Everyone likes a free drink. But if you have to pay for a drink (especially pay for someone else’s drink), nothing beats the rock bottom price of $1.00. fbFund competitor BarTab has taken a popular gifting strategy and set a single, low price for drinks purchased through its application.

The drinks can hen be sent to friends, and they can redeem them at a local bar. In order for a friend to redeem a drink, they must provide their cell phone number in order to have their redemption coupon sent to their mobile device which can be shown to the bar tender.So far, BarTab is restricted to a handful of bars in Arizona, but the development team is currently working on expansion.

Given the low price of a drink purchased through the BarTab application, which is considerably cheaper than paying for a drink once you get to the bar, it may be worth it for the bars participating in this program, as they increase their potential for targeted branding.

Not only will his gifting opportunity enable users to recommend a bar to a friend, but the free drink offers an incentive for their friend to actually show up. And who know what will happen once they do show up. For $1.00 per drink, I might gift some drinks to myself, and throw a party. Given the success of the My Starbucks application, which was created by two non-Starbucks employees and operates under a similar gifting system of sending and receiving drinks (coffee and tea, that is), the branding for bars and night clubs could become quite effective should BarTab’s gifting and recommendation format succeed.

Vote for BarTab here.