Microsoft Cognitive Services

App developer WildWorld provides a unique online social-shopping community where people who are passionate about outdoor recreation (and gear) connect through shared experiences. People browse photos, identify and locate the products they see, and purchase them online at the best prices. The company switched from the Google Custom Search Engine to Bing APIs provided by Microsoft Cognitive Services to gain scalability, offer consumers far more comprehensive results, and accelerate its entrance into new vertical markets.

“With just a few lines of code, you can get so much power and value for your consumers so quickly that it’s a no-brainer to integrate the Microsoft Cognitive Services APIs with your products.”

—Hassan Uriostegui, Chief Technology Officer, WildWorld

Startup uses intelligence in Bing APIs to create unique consumer experience

WildWorld, Inc.7 employees

United States

High tech & electronics

Company profileFounded in 2014, WildWorld provides a unique social-shopping community where people who are passionate about outdoor recreation

connect through photos, shared experiences, and related products.

Creating a new kind of consumer experienceBased in Santa Monica, California, WildWorld offers consumers a unique community that combines elements of social networking and online shopping in a next-generation user experience. The company was founded on the belief that a growing number of people are eager to connect with those who share their interests, rather than just forming friend-and-family connections on popular social media networks.

According to WildWorld Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer Brett O’Brien, people who are passionate about an activity or hobby want to interact with others who share that passion. They’re also drawn to photos and videos related to that mutual interest. Most important, they’re passionate about the products associated with the activity. “That was our starting point,” he says. “We set out to build a new type of experience that can help people connect around things they’re passionate about, easily find products that interest them, and purchase those items at the best price.”

WildWorld decided to focus initially on a single vertical—the outdoor recreation market—and in January 2016, the company raised $5.1 million in Series A financing from a network of high-value angel investors in the technology, banking, and outdoor recreation industries. According to O’Brien, every year 80 million people in the United States spend $160 billion on hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor activities. To appeal to this demographic, the company developed the WILDWORLD app, which attracted more than 325,000 registered users during beta testing. And those early adopters invited another 3.5 million friends to join once the company launched WILDWORLD in both the Apple and Android app stores in May 2016.

The company designed its app as an online social-shopping community where people browse the profiles of other people who share their outdoor passions, along with profiles of influencers who have joined the community. To augment their own WILDWORLD profiles, people just select and post photos directly from their camera libraries or Instagram accounts. They share the photo’s story and location and assign it a relevant category. Also, just as they might tag people in other social networks, in WILDWORLD they tag the products they’re wearing and using in each photo they post.

The tagging contributes to a key component of the WILDWORLD experience. People can accurately identify the products they see, and if there’s one they like—either something they own or something they want—they can save it to their profile, almost like a wish list. Then the app searches the web and delivers information about the specific fishing rod, waterproof jacket, or other item of interest. The consumer can review details, compare prices, and click to go straight to an e-commerce site to purchase the item—all without leaving the WILDWORLD app.

Finding the best search componentsWildWorld hit some hurdles in developing such an extensive app. The company first used the Google Custom Search Engine to power its app but soon felt that the Google solution came with significant constraints. With Google Custom Search, WildWorld could only target a limited number of major e-commerce sites that carry outdoor products. The company could not exceed that number and had no recourse

“The main problem we ran into with Google Custom Search Engine was the lack of scalability and the constraints it placed on our user experience. With the Bing APIs … we’re able to deliver far more comprehensive, relevant results—the kind that keep consumers coming back for more.”

—Hassan Uriostegui, Chief Technology Officer, WildWorld

Microsoft Cognitive Services

if people were interested in products that didn’t appear on any of the designated sites. To improve its app by providing consumers with a full range of shopping choices, WildWorld replaced the Google Custom Search Engine with Bing application programming interfaces (APIs) from Microsoft Cognitive Services, which include capabilities developed by Microsoft Research.

