Business cards serve a very important role in giving an initial point of reference when meeting a new business acquaintance and striking up a conversation. Not having them can make introductions more difficult. However, they have their obvious disadvantages. Toting a carrier around is inconvenient and not having them makes you look unprofessional. Not being able to make that initial conversation by thrusting out your card could harm your networking potential. And knowing what to do with your growing stack of business cards is not always straight forward.

Smartphone proliferation has resulted in excellent alternatives to traditional business cards emerging and there are many options already available that target this market. Korean-based startup, Venster, has developed Profile Me, a solution that allows users to set up a digital personal introduction, which is always with you, even if your business cards are not. The content suggested covers all information that is currently contained on a business card, plus a few other very useful features.

'Profile me' is a service that let users create their own e-business card, which can be shared electronically at encounters or with associates you have spoken to or connected with online. The mini profile contains personal information, as well as a profile photo and brief profile.

One of the key differentiators, compared to the traditional business card (other than the fact that it is digital) is the addition of photos. The application, 'profile me', is connected with facebook and user’s FB profile photo is automatically uploaded to their 'profile me' profile, though it can also be selected from another source. 'Profile me' also features a place where other photos can be uploaded, to give connections a visual profile of yourself. Photos can also be disabled, if users prefer to keep that side of their profile private.

Sharing your profile can be done using your own personal URL assigned when you register. It is displayed in the following format: http://profeel.me/borashow. Profiles can also be shared using the 'share' button on 'profile me', through text massage, kakao talk, e-mail, line, FB, or twitter. But keep in mind that when you use your web business card, there are no barriers to accessing the information contained in it.

You can send your e-business card via text, e-mail, LinkedIn, FB, twitter, Line, etc. Your profile can also be forwarded on to new connections.

Profile Me can also be used as a bulletin board for a number of different SNS accounts

Another service from the developers is 'about me' which can also be used as a business card.

The background color, theme, and text can be manually adjusted and you can upload photos not only from your computer but also from your Instagram and 'about me' galleries.

Whereas 'profile me' functions mainly as a name tag, the concept behind 'about me' is as a homepage. It gathers all of your information from the web (including SNSs) and shows it all together in one location.

Profile Me is compatible with LinkedIn, Twitter, FB, Google Plus, Tumblr, Blogger, Flicker, Youtube, Vimeo, Foursquare, Github and so on, and supports full integration of all the services you signed up for on 'about me'.

Visitors to your personal page are logged and you can get a visitor statistics and check and track their interest in your profi