10/07/2013
Portland’s Hintme.com launches to replace all wish lists.
New social sharing website, Portland Oregon based Hintme.com, launches to make every wish list in the world obsolete. By introducing the hint as a unique social sharing tool, Hintme just might be the one gift list that everyone will use. The claim may seem audacious however Hintme could be onto something. Here’s why your wishlists should start getting nervous.
All wish lists have three fatal flaws that keep people from using them.
1. We don’t like to broadcast our “wishes”.“Telling people what we want feels greedy and juvenile.”says Hintme founder Tim Chereck. “The last time I made a wish list I think I asked for an Atari when I was 10 years old”.
2. There are just too many wish lists out there.
Many of the more than 100,000 online retailers in the US have their own unique wish lists. How can you expect to find a relevant gift idea for a friend if you don’t know where to look?
3. Wish lists are typically open to the public which means you can’t control who sees your wishes. Do you really want everyone and their mother knowing everything you want?
Hintme’s revolutionary idea. The hint.
By definition: a wish is a request, but a hint is a suggestion. That might seem like a subtle difference however, would you rather tell your friends what gift to buy you or just leave a hint for them to discover on their own? Hintme is betting that this subtle difference will bring friends and family closer together by asking them to share hints of who they are and what they love, giving us the opportunity to have deeper engagement in their lives.
“Unlike a wish, you save a hint because your friend asks you to” says Chereck. “A friend might say ‘Why don’t you hint me so I can get you something you’ll actually like?’ You can easily save a few ideas to Hintme from any website, rate how much you love your hints and your friends get to quietly discover what you want on their own terms. No more shoving a wish list in their face”.
In addition to saving hints, Hintme also includes an easy to use events feature to help you keep track of your friends upcoming birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions where you might want to give a gift.
“You have total control over who gets to discover your hints” adds Chereck. “And Hintme is the only place anywhere online that you can share and discover hints. That’s one of the big reasons we think Hintme is going to be an important tool for both consumers and businesses.”
The recent success of social sharing sites like Pinterest and Instagram proves that our society is hungry to share their interests online. Hintme has built a unique experience freeing everyone to discover and share real gift ideas with our closest friends using the new concept of a hint. To make that happen all you need to do is tell your friends to “Hintme”.