Mobile Marketing Magazine

Four Go Flirting

Mobile and online flirting service Flirtomatic.  has announced four new hires.
George Mayou joins the company as a Graphic Designer, Jaeseung Chang as an Interaction Designer, Elizabeth Hansen as a Project Manager, and Leonardo Lanese is the company's new front-end Developer.
“Although we've had a very good year this year and we're pleased with our progress, there is still a lot more for us to work on,” says Flirtomatic CEO, Mark Curtis. “We want to be able to deliver the best possible service to our users. In order for us to do that, we're planning some major improvements and these new hires are driven by our desire to develop what we have a lot further.”

fring in Austrian Deployment

fring and Austrian mobile operator mobilkom austria have announced the first ever deployment of fring’s mobile VoIP and mobile Internet community application for a Tier 1 network operator.
Under the agreement, mobilkom austria will give customers of its A1 brand access to a dedicated version of the fring mobile client, containing fring’s open-platform suite of Internet-based mobile communications and community services. This will enable A1 over IP users to talk, chat and interact with each other and all of their online communities, and access mobile web applications, using their mobile’s Internet connection capabilities.
fring  is a mobile Internet community and service that enables its users to talk, chat and interact with other fringsters and Internet services including Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! and others. fring operates on Symbian Series 60 devices, Samsung S60, Sony Ericsson UIQ Smartphones, Windows Mobile, iPhone, J2ME, Linux Mobile and Intel’s Moblin devices, which currently represent more than 1000 mobile handsets
In Phase 1 of the project, the A1 over IP service will be integrated into fring’s SIP service, offering fring users the opportunity of using A1 over IP accounts and also the ability to configure their A1 over IP accounts to work within fring.
Phase 2 will see a fring application being built into mobilkom austria’s mobile offering and pre-installed onto a large number of mobile devices. This will comprise fring’s entire feature set of Voice over IP, instant messaging, real-time presence/availability indication, file transfer, and access to fring’s new always-on mobile Internet applications, ‘fring Add-ons’.
A broader set of A1 products and features will be integrated into fring during phase 2, which the company says will provide a true convergence of residential and mobile SIP telephony, mobile community and mobile Internet provision.
“Today’s announcement represents just the beginning of a sea change in the relationship between mobile VoIP and traditional mobile carriers,” says fring CEO, Avi Shechter. “It demonstrates a recognition by a leading operator that mobile Internet-based communications and community are a valuable and integral part of their current and future eco system.”
The agreement will also see fring & mobilkom austria working closely together to distribute and market the new products via a number of initiatives including pre-installation on handsets, a dedicated landing web page, promotion via the fring German-speaking blog, joint media announcements and online activity.

Libyans Take To The Mobile web

BuzzCity, which provides global wireless communities and consumer services, has published the Q3 2008 myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index, which shows the growing use of the mobile Internet and the ensuing advertiser interest. BuzzCity reports continued growth in Indonesia, which remains in top position despite network irregularities, as well as significant growth in Kenya, USA and Bangladesh.
BuzzCity also reports record growth for demand of its service in Libya, which it says will surprise both the global mobile community and digital advertising industries. Only six months ago Libya sat in 93rd position. BuzzCity says the growth is likely to be directly linked with changes in mobile operator business models, offering affordable and understandable mobile data packages, which typically results in a significant increase in user levels and a consequent increase in brands keen to advertise on BuzzCity’s advertising network.
UK brands have also shown an increased interest in buying mobile advertising space, with BuzzCity having served 48 million paid ad banners to UK users during Q3 2008. This is a 96% increase on ad banners served in Q2 2008 and puts the UK in 16th position in the index, having moved up two places from its Q2 2008 position.
The ranking below shows the number of paid ad banner for Q3 2008, alongside a comparison with those for Q2 2008:
1. Indonesia: 1.8 billion (up 47%)
2. India: 660 million (down 1%)
3. South Africa: 540 million (down 7%)
4. Kenya: 299 million (up 91%)
5. USA: 261 million (up 37%)
6. Bangladesh: 134 million (up 71%)
7. Tanzania: 114 million (up 30%)
8. Libya: 103 million (up 1640%)
9. Romania: 103 million (up 43%)
10. Egypt: 98 million (up 76%)

BuzzCity’s myGamma social network service on mobiles operates on an ad-supported model as a primary source of revenue. Ads are served on myGamma and on more than 2,000 publisher sites globally. BuzzCity tracks the growth of the network and by extension, the growth of the mobile Internet, in more than 200 countries around the world.
The company recently announced that it had secured US$10 million (£5.5 million) growth capital financing by new investor Naspers, a South Africa-based multinational media company. South Africa has consistently featured in the top five countries of the myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index, with the number of paid ad banners having increased five-fold since 2007. To date, the myGamma advertising network has served 12 billion paid advertising banners in 2008, with 1.5 billion served in South Africa alone.
“Increased mobile penetration and reduced mobile data charges invariably sees more consumer activity on the mobile Internet, says BuzzCity CEO, KF Lai. “More and more advertisers and publishers are keen to reach this growing base of consumers who may be difficult to reach via more traditional media outlets. For example, around 40% of South Africa’s population has access to the mobile web, whereas less than 10% access the web via a PC. This means that many big brands, such as banks and real estate agents, are willing to spend up to 70% of their budget on mobile advertising.
“There is a significant segment of the global consumer market whose primary access point to the web is via mobile. Brands that fail to recognise the growing potential of advertising via the mobile channel will lose out to more innovative competitors who are leading the field when it comes to interactive D2C marketing techniques.”

Flirting With Success

David Murphy meets Mark Curtis, CEO of mobile and online flirting company Flirtomatic. As Curtis explains, the Flirtomatic proposition may be based on fun, but as a business, it’s deadly serious.

DM: So Mark, tell us where the idea for Flirtomatic came from

MC: I was working at Fjord at the time, and we were keen to try and get Nokia as a client and Christian Lindholm (now a Director of Fjord), challenged us to dream up five ideas that could be big on mobile in the next few years. So we sat down and asked ourselves what was big on the web, and we could see that online dating was growing phenomenally. So we asked ourselves: ‘What will dating look like when it goes mobile?’ And we decided it would be more fun, more light-hearted, quicker, and someone said: ‘That’s flirting’, and the idea took root immediately. It just sounded exactly right, so this turned into one of the five ideas and Nokia helped us develop it. They introduced us to Avi Azulai, who was the Joint MD of iTouch, who were one of the big mobile content firms in the first wave of that sector, and are now part of Buongiorno. He loved the idea, and a few months later, came on board as a seed investor and Chairman, and I started building the first iteration in late 2004. As time went on, it became clear that Flirtomatic would need a permanent CEO and I was in the best position to take up that role.

DM: Did anything come of any of the other four ideas?

MC: Not yet, but one of them is a stonker. You may see that one. 

DM: So where did you go from there?

