14 Questions with Kim di Centa of Woomark

Kim di Centa, founder of mobile developer Woomark, agreed to answer some questions in a brief interview with MIR. Here’s what he had to say:

1. Introduce yourself — who are you, what is it you do?

My name is Kim di Centa and I am a developer by profession and have always been passionate about the internet and mobile technologies and how both can interact and become complementary. I have created Woomark, a geosocial network with the idea that people could get access to interesting places wherever they are in the world both through our website and “on the go” with our Android application.

2. Give us an overview of your oganisation — how long have you been developing applications?

I have been developing applications for 5 years.

Woomark is a young venture that was born in late 2010. We ran some beta test in Italy (where I am from) to fine tune the concept and we are now launching it worldwide.

3. Tell us about the app? What does it do — what are the key features?

The Woomark app is an app to publish, share and discover places all over the world, categorised into groups of interest. Users can then follow other users who have created interesting groups, join groups, create their own and all this for free.

The app is fully integrated into Google maps and on the website users can get a street view, they can get directions to a specific place and they can even get a print-friendly summary of the directions to a place.

4. What kind of people are you targeting with the app? Who’s the primary audience?

With integration into Facebook, Google and Yahoo, we are targeting more or less everyone who has accounts with those services.

In addition, we are targeting smart phone users and specifically Android users.

5. What platform(s) have you deployed the app on? Why? Do you have plans to expand to other platforms?

The App is only available on Android for the moment. This is our platform of choice and we simply love developing on it and see a huge potential in Android.

As Android users, it was also the natural choice.

We may develop an app on the iPhone at a later stage, but it has not yet been defined clearly.

6. How are you going to measure success? Financially? Downloads? Engagement?

We are initially measuring success with the number of users and downloads. This is a good indication about whether the service answers a need on the market or not.

So far, we have seen users from all over the world and the feedback has been very positive.

The App has recently been published on some app stores and we are waiting to see how the downloads go. We are aiming at reaching download levels of a few thousand very quickly and hopefully get into interesting milestones such as quarter of a million, half a million and more.

7. What’s been your biggest challenge developing the app?

We integrated into Google maps, and various social networks and mail services for easier registration and login. Making all those integrations work well together and offer a smooth user experience have been the biggest challenge.

8. What kind of feedback have you had from initial users?

Very positive and with recent exposure in various news sites, we have seen a growth and the resulting increase in feedback has remained very positive, so we are very happy so far.

9. Where’s the best place to find out more about the app?

The app is available on the Android market, and on some app stores such as Getjar and Handango. We are planning to submit it to more app stores during this month to cover the widest possible reach of Android users.

10. What’s next for you? What are you working on at the moment?

Right now we are working on growing the userbase significantly.

We are also looking at partnerships with distributors to open the door to mobile operators and content providers to distribute our app as widely as possible.

11. Name another mobile developer in the marketplace that you respect? Why?

I really like Google apps for their simplicity and effectiveness.

12. What are the newest handsets to arrive in your office?

We have a Galaxy S and are very happy with our app on it. We are working on the Galaxy Tab also to see if our App can expand easily to Tablets.

13. Name three applications you really can’t live without?

Facebook, Google news reader, various analytics apps and of course Woomark.

14. And finally, what industry trend or theme are you most excited about this year?

I’m really impressed about the mobile evolution, I think that in the future, notebook and desktops will be replaced by a simple screen with a keyboard powered by my docked handset.

Mobile applications means bringing into everyday life an infinite potential.

As a Facebook user, and overall social network addict, I am following very closely everything facebook and social network related and I take my hat off to Mark Zuckerberg for his achievement in this field, at such a young age.

Woomark is a revolutionary location-based Android app that takes social networking to the next level. And the best thing is, you can have it free! Download here for Android.

Visit the Woomark website at woomark.com