Rent-Your-Car-Out Service iCarsClub Gets $482,000. iCarsClub, a service that allows people to rent out their cars by the hour just got a seed round of almost half a million, a little under three months since its launch. The Singapore-based startup provides a service similar to Zipcar, except car owners rent out their own vehicles and iCarsClub doesn’t own or provide the cars. The company will install a piece of hardware in members’ vehicles, which will allow the renter to unlock the doors with a phone app. The cars are connected to a central server which sends the locking command. iCarsClub was just launched in December, and the team is using its home state of Singapore to test the concept. The team of five have plans to quickly expand to China within the year, and are eyeing Beijing and Shanghai.
It has set a target to attract 5,000 members and 1,000 cars in Singapore, and another 1,000 cars in China by end-year. iCarsClub’s CEO is Eddy Zhang, and the team includes Joya Zhao Hong, Jamie Wang, Chengkun Xue and Jack Wei Liuwei. Apple Patents A System For The Resale And Transfer Of ‘Used’ Digital Goods. Apple’s patent accounts for transfers that can take place either through the original content provider’s store (i.e., the iBookstore, possibly with a “used” section), or directly between users. In the method where an online store wouldn’t be involved, the user devices themselves determine when an item can and can’t be sold based on criteria put into place by the original publisher (i.e., movie X can’t be sold for at least 60 days after release, and must carry a minimum price tag of $5), and whether or not a percentage commission on the sale is transferred back to either the online store or the material’s publishers.
Items don’t even need to be stored locally for this to work, as the application describes how it would work for cloud-based properties as well. That indicates Apple is thinking about how this might work realistically today, when a lot of iTunes content can be stored in the cloud for later retrieval by a user on any device associated with their iTunes Store ID. Apple Patents A System For The Resale And Transfer Of ‘Used’ Digital Goods.