Trutap Scores with Goal.com

Mobile social messaging service Trutap has announced the launch of its global content platform, Hornet, and its first publisher partner, Goal.com (http://m.goal.com on mobile). Trutap says that Hornet will enable its users to access a host of exciting new content services launching across Trutap in the next few weeks, free of charge.
With Goal.com, breaking English Premiership League stories are delivered to Trutap at least three times a day. Trutappers across the world can subscribe to the messages for free and enjoy detailed articles and related images on their favourite Premiership teams sent directly to their inbox. 
Hornet enables publishers to plug in unlimited text, images, video links and advertising off-deck for free, which can then be consumed by the service's global user-base. By subscribing to content through Hornet, says Trutap, users will be able to share the news that’s important to them with their friends and their entire mobile community. Trutap says it will soon be announcing more major publishing partners going live on Hornet.
“Our users live their life on the go and as such, need to be able to get the news they want, where they want and how they want,” says Trutap Head of Product, Luke Brynley-Jones. “Whether you're in Mumbai, Jakarta or London, with Hornet we can now give you all the best news and the latest scores from the world's most popular league, the English Premiership. Our users wanted to receive content from us, we've listened and now we've delivered. Goal.com is the first publisher on Hornet and we want to continue to provide our users with the content they want and keep their world mobile.”

Gofresh Launches itsmy.biz

Gofresh has announced the commercial launch of itsmy.biz, which has been in beta for the past year, and which Gofresh claims is the largest social advertising network in the mobile space, with a reach of 4 million mobile Internet users. According to Gofresh, these users are 54% male and 46% female, mainly between 16 and 42 years old, based in the US and Europe.
The rich media-enabled network focuses on three mobile advertising formats: animated full colour banners; mobile site and content branding; and mobile video and TV. The company has fixed prices until the end of 2008 at $4 for CPM banners for all US carriers and off-deck. US mobile video channels can be booked for $40 CPM. In the UK, the banner CPM price is £3, with mobile video priced at £50 CPM. All brand campaigns can be booked directly via the itsmy.biz website.
According to Gofresh, banner clickthrough-rates (CTR) are as high as 2.5%. During the beta phase Mobile TV and video gained the most user attraction, with every video viewed on average 3.5 times on mobile phones. At the start of next year, itsmy.biz will launch the world’s first mobile social advertising bidding system for the UK.

Aggregate Lead

An interesting briefing just now, with not one company but two. At one end of the sofa, mobile social networking firm Moblr. The company has 160,000 registered users, but according to CEO Christophe Hocquet, is currently attracting around 600,000 unique users per month to its site, most of whom don’t register. There are no membership fees, in the absence of which, it has two revenue streams: virtual gifts that members can buy to give to each other. And advertising. Which is where RingRing Media, sitting at the other end of the sofa comes in.
RingRing launched in May and has just clocked up its 100 millionth ad impression. It’s a specialist mobile media planning and buying agency, and its trick is to aggregate the ad content from eight different ad networks, including AdMob, Decktrade and Admoda, though not, at this point, the ones that sell space on a CPM basis, such as Fourth Screen Media.
The ads from these networks are then placed on the mobile Internet properties of its publisher-side clients, which include Moblr, Taptu and Mobango. Around 40% of the revenue from the ads goes back to the originating ad network, with the remainder being split roughly 80/20 in the publisher’s favour.
Moblr boss Hocquet is already impressed with the revenue that RingRing is generating for the company.
“When we started out, we looked at Google, Yahoo!” etc., but they did not work for us,” he told me. “They don’t seem to understand that mobile is not just an extension of the web.”
RingRing Managing Director Ben Tatton-Brown concedes that virtually all the ads the company is placing are for mobile-centric companies like Jamba, Dada and mobile social networking services looking to drive traffic to their mobile offerings. But he believes those who constantly ask when the big mainstream brands will join the mobile party are missing the point.
“There is plenty of money being spent on mobile advertising,” he told me. “Our clients are spending between £10,000 and £400,000 a month. We are just focusing on where the opportunities are today, but come the day that Land Rover or other mainstream brands start spending money on mobile advertising, rest assured, we will be there.”
Using RingRing’s I’AM platform, says Tatton-Brown, mobile web publishers can sell all their advertising inventory, rather than the 20-50% he claims they currently sell. RingRing has also developed a solution for publishers who have an agreement in place with a mobile ad network to sell space on a CPM basis. This sets the CPM network as the default network to serve the ad if the required CPM is achieved, with RingRing’s aggregated network kicking in if not.
“Our theory is that you might as well make some money as no money,” he says.
It sounds sensible in theory, and from the noises Moblr’s Hocquet was making, RingRing’s publishers like what the company has to offer too.

David Murphy
Editor

Regulus Launches YAMWeb Interactive

Regulus Communications has announced the release of YAMweb Interactive 1.0s, which enables social networking via interactive text messaging. The service enables individuals to send text messages in real-time over a private and protected environment via the mobile web. As such, there are no fees for sending individual text messages, though there is a monthly subscription fee, which starts at $2.95 (£1.70). Each private network is managed by an administrator from a web-connected PC or Smartphone.
According to Nielsen Research, US mobile users now text more than they talk on their mobile phones, with teens leading the way with an average of 1,742 messages each month. With YAMweb Interactive 1.0s, says Regulus, groups of teens can now text interactively together within a single message centre, protected by parental control features.
Regulus has also launched YAMweb Interactive 1.0b Business Network Edition for brands to interactively market to customers and prospects within secure customer message centres.
“‘Generation text’ is the predominant consumer group for the mobile marketplace,” says YAMweb Creative Director, Richard L. Austin. “Businesses that continue to rely on phone, PC, or e-mail based services with customers will loose a sizable share of mobile market revenues if they don’t adapt to texting strategies."

ROK Launches GeeSpark Viral Messaging

Mobile entertainment company ROK Entertainment Group has announced the "imminent" worldwide launch of GeeSpark, which it claims is the world’s first mobile viral messaging service. GeeSpark will enable users to chat, and share messages, images and YouTube videos on their mobile phones and forward these to their friends and groups, in a viral fashion.
According to analyst predictions, says ROK, the mobile social networking market is forecast to grow from 54 million users in 2008 to 730 million users over the next five years. According to a report published last week by Juniper Research, the fastest growth will come from the Far East and China. In addition, Juniper predicts it will be ad-funded mobile social networks that will drive the revenue growth of user-generated content from $1.1 billion (£620 million) in 2007 to $7.4 billion in 2013.
GeeSpark has been developed by ROK’s Finland-based mobile services development company, Geniem. GeeSpark is currently in invitation-only Beta mode and will be ad-funded. The service is free to join from Geespark.com and is free to use, so long as the user has a data plan in their mobile tariff.
“In the past few years, there has been a phenomenon uptake in, and migration from, the use of email onto instant messaging and now onto multi-person ‘broadcast’ messaging using PC-based social networking services,” says Geniem Managing Director, Tuomas Kumpula. “We believe the next evolution in the networking space will be through mobile phones.”

