LobangClub iPhone App Scans Barcodes, Compares Prices In Singapore

Typical pre-purchase research today involves googling, checking prices, and reading reviews. But sometimes the search engines don’t give you a proper listing of prices and the results reflected aren’t specific to your location.

If I’m going to spend $500 on a digital camera, I’d prefer to visit whatever local shop has the best price so that I can touch it and maybe try it out before I buy.

Alternatively, I can scan the barcode of the camera and view all the prices at locations near me in one neat list. The LobangClub app does exactly that. It scans a product and then compares prices.

Perhaps you’ve already heard of this sort of app existing in the U.S. But LobangClub (Lobang is a Singlish word which means ‘deals’) is one that is tailor-made for Singaporeans.

I tried the app and found it pretty intuitive to use. The bottom navigation bar has a big camera scan button smacked at the center. Users are prompted to log in via Facebook, and this part is a little slow responding in my opinion.

LobangClub follows a Twitter-like social structure. You can find friends on Facebook and follow their activities. Because the content within the app is user-generated, the start-up gamifies the process to encourage users to take action. Adding prices/products will earn you points — though I’m not too sure what are the points used for. With the app launched just last week, the team had also included an active tab to gather feedback from its beta users.

Guyi Shen, the co-founder of LobangClub, told me that there are already 40,000 prices on the app contributed by beta users. The app scanner recognizes over 500,000 products that are sold in Singapore.

He also gave me an example of how his app has helped a user:

Joe Goh, a father from Bedok, recently used it to find some batteries for his camera. A quick trip to the Jurong Point shopping centre revealed that out of all the stores within Jurong Point that sold that exact battery, there was an almost a 30 percent difference in the cost of a pack of Energizer AAA batteries from $13.90 at Challenger to $10.90 at NTUC.

Goh said, “I saved $3 in the space of five seconds, just doing a quick scan, no need to be kiasu and walk all over the place, it’s all right there in your hand.”

LobangClub’s “scan and compare” concept isn’t alone in Singapore. Guyi pointed us to Price Pal, an Android app that performs a similar task. Price Pal was launched by Singtel, the largest telco in Singapore, who obviously has a bigger budget and stronger connections to make the app a success. Similarly there’s also Pecoq in Japan, another beta app that lets you scan barcodes so you can share items of interest that you have or want (see demo video).