Singapore startup launches a rewarding social influence platform

The platform targets users in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Unlike global rival Klout, which combines social media data, such as the number of LinkedIn connections or the likelihood of a users getting retweeted, to give users a unique score, Influr ranks influencers into four tiers, from elementary to elite. The higher the influence tier, the better rewards a user can claim.  When an influencer reaches the highest tier, he or she gets selected by brands to create content for brands.

Influr makes money in a couple of ways. While it rewards influencers in the form of events, products, services and discounts, it receives a fee from brands when users redeem these rewards. Another way it makes money is through ad deals with brands. Brands can create campaigns on the platform and assign influencers, filtered by location and interests to promote it.

Influr aims to shift social-media rewards and recognition from celebrities back to individual content creators with trusted friends and followers, and uncover a whole new group of micro influencers, said Clara Chen, the company’s co-founder and CEO.

After its 24 March launch, influr.com tied up with Lufthansa, the Marriott  Hotel in Singapore, LaneigeGigOut and Infinity Drinks. The company also recently partnered with filmmaker Edgar Tang and plans to reward its Elite influencers with an exclusive online preview to help drive ticket sales for a rerun of Tang’s film, The Berlin Patient.

While still in beta, influr.com has attracted a user base of about 1,000 people over the past week. The company aims to have 100,000 users by the end of 2014 and a slew of new products.

The site’s launch follows news of Lithium Technologies’ acquisition of Klout less than a week ago for $200 million. Klout also recently relaunched its website and added content sharing recommendations to help users improve scores. 

Singapore-based Chen founded influr in August 2013. COO Tim Boxhall, CTO Mike Hinchcliffe, and Marketing Technologist Yu LunTeo all later joined her. The company caters exclusively to Southeast Asian markets and has received seed funding from private investors.