Moblr Ties Up with RingRing

Mobile social networking company Moblr has announced a partnership with mobile media agency, RingRing Media. The ad-funded mobile community is using RingRing Media’s mobile ad server, I’AM, to improve user experience by ensuring that ads are as relevant as possible and generate maximum revenue from its inventory.
I’AM works by aggregating ad feeds from multiple ad networks and dynamically routing traffic to the network that is providing the highest revenue-generating ad. The use of consumer data also helps the ad networks to select the most targeted ads, ensuring improved user experience whilst generating the highest ad revenues.
‘Having previously worked with Google’s Mobile AdSense, our new partnership with RingRing Media’s I’AM has transformed mobile advertising from a hobby to a viable business prospect for Moblr, helping us to turn our mobile inventory into money at a much faster pace than with any other individual ad provider,” says Moblr CEO,  Christophe Hocquet.
Moblr is the brainchild of Belgian company Kiboo, established in 2005 with the aim of delivering the best possible mobile Internet experience to users who view the mobile device as their primary networking tool. It builds on key features such as always on, location information, contacts, photo and video capabilities to create better and faster social interaction, and, the company says, has developed into one of the largest mobile centric communities in the world, enabling members to freely share their content, chat, meet and make new friends.

Trutap Strikes Sony Ericsson Deal

Trutap, the mobile social networking service, has revealed that it will be promoted to Sony Ericsson users around the world via the Sony Ericsson Fun & Download portal. Launched in November 2007, Trutap enables its users to chat, group message, upload text and images to blogs, and send pictures via one application.
“Today, young people everywhere want to live life in real time, sharing gossip, pictures, news and experiences as they happen, living and sharing the moment,” says Trutap CEO, Doug Richard. “We are delighted that our partnership with Sony Ericsson, one of the world's leading manufacturers, will gain Trutap unparalleled exposure to new users around the world, especially in emerging markets. This is the beginning of the mobile revolution and as more manufacturers start to realise the potential of independent applications the more innovation we will see.”
Trutap says it has experienced huge growth in emerging markets where it focuses its strategy for expansion. It is currently available in over 200 countries across the world.

Buongiorno Launches blinko Viral Campaign

Mobile content company Buongiorno has launched a €500,000 (£400,000) viral campaign for its Italian mobile social network, blinko, which is currently in beta and due to launch soon.
The campaign was designed and created by DLV Proximity and is being distributed in Italy and Spain by GoViral. It broke yesterday and run or four weeks. The campaign will run on websites and blogs chosen for their ability to influence the opinions of web surfers and that cater to the target audience. GoViral’s brief is to seed the campaign on up to 10,000 websites and blogs, in order to contact more than half a million potential blinko users in Italy and Spain.
The blinko campaign develops the concept of friendship and the desire to stay in touch digitally via mobile phone, using a “human chain” concept. The message of the campaign is summed up in the headline: “Your friends are always with you”, which stresses the value of friendship and the desire to stay in touch with friends at any moment.
The viral blinko video, which is shown on the destination website, presents the key blinko features: status updates, including photos, and the possibility of sending free texts over the Internet. Visitors to the site can also receive an invitation code allowing them to try the product. They are also encouraged to create their own human chain with their friends and post the video online.
Buongiorno notes that the mobile social networking market is expected to grow strongly. In a recent report, ABI Research projected that, by 2013, more than 140 million people will access social networks on their mobile phones, generating subscription revenues of approximately $410 million (£220 million).   

Flirtomatic Hits a Million

Mobile and online flirting service Flirtomatic has revealed that it now has over 1 million registered users, mostly based in the UK. More than half of these are mobile users. The user numbers represent an increase of almost 350% in the past 18 months. In February 2007, Flirtomatic had just 225,000 registered users.
In July of this year, Flirtomatic expanded into Germany, and the company says revenues have grown by 475% since August 2007. The growth is proof, says Flirtomatic, that mobile social networks are starting to emerge and challenge their online counterparts. More importantly, it adds, it's evidence that money can and is being made from mobile, which has been a key element missing from online social networks.
”Having more than a million registered users is a fantastic milestone for us,” says Flirtomatic CEO, Mark Curtis. “With over half of those users being mobile specific, it demonstrates Flirtomatic's appeal to users who want social networking wherever they are and (who) will only use services that offer them an innovative and entertaining experience. We'll continue to be fresh and develop the service further to attract new users and keep our existing users coming back for more.”

Mobile UGC Under the Spotlight

Ad-funded social networks will provide the bulk of revenues in the mobile user-generated content (UGC) space by 2013. So says analyst Juniper Research in a newly-published report, ‘Mobile User Generated Content: Dating, Social Networking & Personal Content Delivery 2008-2013 (Second Edition)’.
The report says that the total value of the UGC market - comprising social networking, dating and personal content delivery (PCD) services - will rise from almost $1.1 billion (£616 million) in 2008 to more than $7.3 billion in 2013, with social networking overhauling dating to become the largest revenue-generating segment by 2009. The report also notes the increasing importance played by advertising, which Juniper says will account for nearly one-third of total revenues in the UGC space by the end of the forecast period, and more than half of mobile social networking revenues.
“It’s clear that we have seen an industry wide shift regarding the implementation of business models in this area,” says the report’s Author, Dr Windsor Holden. “Whereas initially there was a perception that users would pay a small mobility premium to access social networks on their handsets, it rapidly became clear that to achieve truly mass adoption, it would be necessary to offer free membership and then to augment that with advertising and the sale of premium content.”
The Juniper report also notes that, while the iPhone has substantially increased public awareness of mobile content services, there is significant scope for improvement with regards to the marketing of such services within the industry as a whole. It also stresses  the need for operators to reduce data costs outside of bundles to encourage casual use of social networking and dating services. 
According to the report, the number of active users of mobile social networking sites is expected to rise from 54 million in 2008 to nearly 730 million in 2013. The Far East & China region will be most popular in terms of mobile user numbers for mobile social networking and PCD throughout the forecast period, but the Indian Sub-continent will become the largest region for mobile dating services by 2010. And there will be more than 9 billion downloads from PCD sites by 2013, of which 32% will be ad-supported.
The report costs £1,750 for a single-user PDF or hardback copy; £2,500 for a multi-user licence; or £3,750 for an enterprise-wide licence.
There's more information about the report here.

Mobile Social Networking Patterns Revealed

To celebrate the launch of its LifeCache v2.0 mobile social networking solution (see story below), Newbay Software has released statistics that give an insight into mobile social networking usage pattern in the UK.
The average number of mobile social network visits per person per month is five, and the busiest days of the week for mobile social networking activity are Tuesday, followed by Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. Monday is the quietest day, followed by Friday and then Saturday.
The busiest time for mobile social networking is between 10pm and 11pm, with a 17-fold increase in mobile social networking activity between the busiest time of day (11pm) and the quietest time of day (5am). The average duration of each mobile social networking session is 13.7 minutes.
The top five mobile social networking activities are: View & update own profile; Update status; View own home page; View comments on profile; View friends’ profile. Finally, says Newbay, there has been a 280% increase in MMS traffic to mobile social networks since January 2008.

