Poken

Poken is a technology that utilizes a proprietary Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to allow the exchange of social networking data between two keychain accessories. Each person involved in the data exchange should have his or her own Poken. The data that is collected by the Poken is a kind of 'Social Business Card' and a replacement for physical business card. The Poken when come in contact with each other  recieve a unique Id which stores all online social networking profile of a person. This data can be retrieved by connecting the Poken to the Poken website through a USB connector.

In addition to the contact information found on a typical business card, links to users’ Social Networks can also be added. Examples include Twitter,Facebook and 40+ other Social Networks. Users of the Poken website can use a ‘social dashboard’ to manage, and interact with their contacts.

The company Poken S.A. was founded in December 2007 in Lausanne, Switzerland by Stéphane Doutriaux. The founder had come up with the business idea while doing his MBA at IMD, a business school in Lausanne. The development of the technology was done in collaboration with the Berner Fachhochschule, a university of applied sciences situated in Biel, Switzerland. The project start was in July 2008 and ended in December of the same year . The first product range called the ‘Sparks’ was introduced in January 2009. Poken S.A. launched the poken ‘Pulse’ (with 2 GB memory) in September 2009 .

The name 'Poken' comes from the initial project which the founder started that sparked the idea for the final version of the project. The project started out as a 'Poker' 'Token'. The name stuck and became what we know today as 'Poken'.