Through a new Facebook application, users will be able to turn virtual drinks into a reality.
The BarTab application is part of a Facebook competition where user-created applications can win funding from two of Facebook’s investors if they receive enough votes.
Matt Smith, managing partner and co-founder of BarTab, along with Nick Stewart, said the competition started with 600 applications, where 25 were chosen to receive $25,000 grants.
Out of the 25, five final applications will be chosen to receive $225,000 each, he said.
Smith, who graduated from UA in May, said the application will allow Facebook users to send virtual drinks to their friends, who can then redeem them for real drinks at participating bars.
“The bars are able to designate the kind of drink, the number of drinks and the date and time of redemption,” Smith said.
For example, he said bar owners are able to target their least profitable nights.
“A bar can choose to give away 30 Miller Lights every Tuesday night to increase traffic because it’s slow,” he said.
More than 100 bars from Arizona and California, including Salty Senorita and Saddle Ranch in Scottsdale, verbally committed, Smith said.
“It’s a double-edged sword because we want to get as many bars as possible, but we don’t want to overextend ourselves,” he said.
Smith said the company is shooting for 200 bars by the end of the year. The bars neither pay nor receive money for participating in the BarTab service.
To redeem a drink, users can set up their cell phone to receive messages through the application, he said.
“A test message goes to your cell phone saying you received a drink,” Smith said. “Next time you’re at the bar, you reply with the code, and you receive a final message you show to the bartender.”
Users then pay one cent for the drink, which Smith said would allow the service to operate in states that do not allow bars to give out free drinks.
The smallest package a user can purchase is three drinks, which costs $3, Smith said.
“We want to give users a reason to get interested and involved,” he said. “So if you set up your cell phone, you get a free drink. And every 10 drinks you send, you get a free drink.”
If a user puts $25 on their bar tab, they get five free drinks, he said.
Smith and Stewart, a UA accounting senior, created the application for a UA entrepreneurship program.
“We had to develop a venture with the program and go from there,” Smith said. “I really got into doing it and got excited learning this stuff.”
Smith said the entrepreneurship program asked students to design a solution for a problem.
“Our problem was we wanted to send real drinks on Facebook,” he said. “We didn’t know how, but we wanted to do it.”
There were a few complicated models at first, including gift cards, but he and Stewart finally figured out how to make it work.
Business management junior Jayme Manos said he thinks the BarTab application will catch on like wildfire.
“I think it has great revenue potential, while making drinking less expensive for college students on a budget,” Manos said.
Adam Walter, a 21-year-old marketing freshman, said BarTab is an interesting idea, but it’s not for him.
“I don’t drink, so I don’t think I would ever use it,” Walter said. “Maybe if it was a soda.”
Smith said his main goal with BarTab is to benefit both the consumers and producers.
“This is about creating something that users will actually use and enjoy, and hopefully it’ll help out the bars as well,” he said.
Reach the reporter at charlsy.panzino@asu.edu.
