Utility is number of users times how much it helps each one. This is the sort of app that helps a very large number of people, but only briefly each time. It's sort of like Google in that respect. I'm not sure how many users Bump has, because this is one of those companies like Dropbox that grows so fast that the last number I heard is always way off, but many millions. They may have more users than anyone else we've funded.
They're also like Google in that most of the hard work is behind the scenes, which tends to affect users' perception of how much the app is doing. To an inexperienced programmer it might seem like it wouldn't be hard to build a search engine-- and in fact it isn't hard to write a crawler and build an index. What makes it hard to build the actual Google is (a) the scale on which they operate and (b) the refinements they employ beyond merely searching an index. It's basically the same with Bump. They have to operate on a large scale, and to work reliably they have to deal with all sorts of weird edge cases.
I don't think this really answers the question of what Bump brings to the table, though. There's no doubt in my mind that Bump is growing like crazy, or that they're doing really hard work to make that happen and provide a good product, but... none of this matters to me as a user. What I care about is what Bump gives me that other products/services don't. What is that?
Oy. The reason I didn't explain what Bump does is precisely the question you thought it was improper to ask him: since he's a Bump user, he already knows.
What Bump does is mutually authenticate two smartphone users by having them bump their phones together, and correlating the accelerometer readings. On top of authentication you can build all sorts of things, starting with exchanging contact info. The hard/critical part is reliability.
Sorry, I think we're talking past each other here. I understand what Bump does/is, but what I (and I believe the original asker) are missing is where the value is. While I can come up with a million use cases for this, e.g. bumping for payments, bumping to share photos, etc, I believe you're in a fairly unique position to be able to express what the core value proposition of the company -- now and moving forward -- is and why it matters to the users. I don't think focusing on the how or what does that.
Your confusion is really puzzling to me. You seem to understand why it's useful (ability to share contact info, payments, photo sharing), but how is that different from the "value proposition"? As far as I can tell that's the value proposition! It's like Tri Flow for device communication, making it simpler and easier and faster and more convenient. Sounds like value to me.
I could come up with a dozen ways in which Google could use their assets to do new things and potentially increase shareholder value; that doesn't mean they'll do it. pg is in a fairly unique position to tell us how Bump can add value, not just some random speculation, e.g. from myself.
What sort of confuses me is that normally he is shouting from the rooftops about how a startup changes a user's life, but that's absent. I don't get it, especially because I am bullish on Bump.
They're also like Google in that most of the hard work is behind the scenes, which tends to affect users' perception of how much the app is doing. To an inexperienced programmer it might seem like it wouldn't be hard to build a search engine-- and in fact it isn't hard to write a crawler and build an index. What makes it hard to build the actual Google is (a) the scale on which they operate and (b) the refinements they employ beyond merely searching an index. It's basically the same with Bump. They have to operate on a large scale, and to work reliably they have to deal with all sorts of weird edge cases.