NewBay Launches LifeCache v2.0

NewBay Software has announced the availability of its LifeCache Social Networking v2.0 solution, a combination of the company’s LifeCache Social Networking Gateway and LifeCache Social Networking Client.
LifeCache provides users with an aggregated mobile social networking experience, delivering popular information from multiple online communities, including Facebook, Bebo, YouTube and MySpace in a single feed, enabling subscribers to engage with friends and family across a host of third party sites.
It includes a “one-click media” upload client which enables subscribers to post and share user generated content, such as photos and videos, with a single click. Users can also update their status in real time; view friends’ profiles; browse, download and comment on online media; and send private messages, all from the handset.
LifeCache enables carriers to selectively integrate with multiple social networking sites through the client, WAP or a desktop PC web browser. Carriers do not have to administer each individual relationship - they simply connect to LifeCache and NewBay takes care of the rest.
LifeCache is the technology behind O2 Ireland’s ‘Bebo on my mobile’ and Orange UK’s Bebo services. It also powers several other carrier services such as Vodafone’s ‘My Communities’ and Orange’s ‘Social Networking’ service.
LifeCache is available over-the-air and is pre-loaded on a range of handsets. It supports J2ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone and RIM platforms. NewBay is demonstrating its complete range of LifeCache solutions at CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment 2008 until Friday on booth number 1239.

Voda Pilots Facebook Messaging App

Vodafone UK is trialling a new service that enables all UK mobile users to send text messages from their Facebook profile to friends. The pilot service will be extended later this month to include picture messages. The service has been created in conjunction with the Value Creation Centre, a Vodafone joint innovation initiative with IBM, and Voadone UK’s Vodafone Internet Services division.
Vodafone Connect to Friends lets Facebook users send texts and picture messages without having to switch from PC to mobile simply by installing the ‘Vodafone Connect to Friends’ application to their Facebook profile. The application allows users to send messages not only to their online Facebook friends but also to non-Facebook users and groups. Vodafone Connect to Friends can be used by anyone regardless of their choice of UK mobile operator.   
Once people subscribe, Vodafone provides 25 free text credits to get customers started. Further messaging credits can be bought securely via the online payment system Payforit. Prepay customers will get any additional credits deducted straight away from their top-up accounts. Contract customers will see additional credits on their monthly bill highlighted as ‘Vodafone Connect to Friends’.
The cost of sending texts and picture messages via Vodafone Connect To Friends is set at 10p per text and 30p per picture message for the duration of the pilot. An added advantage of the service, says Vodafone, is that travellers can also text their friends from overseas at UK rates.
“With more than 20 million social network users in the UK alone, it is the perfect market in which to test a Vodafone service that allows all mobile users to send texts and picture messages via the Facebook experience,” says Vodafone Group Internet Services Director, Pieter Knook. “Through this partnership Vodafone aims to continue its commitment to provide easy access to communication services and communities by bringing the worlds of mobile and PC Internet together. This is a ground breaking social networking opportunity for all UK mobile users.”
You can try out the new application here.

Virgin Mobile France Selects Miyowa

Miyowa, which provides instant messaging and presence-enriched Mobile Web 2.0 technologies, has announced its 21st operator deployment at the MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), Virgin Mobile France, which will provide Miyowa’s ‘MoveMessenger’ solution to its customers.
Launched in 2006, Virgin Mobile France has just announced its one millionth subscriber and is France’s fourth largest mobile operator. On 27 August, the company unveiled ‘ExcessGold’, a subscription package which includes community services such as unlimited SMS and emails, and also Windows Live Messenger, running on Miyowa’s platform.   
“Virgin Mobile France… is our twenty-first deployment at an operator, which proves that our technology is reputed and trusted,” says Miyowa CEO Pascal Lorne. “Our technology is designed to serve the needs of today’s market. In France today, 90% of 12-24 year olds’ own a mobile phone. This is why we are focused on providing innovative and exciting solutions that are perfectly suited to the target market.”

BuzzCity Secures Funds to Drive Growth

BuzzCity, which develops global wireless communities and consumer services, has secured $10 million (£5.5 million) growth capital financing from new investor Naspers, a South Africa-based multinational media company.
BuzzCity will use the financing to extend market share for its core property, myGamma.com and its network of sites. The company says its growth strategy will continue to focus on growing the membership base of myGamma; developing more user-generated content through member services and applications; investing in applications aimed at maximizing partnership opportunities; and growing myGamma’s portfolio of advertising clients.
“The growth opportunity for off-deck services continues to grow globally,” says BuzzCity CEO,  KF Lai. “We’ve seen phenomenal growth in markets in South Asia and Africa and in the coming year, we expect to see this growth to include markets in Europe and USA. The common footprints we have make this a strategic relationship for developing our media properties, particularly in South Africa, India and Thailand. We look forward to working closely with the group to ramp up our growth.”
During the first six months of 2008, traffic to the myGamma network of partner sites has exceeded 6 billion pageviews. Juniper Research recently predicted that the number of mobile phone users globally will increase from 577 million to 1.7 billion by 2013, with applications such as social networking and user-generated content being key drivers for this growth. Ian Chard, Analyst at Juniper Research, says:
“The market opportunity for BuzzCity is clear. BuzzCity’s myGamma community has made stunning headway in the mobile social networking space, reaching 2.7 million users across 70 countries. As an off-deck application, it has successfully applied the D2C business model in an operator-dominated market, and established a strong advertising base that hit 1.7 billion paid ad impressions in July 2008 alone.
“Furthermore, myGamma serves two distinct audiences: the newly-connected emerging middle class in developing markets, and blue-collar users in developed regions – making it a shining example of how the social web can span demographic, as well as geographic divides.”

Next2Friends Expands

Next2Friends, the mobile social media platform, has announced the availability of its ‘Live’ mobile video streaming application on the Motorola Q series and the Samsung Blackjack II. Previously designed for the Symbian S60 range of devices, Next2Friends has now completed development for the Windows Mobile 6 platform along with a number of other popular operating systems, in response to global demand for its services.
Both the Motorola Q range and the Samsung Blackjack II are among the top-selling Smartphones in the US. Samsung’s recent announcement that it has sold 150 million handsets in the US and Microsoft’s shipping of 4.5 million Windows Mobile devices in Q1 2008 are reported to have been supported by the success of these two stand-out models.
“Anyone owning these handsets knows they are feature rich and well-designed.” says Next2Friends CTO,Anthony Nystrom. “By bringing Next2Friends to the best mobile devices on the market, we will ensure that Next2Friends is the first choice for connected consumers around the world.”
Next2Friends Live allows people to share real-life moments from anywhere, be it through live broadcasted news developments, capturing major life events, or bringing happenings across the world closer to home. The application, soft-launched in late 2007 and officially released in June 2008, is continually being enhanced by the Next2Friends development team. New features recently incorporated include one-click streaming; the ability to zoom, pause or re-start live streams; and automatic quality selection, to guarantee the best streaming experience, independent of location, carrier or connection speeds.   
Next2Friends’ says its mobile-based applications have been designed so people can get the most out of life by vastly extending the capability and usability of mobile devices. Other applications in the suite include automatic ‘snap and upload’ of photos to the web; opinion polling on the move; and location-based social networking.
Next2Friends’ range of products and services are free to install and use, with members only paying for networked data traffic via their carrier. Advanced compression technology ensures that all content is reduced to a fraction of its original size, with no degradation of quality or delays.
Fully supported devices include most popular models from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and LG, as well as an ever increasing number of Motorola and Samsung phones. To install Next2Friends Live on your handset, fill out the 60-second registration form here, then go to the download page here.