“The main problem we ran into with the Google Custom Search Engine was the lack of scalability and the constraints it placed on our user experience,” says Hassan Uriostegui, Chief Technology Officer at WildWorld, who came to the United States from Mexico on a “genius visa” more than 10 years ago. “With the Bing APIs, we have infinite scalability. Because we can search every e-commerce site in the world for shoppable images, we’re able to deliver far more comprehensive, relevant results—the kind that keep consumers coming back for more.”

Enriching consumer abilities and search results Microsoft has developed more than 20 intelligence APIs as part of the Cognitive Services collection. WildWorld currently uses two—Bing Image Search API and Bing Autosuggest API—to provide comprehensive image searching and to save people time when they enter search terms. The company plans to use other Cognitive Services APIs to add more features to its app soon.

“We’re excited about what we’ve already achieved by collaborating with Microsoft and using the Cognitive Services APIs,” Uriostegui says. “In the near future, we’ll introduce an integrated related search option where consumers click on a product and see an array of similar products.”

WildWorld also wants to give consumers the ability to zoom in on a product in a photo, such as a particular backpack brand and model, and have Bing identify the product for them. The company may also have Bing identify photos and videos that are inappropriate.

“We think what Microsoft has created is extraordinary,” O’Brien says. “By combining the Bing APIs with our technology and user experience, we power an innovative new way for consumers to interact with shoppable photos and the products associated with their experiences.”

Using technology to augment human experienceAn award-winning visual effects and software expert who has worked extensively with image recognition and image processing, Uriostegui says he is impressed by the capabilities Microsoft has built into its Bing APIs. “I consider the speed Microsoft has achieved with its image recognition totally groundbreaking and the quality of the results remarkable, especially given where the industry stood just two or three years ago,” he says. “I’m impressed because I understand how much data must be managed to search images across the web, quickly recognize the correct colors and shapes, zero in on smaller details, and select the right image from among so many similar ones.”

In embracing machine learning such as the Bing APIs, WildWorld sees significant opportunities to attract and benefit consumers. “By working with Microsoft Cognitive Services, we’re finding smart ways to not only improve the speed and relevance of people’s online activities, but also to create entirely new digital experiences that complement their lifestyles,” O’Brien says. “We share the Microsoft vision of technology that augments human experience.”

“By working with Microsoft Cognitive Services, we’re finding smart ways to not only improve the speed and relevance of people’s online activities, but also to create entirely new digital experiences that complement their lifestyles.”

—Brett O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer, WildWorld

Microsoft Cognitive Services

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published August 2016

Reaching new markets quickly and easilyWildWorld plans to take further advantage of Microsoft technology to position the company for continued success. “We see the Bing APIs playing a critical role in our future growth,” O’Brien says. “Thanks to their sheer scalability, ease of use, and the way Hassan and his team have built our platform, we could launch a new community targeting a different vertical every week.”

O’Brien says it would be natural for WildWorld to move into extreme sports, where people live for their gear and love great photos and videos. The company could also set itself apart with a community for a broad-based fashion vertical, where it would be the first to make it possible for consumers to tag products as easily as they would tag a person in social media—something that doesn’t exist today.

Plus, the company’s development team found the Bing APIs remarkably easy to use. Says Uriostegui, “With just a few lines of code, you can get so much power and value for your consumers so quickly that it’s a no-brainer to integrate the Microsoft Cognitive Services APIs with your products.”

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Cognitive ServicesMicrosoft Cognitive Services REST APIs enable developers to tap into high-quality vision, speech, language, and knowledge technologies, developed with decades of Microsoft research to build intelligent apps. They simplify a variety of AI-based tasks, giving you a quick way to add top-of-the-line intelligence technologies to your apps with just a few lines of code. Simply drop the API call into your app’s code and you’re set.

These APIs integrate into whatever language you prefer, on your platform of choice. Your iOS, Android, and Windows apps will have a consistent user experience. The APIs are constantly improving, learning, and getting smarter, so experiences are always up to date. Documentation, sample code, and community support are available for all Cognitive Services APIs.

For more information about Microsoft Cognitive Services, go to: www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services.

Product Solution TaxonomiesMicrosoft Cognitive Services

Bing Autosuggest APIBing Image Search API

Microsoft Cognitive Services