A holiday postcards app for iPhones and android smartphones has been created by small UK company eCards Media.
Firm behind new postcard app eyes expansion
A holiday postcards app for iPhones and android smartphones has been created by small UK company eCards Media.
A recent two-month test-phase saw 18,000 holidaymakers send ‘DIY’ postcards using the free app.
ECards Media, which employs nine people, allows customers to send free e-cards or paid-for printed cards on the website eCards.co.uk which has more than 3.5 million registered users.
The firm is taking on new staff after advertising revenues increased by 30% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2009.
The digital postcards are sent to a printing firm in Dorset via file transfer protocol at 4pm every day.
They are then run off using state-of-the-art Xerox printers and collected for dispatch by Royal Mail at 5.15pm.
The idea of sending personal holiday snaps transformed into traditional picture postcards to be mailed home has seen the concept become one of the Apple website’s top 30 apps in its ‘free stuff’ travel section.
The free ‘Postcards’ download lets users take a photo or upload from their library and input text to family and friends.
It costs 99p to send via second class and £1.49 by first class post from anywhere in the world, with payment processed via PayPal.
The Devon-based company’s managing director Sam Heaton, a former stockbroker and venture capitalist, said:
“Best of all, with next day delivery, the postcard gets home before you do – no more waiting round for weeks for friends to read about what you got up to on holiday.
“In this modern world of digital photos having a real tangible card arriving in the post is a valuable thing – people appreciate the effort.”