Mobile Advertising Beyond the iPhone

KF Lai, CEO of mobile social networking firm BuzzCity, cautions brands not to become too fixated on the iPhone 

The mobile advertising industry is experiencing explosive growth, as more and more brands and content owners realise its potential. A recent report by Gartner predicts that the mobile advertising market will grow from less than $1billion (£535 million) last year to surpass $2.7 billion in 2008, and $12.8 billion by 2011. Many members of the mobile industry have been quick to position the iPhone at the forefront of this boom, but we at BuzzCity believe that this forms only part of the story. 
While the birth of the iPhone has certainly fuelled interest in mobile advertising among big brands in the Western world, the majority of mobile users in developing markets are still using simple mobile handsets such as the Nokia N73 for mobile Internet browsing. These users are prime targets for mobile advertisers in these regions, especially because the use of PCs is generally very limited, which makes it difficult to reach a more traditional online audience. Even in the UK, there is a large consumer sector which does not regularly access the Internet via the PC, but prefers to do so via mobile phone. This is particularly true for workers on the move, such as delivery staff or lorry drivers. 

Well Wadja Know

Wadja, the mobile web, media and messaging service, has launched SMS Plus, which it claims is the first service to enable people to contact large groups simultaneously, whatever social network they are on. The SMS Plus service enables Wadja members to manage communication and interaction from any mobile web device, anywhere in the world.
Wadja is the only social network to collate its members’ contacts from multiple online sources, email address books and mobile phone lists, the company says. As a result, members can manage their email, SMS and web communication from a single interface, reaching out across the divide of multiple social networks. SMS messages cost less than 5p to send using the Wadja SMS Plus service. One-to-one SMS  messages to friends using Wadja are free.
“This is a service designed for the social networker on the move,” says Wadja Managing Director, Alex Christoforou. “Using the SMS Plus service, users can now contact all their friends and family, across platforms from their mobile.”

Bebo Says Kane is Able

Social media network Bebo has appointed Sean Kane as Global Head of Mobile. In his new role, Kane will head the development of relevant and compelling mobile experiences for Bebo's 45 million plus users worldwide. Kane joins Bebo from mobile social networking platform provider Intercasting Corporation. Prior to this, he served as Senior Vice President, Business Development for Vivendi Universal Net.
“Mobile is emerging as a core part of the Bebo experience,” says Kane. “By driving availability and adding compelling and unique mobile experiences, we hope to make using Bebo Mobile as natural for our global user-base as connecting on a personal computer. We will ensure that our members can connect and enjoy the content, media and community Bebo has to offer in a mobile-relevant way.”
In recent months, Bebo has partnered with mobile operators to introduce programs to engage and entertain users wherever they are. In February 2008, Bebo further expanded its mobile offering and partnered with Intercasting to give its users a new way to produce and share content on their mobile phones via ANTHEM, a platform which connects mobile carriers with social networking sites and entertainment companies.

Itsmy.com Launches "Social Phone Book"

Mobile social network itsmy.com has launched what it says is the first social phone book on the mobile Internet. There is no application download needed. All features can be accessed via a mobile browser at: http://m.itsmy.com
Everybody on the mobile web has now the opportunity to create an individual, interactive social phone book by just a few clicks, the company says. The mobile web phone book consists of single contacts with all profile details from your friends, such as phone numbers, pictures and links to favourite mobile sites, as well as a number of social networking features like direct access to community actions, messaging, sharing and voting.
During Q3/2008, itsmy.com says it will be possible to add videos and location to your phone book details, as well as direct access to your personal mobile social TV channel.
“We will transfer the complete personal phone book from the mobile device into the mobile web, make it social and add every possible feature, including voice and video calls,” says itsmy.com CEO, Antonio Vince Staybl.

Next2Friends Launches Interactive Marketing Services

Next2Friends, the mobile social media platform, has released details of its forthcoming Interactive Marketing Services (IMS) solution. Extending social media marketing into the real world, in real time, heralds a new era of opportunity for modern marketers and an innovative way to successfully commercialise social networks and user-generated content (UGC) propositions, the company says.
Next2Friends IMS utilises patent-pending, proprietary mobile technology and blends the proven benefits of online community interaction, social media marketing and traditional offline advertising into a comprehensive, scalable and innovative range of marketing tools. The company says the platform enables companies to target their messages to the right customer, at the right time and in the right place for optimised results and efficiency, delivering a rich set of product and brand advertising solutions that engage communities both online and in the real world.
“Our unique approach of combining Internet and mobile interaction has enabled Next2Friends to offer a suite of marketing services that leads consumers from site, to store, to sale,” says Next2friends CEO, Roy Shelton.
The tiered suite of services has been structured to provide cost-predictive solutions to advertisers and brands looking to take advantage of this vast new landscape. ‘Baseline’ packages offer entry-level exposure, while ‘Summit’ packages incorporate a full range of complementary services and support, including auto ad injection, infomercial uploads and location-based mobile messaging features. The company says it has already signed several contracts, and will be going live next month with a number of confirmed customers.
Next2Friends IMS has been developed with the requirements of key industry sectors in mind, the company says. Retailers and service businesses can deploy promotional incentives and discounts via electronic coupons and vouchers that will target shoppers based on location and profile interests, ultimately driving footfall and sales.
Media and entertainment brands can tap into the viral distribution capabilities of the Next2Friends platform while creating a 360-degree user experience. Bloggers, podcasters and small publishers can use the same features to extend their reach and exposure with audio books, magazines and articles being driven to relevant people’s handsets in real time.
Mobile carriers and content providers can also benefit from the service by engaging new customers via their handsets to provide both free and premium content and services thereby driving increased data/content ARPU and subscriber adoption, while ensuring brand loyalty and advocacy.
“Virtual communities are incredibly loyal, yet notoriously difficult to gain traction with,” says  Shelton. “By delivering relevant, real-time opportunities to interact with brands and offers when people can actually take advantage of them, Next2Friends IMS can help convert interest into involvement, and ultimately purchase.”
There’s more information here.

