Archive for the ‘About us’ Category

Et voilà! Here it is. The new aka-aki Blog. Okay, it’s not that all new. The posts, comments and other content from the last three years is still there. But our Wordpress-baby just got some new stylish clothes.

We hope you like it! There are still some changes needed until everything fits perfectly. So come in and have a look. We are looking forward to your comments where we can make it look even better.

Do an Android version instead!

Before the shouting starts again, like it does after everything we are doing at the moment: the re-design of the blog has been done completely by the marketing team. Here we do not know how to develop software. So no development resources have been wasted for the new blog look.

Happy Easter from Berlin!
Roman (aka-aki team)

Saturday will be aka-aki’s 3rd birthday. This blog is even one year older, it went online in March 2007. One year before the community launched.

We thought it’s time for some new clothes for the blog. So within the next days we will launch a re-designed version. As an early birthday present for you and us, as a spring-time greeting and stylish Easter egg. So don’t be suprised if suddenly everything looks different here.

As it is our first blog re-design, please don’t be too upset if, after the switch, some things are not working or something is missing. We will fix it fast and won’t delete any comments or posts. A little preview you can see above. More stylish blog clothing soon!

Greetings from Berlin,
Roman (aka-aki team)

Location-based services (LBS) and the privacy of their users – it can work out: aka-aki is celebrating 500,000 members! And despite (or because of) the toughest privacy policy of the industry.

Thousands of encounters per day

Thousands of times a day, somewhere in the world, a phone goes “beepbeep”: it’s the aka-aki signal, which we use to introduce people crossing paths.

There are neighbors who have discovered hobbies they have in common, business travelers that were complete strangers (but had a high stick-o-meter match) spontaneously meeting up for a beer, a Franco-German marriage of aka-aki members and many, many friends made through aka-aki.

Nearly two years after aka-aki launched and just over a year after the first iPhone version our numbers look something like this:

• 500,000 registered members, mostly in Germany and France
• 300,000 aki-messages sent daily
• about half an hour daily online time per member
• 30 million monthly ad requests

This makes aka-aki probably the most successful location-based mobile social network in Europe.

This is just the beginning

But we are far from satisfied. We know what our members want – from new features to support of other platforms. Of course we continually fix bugs that crept into the system during the rapid growth. Next week another bunch of bugfixes will go online while we continue working on the next big thing.

Thank you!

We thank our members who have accompanied us through ups and down(time)s, and thanks for forgiving us the chaos we sometimes create. Honestly: aka-aki has the best members around the world! Not just nearby.

All the best from Berlin
Gabriel (aka-aki-team)

Founder and investor Stefan Glänzer recently wrote in German newspaper FAZ, that Berlin-Mitte was “probably the world’s greatest factory to copy digital ideas”. Some well-known (and a lot of less-known) companies that copy concepts from the US actually have their offices in Berlin-Mitte.

As if we had sensed it before, aka-aki moved from Berlin-Mitte to Kreuzberg a couple of weeks ago. But honestly there has never been a role model for aka-aki. Neither when the project started as a Bluetooth Jave app, nor today. That was a risk we took, because even after many focus groups you can still be far out with the product or service you create and need to touch it up. And sometimes, certain features just happen to be similar all over the internet. And that’s ok, because sometimes there IS that special way a problem is solved best.

aka-aki (since December 2008) and Facebook (February 2010)

When we saw Facebook’s latest website update, we didn’t presume any copying. We were just amazed. The new layout looked a bit familiar. Maybe to the one that aka-aki has since December 2008? Friends online on the left… three icons top left.. Well, we wouldn’t call that copying. It’s just two companies having the same keen sense of usability! And there are still enough differences to tell us from each other. While Facebook is about your existing circle of friends, aka-aki lets you discover new people in real life. Very soon in a new playful fashion. Which will be another original idea from Berlin-Mitte.

Sorry, but this post is not available in English

Next week there will be visitors from France here in Berlin. A team from Canal+ is coming to visit us here to shoot for a documentary about aka-aki.

For this we are looking for aka-aki members who want to appear in this documentary. The shooting will be either Wednesday or Thursday 17th or 18th at St.Oberholz in Berlin-Mitte.

