Chinese Start-Up 16Fun Wants to Game-ify Your Check-Ins

16Fun – which is a pun on “On the road fun” in Chinese – is a small start-up that totally game-ifies its location-based service (LBS) to the extent that your check-ins become a sort of real-life game of Monopoly.

The gameplay mixes location with virtual property buying, based on a currency which is earned in line with a user’s check-ins at venues across China. The virtual cost of a venue fluctuates in line with its popularity. It’s all a bit like being a Foursquare mayor, but it’s all a bit more involved.

If all that sounds familiar, then you might’ve read about the Indian start-up Mojostreet earlier this month, or Colopl’s innovations in social gaming in Japan. Mojostreet is the junior of the bunch, so perhaps there was some cross-cultural inspiration flowing from 16Fun’s property-management concept, and from Colopl’s location-based gaming model.

Selling virtual goods inside the 16Fun LBS app.

16Fun also allows users to create shops (pictured right) that exist just in the game, stocked with goods that online buddies can buy, to bolster your own virtual bank balance.

Personally, I’d categorize 16Fun more as a game than a utility. It’s not something I’d turn to to engage with nearby friends (where Jiepang works better) or to decide where to eat (for which Geosocials or Menoo are superior).

16Fun has an Android and iOS app, if you’d like to try one out. But lamentably – unlike a lot of comparable LBS services across Southeast Asia – it’s confined only to China, with no plans for expansion.