Postcrossing

Postcrossing
Web address postcrossing.com
Slogan "Send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!"
Type of site
 Project website
Registration Yes
Available in English
Owner Postcrossing Lda.
Created by Paulo Magalhães
Launched 14 July 2005[1]
Alexa rank
 26,989 (April 2014)[2]

Postcrossing is an online project that allows its members to send and receive postcards from all over the world. The project's tag line is "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!”[3] Its members, also known as postcrossers, send postcards to other members and receive postcards back from other random postcrossers. Where the postcards come from is always a surprise.

Postcrossing is the union of the words "postcard" and "crossing" and its origin "is loosely based on the Bookcrossing site".[4] However, the "crossing" or exchange of postcards works in a different way. A member sends a postcard to another postcrosser and receives a postcard back from a random postcrosser. Exchanges between the same two members only occur once; although direct swaps between members happen, they are not part of the official happenings on the site. The project is completely free and anyone with an address can create an account. However, the postcards themselves and postage fees to mail them are the responsibility of each user.

By June 2015 Postcrossing had more than 554,570 members in 213 different countries[5] who had registered and exchanged over 30 million postcards that have traveled over 151 billion kilometers.[6]

The highest concentration of Postcrossing members reside (in order) in the United States, Russia, China, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Finland, Belarus, Ukraine and Brazil.[7] Globally, most postcrossers reside in North America, Europe, and East Asia. Of particular note, Postcrossing is popular in eastern European and former-Soviet states. As of January 2012, more than a quarter of the combined total of postcards were sent from Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.[8]

How it works

The main idea is that if a member sends a postcard he or she will receive at least one postcard back from a random postcrosser somewhere in the world.

The first step is to request to send a postcard. The website will display, and send the member an e-mail with, the address of another postcrosser and a postcard ID (e.g.: US-787). The postcard ID uniquely identifies that postcard in the system. The member then mails a postcard to that postcrosser and writes the postcard ID on it. The postcrosser receives the postcard and registers it using the postcard ID that is on the postcard. At this point, the sender is eligible to receive a postcard from a different postcrosser.[9]

Initially each member can have up to 5 postcards traveling at any single time. Every time one of the sent postcards is registered, that postcrosser can request another address. The number of postcards allowed to travel at any single time goes up the more postcards a member sends and stops at 100.[10]

The Postcrossing system allows for the same two members to exchange postcards only once. By default, members will exchange postcards with countries other than their own; however, the users can decide to exchange postcards with other users in his or her own country. Users are allowed to untick the "send to repeated countries" option in their profile, however this does not guarantee no repetitions.

A small percentage of mailed postcards get lost during their travels; others may arrive with the postcard ID unreadable and are difficult to register. There are also members who become inactive while postcards are on the way to them. The system behind the website accounts for all these factors and compensates active members by attempting to reduce the difference between the number of sent and received postcards of each member.

Users distribution

Last updated February 14, 2016.

Countries with most users [11]
Ranking Country Users Sent postcards
1.  Russia 73,599 3,752,434
2.  Taiwan 64,498 1,537,821
3.  United States 57,220 3,457,539
4.  China 56,143 1,539,593
5.  Germany 44,200 4,599,652
6.  Netherlands 35,915 3,092,544
7.  Poland 28,226 986,565
8.  Belarus 24,790 1,617,447
9.  Ukraine 23,999 1,182,898
10.  Finland 19,200 2,466,737
11.  Czech Republic 16,430 730,950
12.  United Kingdom 12,693 670,820
13.  France 10,904 576,737
14.  Canada 8,603 548,787
15.  Japan 7,945 718,187
Countries with most sent postcards [11]
Ranking Country Users Sent postcards
1.  Germany 44,200 4,599,652
2.  Russia 73,599 3,752,434
3.  United States 57,220 3,457,539
4.  Netherlands 35,915 3,092,544
5.  Finland 19,200 2,466,737
6.  Belarus 24,790 1,617,447
7.  China 56,143 1,539,593
8.  Taiwan 64,498 1,537,821
9.  Ukraine 23,999 1,182,898
10.  Poland 28,226 986,565
11.  Czech Republic 16,430 730,950
12.  Japan 7,945 718,187
13.  United Kingdom 12,693 670,820
14.  France 10,904 576,737
15.  Canada 8,603 548,787

History

The idea for the project was created by Paulo Magalhães, who started the site on July 14, 2005. The motivation was based on the fact that he liked to receive mail, especially postcards.[12] “The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you’d probably never have heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises – and who wouldn’t like that?”[13]

The project started initially as a hobby for Magalhães, but its unexpected success revealed that the idea was more popular than he ever predicted. He initially hosted the project on an old computer housed in a clothes closet at his home; this setup quickly was shown to be insufficient. Based on word of mouth, the project quickly expanded over the Portuguese borders where the project was developed.

