Fixed Mobile Convergence

Wrapp, a company that pioneered the concept of social-gifting, has reportedly entered the Japanese market. The company opened offices in Tokyo and appointed a business development team, now forging certain ties with top merchants in the region.

Wrapp made gift-giving fun and easy with the introduction of a mobile application that allows Facebook (News - Alert) users to give free gift cards from top retailers to their Facebook friends.

For merchants, Wrapp makes a highly successful customer-acquisition and retention tool. The Wrapp application allows E-merchants to conduct result-oriented, discount-free performance-based campaigns.

Wrapp lets retailers apply friend-to-friend marketing techniques to drive highly targeted in-store and on-line sales, and get real-time access to aggregated campaign and customer demographic data.

“People in Japan already use their phones in much more sophisticated ways than Europeans, who have come to love Wrapp for the convenience of having their gift cards with them any time they want to buy something they really want,” Hjalmar Winbladh, CEO of Wrapp, explained in a press release. “It's clear that retailers in Japan understand that daily deals and deal hunters dilute their brand and can be bad for business. In contrast, Wrapp presents merchants in the trusted context of a gift from one friend to another, rather than in paid media channels, and ultimately enables a win-win experience for consumers and the retailers.”

Since last November, Wrapp has registered more than 170,000 active users, who’ve reportedly given their Facebook friends over 1.4 million free gift cards from 50 major retailers in Europe.

Participating merchants reported that each sale averages four to six times the value of the free gift card they let Wrapp users give to their friends.

“Wrapp has created a totally new and unique way to use mobile phones and social networks to get the people retailers want as customer online, actually into their stores and making profitable purchases,” said Toshi Asano, Wrapp’s country manager in Japan. “This is a perfect solution in Japan where gift giving is already a part of daily life.”

In January this year, Wrapp received $10.5 million in Series-A funding from Greylock Partners and Atomico resulting in LinkedIn (News - Alert) co-founder Reid Hoffman and Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, joining Wrapp's board of directors.

Wrapp continued its expansion, taking its service to Norway and the U.K., and later opening offices in France, Germany and the Netherlands. Earlier this month Wrapp introduced its services to Taiwan.