CellSpin Adds iPhone Support

CellSpin Soft has added the iPhone to its mobile blogging software platform list. CellSpin says it is the first company to provide a secure, intelligent, one-click, simple GUI-based mobile application for the iPhone, allowing iPhone users to capture audio, photos and text, or select existing media on the iPhone, and publish that media to one or many of a user's favourite blogging, social networking, photo sharing and/or auction sites simultaneously. These sites include MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Blogger, Picasa, Flickr, Live Journal, Live Spaces, TypePad and eBay, with more to come.
CellSpin’s free iPhone application allows users to perform voice, photo or text blogging; to use CellSpin as a Voice Notes application; use the MySpace and Facebook MoBlog application from CellSpin; securely post audio, photos and text to live eBay auctions; Podcast with a click of a button; record and send voice meeting minutes instantly to a web blog; and share media on CellSpin’s community blogs, called ‘clogs’, on various  topics.
“The iPhone is the mobile platform CellSpin was created for,” says CellSpin CEO and Co-founder, Bobby Gurvinder Singh. “This perfect blend of our elegant application and Apple's sophisticated hardware produces a combination that is intuitive to the user, yet also a tour de force of technical capabilities.”
CellSpin Client Architect Vince Laviano adds:
“We're really excited to bring CellSpin to the iPhone. We've created the Swiss Army knife of mobile blogging software. I can't wait to see all the things people do with it."
CellSpin’s application is free to users worldwide, and is available on the CellSpin website, as well as at the Apple App Store.
In addition to the iPhone, CellSpin supports the Symbian, Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0, Palm OS and Blackberry operating systems, with others to follow soon. There’s a list of the 300-plus handset models that the software currently supports worldwide here.

BuzzCity Study Highlights What the People Want

BuzzCity, which provides global wireless communities and consumer services, has revealed the results of worldwide research conducted with users on its myGamma portal. The research examines which products and services will best meet the needs and interests of myGamma members over the next 12 months. By surveying members’ current spending patterns and upcoming life milestones, BuzzCity hopes to arm mobile web developers and advertisers with the information to design relevant WAP sites, as well as products, services and promotional offers that will appeal to mobile Internet users.   
Wireless consumers are eager to access new services via the mobile Internet, BuzzCity says. From m-commerce to mobile banking, respondents seem keen to explore all available options, but are often unaware that particular services exist. For example, more than half of the survey respondents (51%) say they would use their mobile phones for financial services, if such services were available in their country, and one third would like to be able to transfer money. 
“Consumers want to make payments with their mobiles but many are not yet aware that these services exist,” says BuzzCity CEO, KF Lai. “Signs point to a need for marketers to share more product-related information on the mobile Internet.”
More than half of those surveyed have made electronic purchases, with one in five having bought items via their mobile. Books, downloads and virtual gifts are the most popular items bought. Items for online gaming are also in demand, as are other digital products such as movies and music. This suggests that myGamma users are becoming very comfortable with the digital lifestyle. 12% of users also express a significant interest in buying movie and travel tickets via mobile.
Money transfers and remittances are in demand, with 37% of those surveyed requesting access to these services. A further group of respondents would like to use their mobiles for enhanced banking services, such as share trading and foreign exchange. Consumers would also consider using their mobile phones for day-to-day services such as ordering groceries, paying café or restaurant bills, and paying parking fees. One in 10 respondents also wants more services from their telco carriers, with a number of respondents with pre-paid cards requesting top-up services via mobile. 
As mobile Internet usage continues to grow, insights from the survey point to a future where consumer demand for practical services will drive the uptake of m-commerce.
“Consumers want more news, information and search capability via the mobile Internet,” says Lai. “There is definite demand for more content, and not just entertainment content. Users want access to practical information, such as classified ads for jobs or property.
“The number of survey respondents that have made electronic purchases augurs well for m-commerce and e-commerce, as it suggests the presence of a reliable logistics framework and the inherent consumer trust needed to make it all work, as well as the required enabling tools and technology.”

Alltel Debuts JuiceCaster V6.0

US operator Alltel Wireless has announced the launch of the all-new JuiceCaster version 6.0.  Alltel, which has offered previous versions of the JuiceCaster social communications utility for mobile phone users since 2007, now offers version 6.0 on more than 20 different handsets. 
JuiceCaster 6.0 includes many new features, such as the ability to post video status updates directly from the mobile phone to leading online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and the ability to create groups for one-touch, instant video sharing  to mobile phones, email and online social networks.
There’s also powerful social bookmarking integration with services such as Digg and De.li.cious, and the ability to post mobile videos as blog entries on blogging platforms such as Blogger and Typepad. Members can also invite non-members to subscribe to a JuiceCaster member's status updates. Members can also watch and interact with user-generated videos on the phone.
These features build on JuiceCaster's core social broadcasting features, which enable users to simultaneously send pictures and videos instantly from their phones to MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Photobucket, and other popular online destinations.
JuiceCaster 6.0 will be offered at $1.99 (£1) for a 1-day pass, $3.99 permonth, or $9.99 for a 90-day unlimited use pass.
“Social networking is about connecting with your friends and knowing what they are doing,” says  Nick Desai, CEO of Juice Wireless, the company that created JuiceCaster. “With version 6.0, Alltel Wireless customers can now connect and share videos and status in real-time, right from the phone. We are excited to launch this new version with Alltel Wireless, which was our first Tier 1 carrier partner in the US.”

Study Highlights the Mobile Lifestyle

Vodafone has published details of a research study into mobile Internet, email and social network access. The research found that 62% of mobile phone users check their email on the move; more than 45% of UK mobile phone users access Internet through their mobile; and 24% of mobile phone users in the UK connect to social networks on the move.
The study, which was conducted by ICM Research and the London School of Economics, questioned 1,000 mobile phone users in the UK during the month of June. Vodafone accredits the  upsurge in mobile Internet use to several factors, including easier access via a 3G network; mobile operators signing contracts with more free and social network providers; and a new pricing structure that includes data in the voice and text tariffs, empowering consumers to surf the mobile Internet with greater confidence.
The number of mobile email and social network users is substantially higher in the 18-24 age group. This, says Vodafone, suggests that with technology-savvy youngsters leading the way and given the enormous room for growth in the mobile social network market, usage is likely to increase significantly in the future. Although the 18-24 age group leads the way, however, the research reveals significant interest in accessing the mobile Internet across all age groups, including the over-65s.
Those questioned said the main barrier to using mobile devices for social networking and email is the perceived threat of high bills, with 41% saying they would be “very likely” to use the mobile Internet more often if cost was not a factor.
“Mobile internet has come a long way since we launched it last summer,” says Vodafone UK Head of Content, Al Russell. “Vodafone has been constantly improving the service, making it more simple and easier for customers to set up and use. Ever since we bundled the mobile Internet into our consumer price plans we’ve seen usage double, and a lot of this is driven by social networks and email."
The study also looked at how integrated social networking sites and email are in consumers’ everyday lives by asking users what impact losing access to email and social networks would have on respondents’ work and social life. In response to this question, 25% said losing email would ruin their day, while 12% said not being able to access social networks would ruin their day
The results were interpreted by Professor Leslie Haddon of the Media and Communication Department at the London School of Economics, who argues that the lower figure for the impact of losing access to social networking sites can be accredited to the long established presence of email in the market;
“This is a strong indicator of how email has been integrated into the lives of those who use it,” says Professor Haddon. “But despite the lower figure for social networking sites, it suggests that a significant minority have already become somewhat dependent on using them as well.”
While mobile devices offer the opportunity to access websites at any time, the study looked into the time of day that people log on to email and social networks to establish how the role of mobile Internet can change web access patterns.
39% of Internet users said that they access email anytime of the day, with 26% saying they access it predominantly in the evenings, and 20% saying they only check email on their phone during the day. The corresponding figures for social networking sites on the mobile are 16%, 18% and 5%, respectively.

Orange Unites Social Networks

Orange is bringing together a number of leading European social networking sites within its Orange World portal. The new service combines access to the sites’ popular functions into a single destination. The news follows the completion of partnership agreements with MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, whose members will be able to view their profile updates, including emails, comments from friends, and recently-uploaded pictures, alongside others from Skyrock, Pikeo, Flirtomatic, DailyMotion and Meetic. Orange notes, however, that Facebook and Bebo and Flirtomatic are available initially only in the UK, while Skyrock and DailMotion are available initially only in France, and Meetic is available initially only in Spain and France.
The service, which lets users keep in touch with their friends “wherever they are”, has launched in France and will follow soon in the UK, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. It works by displaying the most popular functions of multiple social networks side by side these so that they can be accessed more simply with one click. Consumers will now be able to receive and send messages, upload photos and check status updates without having to browse individual URLs or log into separate sites. Orange plans to evolve the service from Orange World to an embedded application, accessible from the home screen of Orange Signature phones. It says the ultimate goal is to bring these communities together across all three screens: mobile, PC and TV. 
“Our partnership with MySpace shows that mobile is a seamless extension of the online experience, not an alternative to it,” says Olaf Swantee, Head of Orange Global Mobile Operations. “This service illustrates how Orange is aggregating digital content to simplify access to social networks from mobile devices. In future, Orange will deliver digital entertainment across mobile, TV and broadband, giving consumers content not just where they want it, but how they want it.”
Paul-Francois Fournier, Senior Vice President for Portal Strategy and Online Advertising at Orange adds that the new service supports Orange’s cross-platform advertising strategy with “a compelling offer for advertisers to reach all those different communities in one single place on Orange World portals.”

Instant Success

David Murphy catches up with Pascal Lorne, CEO of mobile Instant Messaging company Miyowa

DM: So Pascal, you’ve just closed an $8 million (£4 million) funding round. What are you going to do with the money?

PL: We’ll use it to finance the development of our US operations. We’re now a leader in Europe and Asia for mobile IM (Instant Messaging) and we want to take advantage of this position to go to the US market. 
We’ll also use it to invest more deeply into our new product line. This is an intelligent dynamic address book which will be officially launched by the end of July. It allows the user to get on their phone’s contact list a kind of dashboard showing who is doing what. So you get their name and number of course, but you also get a small icon showing who is listening to music, who is updating photos on their blog, who has video files to share, so at any time if you browse your contact list, you have this dashboard of the activities your close friends are up to, so you’re never alone, you’re always connected. It’s a purely optin system, so it’s not intrusive, but the first tests we have run show that teenagers are very willing to let other people know what they’re doing.

DM: Will you charge for it?

PL: It will be distributed by carriers and we are pushing very hard for the carriers to give it away for free, because they will accumulate the data usage. It’s a great way to stimulate data traffic

DM: Where will it be available?

PL: In Europe and the US initially. We will have deals in place with three carriers in Europe by the end of the year, with the first one launching in September.

DM: So what else has been happening since we last spoke?

PL: Well the company now has operations in Europe, Asia and US. We have 86 people, and offices in London, Paris, Madrid, Munich, Berlin, Singapore, Taipeng and Cupertino. In the last 12 months, the company has doubled its revenues, just as it has for the last four years, and we are predicting that we will double our revenues again this year to achieve a revenue of between $12 and $20 million. 

DM: And how do the revenues break down?

PL: 50% comes from mobile IM, 30% from mobile email, and 20% from blogs, picture sharing and social networking.

DM: And if you fast-forward 12 months, how will the split look then?

PL: Well we think the new product line, the rich address book, will generate 50% of our revenues by 2010, based on own research, and the footprint and the traction we are getting from our customers today. Our carrier customers have all shown a very strong interest in the new line of products.

DM: So how difficult is it to stay focused on what you do. You haven’t jumped on the mobile advertising bandwagon, for example.

PL: It is hard to stay focused, but having said that, as CEO, my main role is  to lead the vision and focus of the company, and in order to do that, I don’t  go to the office every day. I talk to customers all over the world, and I visit Japan every month, because this is the most advanced market. We have run trials in Europe and Japan on mobile advertising, and I can tell you that these tests show that there is interest from the end-user perspective, but as far as advertisers are concerned, there is not much interest in replacing the commercial (paid-for) model with the advertising model.
When we see sufficient interest from advertisers, we will get involved; we have a mobile advertising platform, we are plugged into Google, AdMob etc., but the inventory is not there yet, even if they say it is. We can bring them millions of page views per day, but they don’t have the inventory, even though they claim to. 

DM: And are there any other areas that you’re looking at?

PL: We have built our reputation on doing what we do well and remaining focused. We have a leading position in Europe because we are focused. We do look at other ideas, but unless they are a very good fit with where we want to go, we don’t go there. There are so many opportunities, but to be the best, you have to focus on the areas where you are

Nimbuzz Secures Funds for Expansion

Nimbuzz, the mobile VoIP and Instant Messaging (IM) provider that also brings IM and voice to social networks, has raised $15 million (£7.6 million) of Second Round funding. The new round of funding was led by Naspers/MIH, with Nimbuzz’s other major existing investor, Mangrove Capital Partners, also participating.
Nimbuzz says it will use the funds to continue to develop its product offering for the widest range of handsets, across multiple IM and Social Network communities and in any country. The company is looking to extend its reach to other mobile platforms, including Windows Mobile, iPhone and Android. It also plans to implement additional social and presence-based features to its clients.
“We are actively working on strategic distribution deals with leading social networks and mobile operators,” says Nimbuzz Founder and CEO, Evert Jaap Lugt. “It is our aim to blend our technology with existing mobile Internet access to upgrade the value chain for business and consumers alike. Operators understand the need for services like Nimbuzz which provide traffic and drive the demand for mobile data plans, an ever more important revenue stream.”
The company says that deals with 10 major social networks and three operators are already “on the table”. It adds that extent of the Nimbuzz product portfolio to date has confirmed the investors’ confidence in the company’s potential to stay on top of technology advancements and in turn become an integral part of day to day mobile and Internet communication.
Nimbuzz currently has over 1 million registered mobile users, with over 5,000 new users joining each day. Then company believes that the continued introduction of flat rate mobile data plans by operators across Europe is a sure sign of the importance of mobile Internet services to the future communications industry. It notes that analysts such as IDC suggest VoIP will lead the communication evolution, predicting that there will be around 500 million worldwide personal IP communications subscribers by 2012. Nimbuzz says the latest round of funding will enable it to continue to capitalise on this market opportunity and build important relationships with forward-thinking operators and strategic partners across the world.
The mobile VoIP solution works worldwide on Symbian Series 60 devices when connected using a 3G or wi-fi network. Users with only a GPRS/EDGE connection, or using a Java-enabled phone, can also make international mobile VoIP calls using the Nimbuzz ‘hybrid-VoIP’ solution to make international mobile calls at local dial-in cost, in as many as 50 countries. Nimbuzz currently works on more than 500 handsets worldwide.

