Colin Wong called me from Malaysia last night. His startup, Bellevue, WA-based Sharein (formerly ZoeCity), has rolled out an interesting new product and website today—a bookmark tool for sharing links with friends, family, and customers to Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail, all from your Web browser.
It’s not earth-shattering technology, but it’s part of a new generation of browser-based social media tools that are changing how people browse and share information online. Wong’s startup seems to have a lot in common with other sharing sites like Cambridge, MA-based Shareaholic, and Mountain View, CA-based ShareThis. “The goal is convenience, to make it easy for the user,” Wong says. “It’s not a power tool, but for the average user who wants to share.”
What differentiates Sharein from the competition, Wong says, is the ability to combine sharing to social media sites with all forms of e-mail, as well as providing analytics on things like how many people have re-shared a given link and its overall reach. “Once we get more traction, we’ll expand on the consumer side,” Wong says. He adds that once his team has more data on how people are using the tool, Sharein can add recommended links and other features that will be more attractive to advertisers.
“It’s going to gain a lot of momentum,” he says. “You look at Twitter, there’s quite a lot of sharing. We’re finding the older generation is more comfortable with e-mail, but the new generation is basically doing link sharing through Twitter.”
Wong has been CEO of the company since 2007, when it was founded as ZoeCity, a social network for the Christian community, by entrepreneurs Rocky Tannehill and Jyde Ojo. Previously, Wong worked for Google on the AdSense product team from 2002 to 2006. Originally based in Silicon Valley, he moved to Seattle in early 2005 and worked out of Google’s Fremont office.
Sharein currently has 10 employees—four in Bellevue, and six developers in Malaysia. The company is backed by angel investors, and Wong says he will probably look for additional funding towards the end of this year.