Over time the project received attention from the media which contributed to its growth and popularity. Postcrossing reached its first million exchanged postcards on April 11, 2008 and has since grown even more rapidly.[14] It reached the second million on February 26, 2009, with a postcard that traveled from Germany to Norway.[15] The third million was reached on September 24, 2009 with a postcard traveling from Finland to Slovenia.[16] The fourth million was reached on March 28, 2010 with a postcard traveling from the Czech Republic to the Netherlands.[17] The popularity of the site has even led to the academic community exploring what makes Postcrossing so successful and what other digital communication technologies can learn from that success.[18]

Postcrossing.com celebrated its five-year anniversary on July 14, 2010 with a photography contest for its members.[19] Shortly after celebrating their fifth birthday, Postcrossing.com reached 5,000,000 postcards received on August 24, 2010 with a postcard traveling from Isle of Man (registered under an Italian member) to Thailand.[20] The 7,000,000th postcard was sent on April 4, 2011 from China and received on April 19, 2011 in the Netherlands.[21] The 10,000,000th postcard travelled from Japan to Germany and was registered on January 27, 2012;[22] the 15,000,000th postcard travelled from Germany to Italy and was registered on December 31, 2012.[23] At the moment, 1,000,000 postcards are registered in about 2 months.

Date Time (UTC) Million postcards From To
April 11, 2008 4:00 p.m. 1  Turkey  Romania
February 26, 2009 6:30 a.m. 2  Germany  Norway
September 24, 2009 4:10 p.m. 3  Finland  Slovenia
March 28, 2010 11:20 a.m. 4  Czech Republic  Netherlands
August 24, 2010 8:00 p.m. 5  Italy  Norway
December 30, 2010 12:00 p.m. 6  Spain  Germany
April 19, 2011 7:00 p.m. 7  China  Netherlands
August 2, 2011 11:30 a.m. 8  Finland  Japan
November 3, 2011 7:00 a.m. 9  China  Russia
January 27, 2012 4:50 p.m. 10  Japan  Germany
April 3, 2012 9:10 p.m. 11  United States  Iceland
June 12, 2012 7:30 p.m. 12  United States  Netherlands
August 22, 2012 6:10 a.m. 13  Hong Kong  Russia
October 25, 2012 9:50 p.m. 14  Netherlands  Honduras
December 31, 2012 1:46 p.m. 15  Germany  Italy
March 4, 2013 8:21 a.m. 16  Ukraine  Russia
May 1, 2013 0:21 a.m. 17  Russia  Australia
July 3, 2013 5:53 a.m. 18  Finland  Taiwan
September 2, 2013 3:08 a.m. 19  Ukraine  Germany
October 28, 2013 10:50 p.m. 20  United States  Taiwan
December 23, 2013 21  Netherlands  Italy
February 17, 2014 22  Netherlands  Poland
March 29, 2014 23  Germany  Australia[24][25]
May 31, 2014 24  Latvia  Japan[26][27]
August 10, 2014 11:02 a.m. 25  Netherlands  Germany[28][29]
October 10, 2014 26[30]
June 2, 2015 30[31]  Germany  Portugal[32]

Postcrossing-themed stamps

I ❤ postcrossing. Russian Post, 2015
Belarusian postcrossing-themed stamp.

On October 11, 2011, PostNL released the first set of Dutch Postcrossing-themed stamps at the philatelic exhibition Postex in Apeldoorn.[33] The sheet of 10 stamps was designed by communication agency The Stone Twins, and depicted different types of postcards seemingly strewn about (as if scattered on a doormat).[34]

Finland was the second country to follow suit, with Itella launching their own stamps in honor of Postcrossing on September 9, 2013. Designed by Kokoro & Moi, the set includes 4 different first-class stamps.[35]

On January 2, 2014, Belposhta also launched their own Postcrossing-themed stamps in Belarus. The stamp was designed by Inga Turlo and features the words "Happy Postcrossing" in both English and Belarusian.[36]

On May 28, 2014, Guernsey Post launched a stamp designed by their marketing team, featuring the words Happy Postcrossing depicted over an outline of Guernsey with a smiley face, giving the "thumbs-up" to the hobby of Postcrossing.[37]

