In Mexico, location-based entertainment app learns your preferences

Yumbling is a free mobile app that recommends local entertainment options based on the user's current location and preferences.

It’s been a veritable parade of location-aware apps in recent months, but one recently caught our eye that seemed a little different. Created by a Mexican company by the same name, Yumbling is a free mobile app that recommends local entertainment options based on the user’s current location and preferences. Restaurants, bars, clubs, cafés, movies, plays, concerts and cultural events are all among the entertainment possibilities Yumbling considers, but it doesn’t recommend the same suggestions to everyone. Rather, it factors in not only the user’s location, but also what it has learned of their tastes, and reportedly even contextual factors such as the time of day. Users who download the app — which is available for iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia devices — begin by creating a basic profile that includes some of their personal likes and dislikes. Yumbling logs this information, but also refines its understanding of the user over time based on their use of the app. Check-ins are available, as are reviews from other users, and challenges can earn users points and prizes. A digital discount card, meanwhile, is now in beta. Between location-based capabilities and the ever-finer ability to learn consumers’ tastes, there’s virtually no limit to the recommendations that can be made across an almost unlimited number of niches — not to mention the accompanying advertising possibilities. Mobile-minded entrepreneurs: be inspired! Spotted by: Katharina Kieck