Mobile application developers at Drync have created and improved a wine cellar for the virtual realm, now available on tablets as well as mobile phones.

The application update merges commercial and social spheres, making wine shopping a community experience. The live activity stream is the major adjustment, and creates an image rich wine newsfeed filled with friends’ recommendations, similar to beer application Untappd, but with purchasing capability.

“The Live Activity feed is new to Drync and highlights an important piece of our strategy,” said Brad Rosen, CEO of Drync, Cambridge, MA.

“Drync was built initially around an experiential use case ie. ‘I’m drinking a wine, love it, and want to buy or gift it,’” he said. “We’re now expanding that charter to help people discover new wines they will love.”

“Wine is inherently social, and one way people today make wine buying choices is from the recommendations from friends they trust. Our Live Activity feed is the first of many steps towards enabling this pattern within Drync.”

Discovering new wines
Discovery is the main focus for Drync, especially for the tablet application.

Not only will users be able to take a tour of their friends’ virtual wine racks, but they will also receive detailed wine stories and facts. The tablet application provides valuable content for users with a secret desire to be sommeliers, or just curious casual wine drinkers.

Mr. Rosen believes a tablet app was a natural development towards a more sophisticated platform.

“As we start to offer more features for wine discovery to augment the experiential use-case, a tablet makes sense,” Mr. Rosen said. “Tablets are generally used for browsing, research, discovery, learning, engaging with friends, and of course commerce.”

 Driving sales
The transition to tablet makes sense in more ways than one.

The commerce side of the app is likely to see significant improvements.

According to an infographic by Super Monitoring, State of Mobile 2013, a few statistics reveal that tablet applications may be cash cows. The study reports that 72 percent of tablet owners purchase online from their tablets each week, and 52 percent say they prefer to shop on their tablets over PCs.

Drync has tapped into this important insight.

“What we do know is that tablet users are twice as likely to shop and buy as compared with smartphone users,” Mr. Rosen said.

Big investments
Drync has already made significant investments in making the application a success, and recently venture-funded more than $430,000 dollars towards new developments and new hires.

Investors included Hubspot founder Darmesh Shah, Cross Link Ventures, KEC Ventures, Foundry Group and several more.

One of the first new hires was Brian Carr, the new chief operating officer of Drync.

“Like our users, I’m particularly excited about the simplicity of the app not only for purchasing but for expanding and keeping my wine life all in one place,” Mr. Carr said.

“The business model is solid and I’m joining the absolute perfect team to execute,” he said.

Final Take: