As the world goes through huge changes in how we work and live, remote work and online meetings have become part of our New Normal. Here at Sansan, we’ve been keenly aware of this and we ramped up the release of Virtual Cards – real business cards… but online! Online contact exchange is nothing new, but we’ve taken it to a new level by adding the richness of business card data.
Especially in countries and cultures where business card exchange is the first step in a business encounter, this is a critical step.
How Virtual Cards work
Once the Sansan admin turns on the function, Sansan users can create their own Virtual Card based on their physical business card. Then they issue a URL to share in places such as video conferences and online meetings. Just copy it into the chat dialogue in Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, etc.
The recipient clicks the URL and either (1) sends back their own Virtual Card if they’re a Sansan user or if they’re not a Sansan user, they can (2) immediately take a shot of their card and send it back (which the Sansan user can then scan and add to their contacts, like using Sansan with a physical card.

In this way, both Sansan users and non-Sansan users, as well as users of the Eight app, can get the fill data-rich experience of exchanging cards.
Where you can exchange Virtual Cards
- Online meetings – Share your Virtual Card at the start to break the ice and know where each other stands.
- Video conferences – Swap cards of all your team members and give a unified and professional image.
- Webinars – If you’re a speaker, share your card with participants. Participants can share their cards and network.
- Job interviews – Pass along your company’s card to the interviewee. If you’re recruiting, get a card back from them.
- Online networking events – Stand out from the crowd by sending your full data and getting theirs. Great for follow-up!
Why not just use an SNS or send them my email?
For one, it’s clumsy and unreliable to do an SNS exchange. You have to search for the other person’s account, and if they have a common name it’s hard to find them. Even then, you only get the information they choose to share.
With a business card, you get the exact spelling of their name, their company, job title, phone, email, office address, URL, etc. And it’s accurate. No typos. Add it in Sansan and it goes straight into your customer data.
As for emails, that’s all you get – an email address. And you get whatever other information they share, which is manually entered. The system probably isn’t integrated with your CRM or MA tools either.
Enrich your online interactions, get great data
If you’re on Sansan now, you can start using the feature to get first-party data (the best kind) in all your interactions. To read more about Virtual Cards can benefit you and your company, go here or get in touch with us.