EMERYVILLE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–WaveMarket (www.wavemarket.com), a leader in mobile location-based platforms and applications, and uShip (www.uship.com), the first and largest online marketplace for shipping and transportation services, today announced that uShip has been certified and launched on WaveMarket’s Veriplace™ Location Aggregation platform. uShip becomes the first developer partner to commercially launch an off-deck location-enabled application on Veriplace, which opened to developers less than three weeks ago. The uShip service, like many Veriplace applications, is a web-based service that does not ask users to download anything onto their phones.
The Veriplace Location Platform is designed as a web service, enabling Web, Mobile Web, SMS, and Mobile developers a way to remotely locate tens of millions of phones on carrier networks. The platform is based on the same commercially-proven security and privacy solutions used in WaveMarket’s industry-leading Family Locator products. The platform empowers the user by offering tools to protect his or her location data, regardless of the technology used to locate them, while unlocking LBS opportunities for carriers and developers. Users are able to grant or revoke location permission at any time via the Veriplace website or mobile website, and they can view a complete history of which applications have located them at any time. As with all Veriplace application partners, the uShip location-aware tracking feature will require that located users explicitly opt-in to sharing location data before uShip or shipping customers can access it.
Since their original launch in 2003, uShip’s online shipping marketplace has connected people and businesses with feedback-rated service providers to make shipping more affordable and efficient. Using Veriplace, uShip customers can now track the exact location of their shipments – not just intermittent check points – bringing a new level of transparency not seen in the shipping industry.
In addition, with the integration of a trusted and secure platform such as Veriplace, uShip service providers will know that their location will be protected and not misused in any way. Furthermore, service providers will have the added value of building greater trust with their shipping customers, and because of this extra trust and transparency, will attract more business and increase the value of services that they can offer their customers through uShip.
“The Veriplace platform will revolutionize how people think about location-based services, offering developers a web services API that empowers them to locate tens of millions of phones on carrier networks, all while offering end-users complete privacy and security controls for their location information. uShip is creative company that seized the opportunity to increase the value of their services by leveraging Veriplace” said Tasso Roumeliotis, WaveMarket CEO. “uShip is an innovator in shipping and transportation services; a great example of how developers on the Veriplace platform can leverage this unprecedented access to location data to their own competitive advantage.”
“Innovation and transparency have always been two primary tenets of the uShip marketplace,” said Matt Chasen, CEO of uShip. “Veriplace’s open access platform lets us foster a whole new level of trust and transparency between shipping customers and service providers. Getting setup and running with Veriplace was incredibly quick and easy — we’re thrilled to be the first developer partner to utilize this innovative platform.”
Developers who want to location-enable their Web, Mobile Web, SMS, or mobile handset-based services can explore the Veriplace Location Aggregation Platform by signing up for a free developer account at http://developer.veriplace.com.
About WaveMarket
WaveMarket Inc., headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., is a world leader in mobile location-based platform and services, offering a software product suite that includes both white-label application solutions and its industry-leading location aggregation platform, Veriplace™. With more than a half-dozen commercial deployments in the United States, Canada, and Latin America, WaveMarket’s white-label solutions include its industry-leading family finder, search, and asset tracker, and the Veriplace™ Location Aggregation Platform, which provides powerful privacy and security systems to allow carriers to offer 3rd party developers location access without having to certify each application on a case-by-case basis. Marketing to brands and mobile carriers in the United States, Europe and Asia, WaveMarket’s customers include top tier North American carriers AT&T, Sprint Nextel, Alltel, Bell Mobility, Aliant and MTS Allstream, Vivo in Brazil, and SK Telecom, South Korea’s leading wireless carrier. Founded in 2000, the company is financed by a group that includes Draper Fisher Jurvetson, QUALCOMM Ventures, BlueRun Ventures (formerly Nokia Venture Partners), Intel Capital, and Mitsui Ventures. For more information, visit http://www.wavemarket.com.
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