Welcome to winr, the url shortener that can win you stuff.

Last week we quietly launched winr, a new URL shortener that gives away free prizes.

Here’s the lowdown on our project:

There are quite a few url shorteners in the marketplace; many that offer the same features (or lack thereof). But we felt that room for innovation still existed. Tom, our lead developer, built a URL shortener in his spare time, and we spent some time thinking about how we could release the url shortener to offer a unique experience that would drive user adoption.

In a space where  competitors with significant market share (bit.ly) and barriers to entry (Twitter client integration) exist, what can you do to make an impact and carve out a  niche?

We thought about how companies were using sweepstakes and giveaways as a social media marketing tool on Twitter, and how a Twitter sweepstakes subculture has developed as a result.

Why not a URL shortener that enters its users to win prizes? It sounded like a fun idea. So we built it.

You can win prizes by shortening urls with winr, clicking on wi.nr urls, or by referring people. So for every win triggered in our system, a total of three prizes can be given out: One for the shortener, one for the clicker, and one for the referrer. Good stuff.

So use wi.nr. Our URLs are really short. And you can win prizes too!