged readers. AHA Broadband, Telkomsel, Nexian, and Burger King are among the early companies that adopt Koprol for Business.
Stamps
Stamps is one new feature that’s proven to be popular already on Koprol. You might think that stamps work like badges but the nature of Koprol’s stamps is different. Stamps is perhaps better described as reputation marks. These are awarded by members to other members based on their impression of the person.
Each Koprol member gets a number of points that gets deducted for every time they post or perform activities on the site. According to SiKodok, a site dedicated to covering all things Koprol, posting an image, posting a new post, and reviewing a place deduct the most points and therefore the most encouraged activities to perform if one were inclined to unlock stamps.
The entire idea may sound trivial but in the two days that it’s been implemented, Witoelar revealed to DailySocial that there had been 5,000 stamps generated by the system and 3,500 awarded to members.
It also opens a possibility for Koprol to monetize the site by working out deals with brands to generate their own stamps for those who, for example, frequent their establishments or mention specific keywords which could tie in nicely with a new feature that was also recently added, and that is hashtags. How hashtags work in Koprol is the same as it does on Twitter, so those who use both sites would not need to learn anything new.
Transition period
While the majority of the features are already operational on the new site, there are still some kinks in the system.
When clicking on a location link for example, it still takes you to the old site rather than keeping you inside the new environment. Additionally, if you’re accessing it from a low speed connection (around 100Kbps or less), the site simply won’t load, whereas the older site does open, albeit slowly, as you would expect.
While Koprol maintains two versions of the site, insiders are calling this the transition period as they are working to stamp out issues in the new version before it phases out the old version. The mobile site on the other hand has fully switched to the new design although stamps are yet to be introduced on the mobile site.
As for Koprol’s mobile apps, the Android app has been available directly from Koprol for the past several weeks though it’s yet to be published on the Android Market.
At the press conference earlier this morning, Witoelar said that Yahoo! is open to publishing Koprol apps on all platforms and is studying each one carefully. The iPhone app is still under development and no time frame was given to its availability.
Commenting on the acquisition by Yahoo! in May last year, Witoelar said, “Koprol has greatly benefitted from Yahoo!s proprietary technology and insights to deliver unique content and experiences for both consumers and small and medium-sized businesses. We are focused on delivering both business and consumer success stories to make every Indonesian proud of Koprol.”