If you are interested or have any questions, please send us an email or give us a call:

office@aka-aki.com
+49 30 288 86 76 – 6

Cant wait to hear from you
Roman, aka-aki team.

It’s done. aka-aki has moved and this time, different from our virtual move a couple of weeks ago, everything went well. In the end we are talking 150 boxes and loads of furniture in two 7.5 tons trucks and one van.

A big thank you goes out to our moving saints Petra, Dorina, Lena, Antje and Sonja for their perfect organisation and commitment during the crazy days and before. To Felix and Daniel who took care of setting up all the communication infrastructure that we need to go back to work. And to our forwarding company CL-Spedition. If you ever have to move a startup, give them a call!

Some impressions of the new home you see in the gallery. Well, it has kind of a rough, industrial charme. But it’s huuuge! For the first time in our company history we have to introduce room numbers for orientation. Cranzy. But we need the space. Game development, community management, marketing and internationalisation takes much more space than it used to one year ago. We are looking forward to working in aka-aki office number 4. So let’s go!

Greetings from Berlin
the aka-aki team.

… but you can relax. This time we’re moving the office, not the system. So the service won’t be effected.

We have to say, since our last change of address many things changed. The number of people working here. The number of boxes we need to accomodate all our stuff. Computers, telephones, toilet paper, files, desks, scanners, protein shakes, espresso machine, copier, pennons, chairs, white boards, fans … moving has become quiet a project for  us!

But fortunately we have Petra, our Mistress of Moving! She organizes everything. With the help of a telephone, emails, memos, post-its, experience and talent she makes sure this doesn’t end up in total chaos. She created the perfect system: every team member gets ONE box for his or her stuff. What doesn’t fit in doesn’t move. It’s a bit like with carry-on luggage on a low-cost airline. You really have to think what you will need before you go. The rest stays. And so the new office will not be messed up with rubbish.

And there’s so much more she took care of: new telephone lines, setting up broadband internet, copying keys, ordering fire-extinguishers, informing friends and partners… wow.

Thank you Petra for organising this for us. We’ll all see each other Monday on the other side. Which is

Friedrichstraße 235-236 . 10969 Berlin . Germany

Above you can see some impressions. More to come next week. We’re excited!

Greetings
the aka-aki team.

Snow, snow and even more snow. This is the situation here in Berlin. Soon we won’t be able to leave the office anymore. Well, maybe not too bad, because there’re so many things we are doing. Here’s an update for you…

Our guys in the development department have the most stressful time. The new backend system for aka-aki is ready and we will switch everything over within the next days. Therefore we will be down for a couple of hours. More details coming soon here!

Like said before, there is so much to do. That’s why we are hiring again! Here you find the current jobs at aka-aki in Berlin. Have a look and join the team!

Meanwhile we are preparing a very special trip. From February 15th to Febuary 18th there will be the Mobile World Congress in Barceloooooonaaaaa. And of course aka-aki sends a delegation. If you want to meet us there, let’s make an appointment. Just send an email to barcelona@aka-aki.com.

Just one kilometer away from the offices our exibition of the paperworlds for aka-aki games is still going on. You can see it until January 30th at the 4010 store of Deutsche Telekom in Berlin. Admission is free, of course!

Simultanously we are working on the game. The first test versions are ready and we are already having a lot of fun with it. Next week you can see some more video interviews straight from the production team room. This time, our game designers tell you about the creation process of a mobile location-based social game.

So the year starts everything else than boring!

We wish you a great weekend
the aka-aki team.

Last night was so much fun! The aka-aki games preview was what we call a party! We are so happy that so many of you made it to Berlin and wanted to learn more about our new “baby” aka-aki games. The biggest THANK YOU goes out to all of our guests, the team of 4010-Store, Kurve from Kurvenstar for the great showroom design and to our DJ Hintergrundrauschen. You are the best! And for those who couldn’t make it last night:

• above you see the official trailer for aka-aki games
• visit the website http://games.aka-aki.com for all the details, video portraits of the artists and download free goodies to your iPhone
• just in case you will be in Berlin in the next weeks, come to 4010-Store and see our artwork exibition until January 30th

And of course there will be photos from last night coming to the blog very soon.

Greetings from Berlin
the (a bit hung-over) aka-aki team.