Living in and getting around big cities can be tough. We started Native because we believe there is a better way of sharing and delivering city information to a community of users. The foundation of Native is a vast database of places of interest in Beijing and the technology to access this database over the web, through SMS, over cellphone web browsers, and through a downloadable Java application. Cities are living entities, so the database should be as well. Native will host the collective city knowledge of an active user community. Native's users will have a sense of ownership of the database as they share their favorite local spots and help provide a richer experience for everyone in the community.

While helping people to better navigate a city is a great service, Native's vision goes much further. Native's community will power richer off-line experiences as well. In addition to facilitating more off-line exchanges within your network of friends, Native will also fuel serendipitous interactions with people outside of your social network. Native will make those times you might randomly bump into someone from your hometown, working in your specialized field, or that shares your same passions, not so random. Native's platform will allow users to create local synergies between people, expand their social networks, and empower online communities to achieve more off-line.

For now, we welcome you to start taking advantage of the database to help you get around town more easily. Native returns location-aware results through a free SMS query service, a free cellular internet site, and this website. For all the details of how to access the internet on your phone, check out the link above for a simple explanation of how to set it up and how much it costs.

Let us know what you think.

The Native Development Team
native@mobilenative.com