On January 27, 2015 the Russian Post issued a stamp designed by Olga Shushlebina. The stamp features the words “Я ❤ посткроссинг” (Russian: “I ❤ postcrossing”) and schematic pictures of world sights.[38]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Postcrossing. History". Postcrossing.com. 2005-07-14. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  2. ↑ "Postcrossing.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  3. ↑ Magalhães, Paulo. "Postcrossing". Retrieved 2009-01-01.
  4. ↑ 129860, Sho (2006-05-08). "Postcrossing - The Postcard Crossing Project". BBC H2G2. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
  5. ↑ "Users Stats". postcrossing.com. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  6. ↑ "Postcards Stats". postcrossing.com. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  7. ↑ Postcrossing statistics page
  8. ↑ Magalhães, Paulo (2010-03-28). "Postcrossing Stats". Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  9. ↑ Crews, Barbara (2007-07-01). "Random Postcards from Around the World: Postcrossing!". about.com. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
  10. ↑ Magalhães, Paulo. "Postcrossing - Help - How many postcards can I send?". postcrossing.com. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
  11. 1 2 "Countries in Postcrossing". Postcrossing. Archived from the original on 14 February 2016.
  12. ↑ Faxon, Hilary (2008-07-17). "Interview: Paulo Magalhães, Founder of Postcrossing.com". shanghaiist.com. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
  13. ↑ Widmer, Laurent (2008). "Where is your postcard?" (PDF). Union Postale. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
  14. ↑ postcrossing.com (2008-04-11). "Postcrossing Hits 1 Million Exchanged Cards". prlog.org. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
  15. ↑ postcrossing.com (2009-02-26). "2 million received postcards! YAY! Can you believe it?". Retrieved 2009-03-02.
  16. ↑ postcrossing.com (2009-09-25). "One, two, three! 3 million postcrossing postcards!". Retrieved 2009-09-26.
  17. ↑ postcrossing.com (2010-03-28). "4 000 000 postcards!! :D". Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  18. ↑ Kelly, Ryan; Gooch, Daniel (2012-01-01). "Understanding Participation and Opportunities for Design from an Online Postcard Sending Community". Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference. DIS '12 (New York, NY, USA: ACM): 568–571. doi:10.1145/2317956.2318041. ISBN 978-1-4503-1210-3.
  19. ↑ postcrossing.com (2010-07-14). "5 years and counting". Retrieved 2010-07-14.
  20. ↑ postcrossing.com (2010-08-24). "5000000 postcards received!". Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  21. ↑ Postcrossing post 7,000,000th card Archived May 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  22. ↑ "10,000,000 registered postcards!". Postcrossing.com. 2012-01-27. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  23. ↑ "15,000,000 postcards registered!". Postcrossing.com. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  24. ↑ Postcrossing Project (2014-04-10). "Postcard DE-3043747 (Germany)". Postcrossing.com. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
  25. ↑ Postcrossing Project (2014-04-10). "Here's the lucky postcard ...". Twitter. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
  26. ↑ Postcrossing Project (2014-05-31). "Postcard LV-150063 (Latvia)". Postcrossing.com. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
  27. ↑ Postcrossing Project (2014-06-10). "Here it is, lucky postcard ...". Twitter. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
  28. ↑ Postcrossing Project (2014-08-10). "Postcard NL-2612179 (Netherlands)". Postcrossing.com. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  29. ↑ Postcrossing Project (2014-08-10). "25 million postcards!". Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  30. ↑ Postcrossing Project (2014-10-10). Twitter https://twitter.com/postcrossing/status/520420202367156225. Retrieved 2014-10-10. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  31. ↑ Ana (meiadaleite) (2015-06-02). "30 Million Postcards!". Postcrossing blog. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  32. ↑ Postcrossing Project (2015-06-02). "Postcard DE-4221494 (Germany)". Postcrossing.com. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  33. ↑ "Postcrossing stamp launch". Postcrossing.com.
  34. ↑ "The Postcrossing stamp launch". Postcrossing.com.
  35. ↑ "New Postcrossing stamps... from Finland!". Postcrossing.com.
  36. ↑ "A new Postcrossing stamp, from Belarus!". Postcrossing.com.
  37. ↑ "A new Postcrossing stamp... from Guernsey!". Postcrossing.com.
  38. ↑ "A new Postcrossing stamp... from Russia". Postcrossing.com.

External links

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