App nouvel iPhone montre la voie aux entreprises appartenant à des Noirs

Around The Way, a New York-based company, and Clearly Innovative, a Washington, D.C.-based mobile-all development firm, have launched a mobile app that backers claim will empower and support black-owned businesses.

“Other ethnic groups have been supporting their own businesses literally for thousands of years,” said Eric Hamilton, chief marketing officer and co-founder of Around The Way. “Around The Way is our attempt at doing what other ethnic and racial groups have been doing for a long time.”

The app, currently available only for the Apple iPhone, helps users find the nearest black-owned business. iPhone owners can download the app from the Apple app store.

“The app can locate 17,000 black-owned businesses in all 50 états. Many of the businesses are located in New York City, and other major metropolitan areas,” Hamilton wrote in an e-mail to The NorthStar News & Analysis.

Le Americaines. Census Bureau Survey of Black-Owned Business: 2007, which was released on Feb. 8, 2011, reported that there were more than 1.9 million black-owned firms in 2007, which was a 60 percent increase from 2002. The companies reported $137 billion in revenues in 2007.

Around The Way is partnering with the New York African American Chamber of Commerce and other black chambers with a goal of empowering black-owned businesses by executing on the following goals:

· Encouraging owners to download the Around The Way app;
· Encouraging users to patronize businesses with their company information on the Around the Way app;
· Maintaining the integrity of the information on black-owned businesses with the Around the Way app.

“Cette application mobile nouvellement disponible permet aux utilisateurs de trouver le plus proche entreprises appartenant à des Noirs dans leur voisinage avec des cartes colorées et les lieux épinglés,” responsables de l'entreprise. “Les utilisateurs peuvent choisir parmi neuf différentes catégories d'entreprises pour le retrouver.

Ils comprennent: ATM / Banque, Auto, Boulangerie / Café, Salon de beauté / salon de coiffure, Club / Lounge, Nettoyeurs de blanchisserie / sec, Hébergement, Restaurants et Shopping.

Around The Way est le développement d'une application pour les téléphones avec le système d'exploitation Android de Google, et que la version de l'application est prévu pour être disponible au début de 2013. The company did not develop an app for the Blackberry mobile phone because it is “too difficult,” Hamilton said.

In 2012’s second quarter, Google and Apple iOS operating system controlled 82.9 percent of the Smartphone market. BlackBerry’s Research in Motion controls less than 5 percent of the Smartphone market, according to research reports.

“Mobile applications are transforming the face of commerce,” Around The Way officials said in a statement. “Around The Way’s sole purpose is to empower black-owned businesses by altering the point of purchase of potential customers.”

Around The Way’s website is www.aroundthewayapp.com.

Source: www.thenorthstarnews.com