Voda and MySpace in Music Tie-up

Vodafone and MySpace have announced the launch of an online global interactive platform, ‘Vodafone Music Reporter’, which Vodafone says will expand its music activity and continue to deliver a unique music experience to Vodafone customers. The Vodafone Music Reporter interactive profile, hosted on MySpace, builds on the successful collaboration of both companies which began in 2007 with the launch of MySpace on Vodafone mobile Internet.
Vodafone will use the profile to share its existing music initiatives, including summer festivals such as Music Unlimited Cologne in Germany and Vodafone TBAs in the UK.  The Vodafone Music Reporter profile will also feature user-generated content to help create communities for all music fans, initially in Germany, Spain and the UK with Italy to follow in the next few days.
Music fans in the four countries can click on www.myspace.com/vodafonemusicreporter_uk (or it in Italy, es in Spain and de in Germany) to start sharing their music experiences, and to upload and download content, including pictures and videos related to Vodafone Music Unlimited events. Members of the Vodafone Music Reporter community will be able to interact with their fellow users through a blog featuring regular updates on Vodafone Music Unlimited activities. 
Music fans in the participating countries will also be able to enter a competition to demonstrate their reporting skills across the Vodafone Music Unlimited events this summer and win the chance to become part of an MTV show episode online and on mobile. 
To enter the competition, all aspiring MTV reporters need to become a friend of the Vodafone Music Reporter community on MySpace and upload a photo and video review of their favourite recent gig experience. Friends of the community will then decide which reports they like the best. The MySpace Vodafone Music Reporter profile will showcase the winners from each round of the competition. The ultimate winner will be awarded the opportunity to join the MTV crew for a day at a music event and experience the making of an episode of a show on the music TV channel.  In addition, the winner will have a chance to record her/his report on-site for the mobile and online version of the show.
“We have a tremendous heritage in understanding what our customers want in terms of music and how our music partnerships enhance the customer experience even further,” says David Wheldon, Global Brand Director at Vodafone.  “Vodafone Music Reporter  reaches music fans in a way that reflects the latest trends of how music is experienced in the social networking space. It allows music fans to interact, showcase their skills and become a part of a unique Vodafone music community.”
Nick Reid, Head of UK Sales at MySpace, adds:
“Vodafone is tapping into the creative audience on MySpace to really bring its proposition to life and provide a platform for users to showcase their talent within a multi-territory community. It’s a perfect fit for Vodafone and highlights the possibilities available to advertisers on MySpace.”

Miyowa Investment to Fund US, Asia Expansion

Miyowa, which supplies Instant Messaging (IM) and presence-enriched Mobile Web 2.0 technologies, has announced the completion of a second round of financing worth $8 million, (£4 million), bringing the company’s total financing to date to $12.7 million.
Participants in the funding round included Techfund, who funded Miyowa’s first round of financing in September 2006, and Crédit Agricole Private Equity, a new investor. Miyowa says that, combined with revenue derived from increased mobile operator contract wins, the additional financing will be used to accelerate commercialisation of its existing products, to bring to market a “revolutionary” enriched mobile IM solution, and to expand operations into the US and Asia.
“Global mobile usage patterns are changing,” says Michel de Lempdes, Investment Director at Crédit Agricole Private Equity. “Mobile users now want to have access to all of their social desktop PC applications anywhere and at anytime. The unique technology of Miyowa answers the mobile operators’ needs as they look for new mobile web usages, made possible by the launch and quick adoption of unlimited data subscriptions. We think Miyowa’s ability to offer innovative, new services in an unrestrictive fashion with almost no infrastructure investment, places it in prime position to take advantage of this market change, and provide the mobile applications that operators are seeking.”
Founded in April 2003 by Pascal Lorne and François Colon, Miyowa develops rich media mobile applications that provide mobile operators and handset makers with premium service offerings over their data plans and devices without the entering of restrictive relationships with social networks and IM providers, while providing mobile users with a superior mobile experience.  Based in Paris, Miyowa has been profitable since its second year, and notes that it was the fastest growing company in the mobile IM industry in 2007, winning more operator contracts than any other competitor.
“Miyowa’s previous success in the mobile IM market in Europe provides it with a unique opportunity to further unify instant messaging, presence and social networks for mobile consumption,” says Kurt Keilhacker, a Venture Partner at Techfund North America. “Miyowa is becoming an international success because it understands the future of wireless and is developing a technology roadmap that allows its partners to profit from it.”
The investment will be used to further expand Miyowa’s operations into the US and Asia, spearheaded by the opening of offices in Cupertino, California, and Singapore. Miyowa has recruited Sergio De Acha as Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development to lead the US expansion and establish traction with US mobile carriers and handset developers. The company’s commitment to the US market is further underscored by the company’s CEO, Pascal Lorne’s relocation to the US for the near term to ensure the company’s direction is in line with the US market’s needs.
The Singapore office will be headed by Tom Huang, Vice President for Asia Pacific sales, who will look to build on the immediate successes realised in Asia with the winning of a mobile operator contract in 2007.
“After five exciting years, Miyowa has proven that instant messaging can be a global success on mobile devices,” says Lorne. “This new financing further validates Miyowa’s position as the worldwide leader in the mobile instant messaging market and places us in position to capitalise on the new opportunities the mobile applications market presents. “The market is entering a new phase where convergence, presence and social networks will become key in next generation mobile applications. With the new financing from Techfund and Crédit Agricole Private Equity, and the addition of Sergio De Acha and Tom Huang to lead our US and Asia expansion efforts, Miyowa will look to address these market needs, and deploy our mobile innovations globally.”

Netsize Powers Hands-On Video Service

Mobile commerce and communications enabler Netsize has revealed that it is powering the video upload function of Hands-On Mobile’s user-generated video sharing service, Yatta Video.
The service enables users to upload mobile videos directly from their mobile phone using Premium MMS. Visitors to the Yatta Video service can download the clip for a small fee of between €0.50 (£0.40) and €100, with a percentage of the download revenue for a given clip being paid back to the original contributor.
The Yatta Video service is currently available in France, where it is offered on the SFR mobile network. Hands-On plans to roll out the service across additional European countries in the coming months.
Juniper Research predicts the market for mobile User-generated Content (UGC) will skyrocket, rising from $572 million (£291 million) in 2007 to more than $5.7 billion in 2012. Social networking will account for half of these revenues, followed by personal content delivery, and dating.
“As a personal and interactive tool, the mobile phone allows us to capture and share content on the go,” says Netsize COO, Frederic Halley. “The explosive growth of social networks, driven by the abundance of user-generated content, will certainly ignite MMS usage, as it offers consumers an easy and convenient way to upload and share content directly from their from mobile phones. In line with this trend, we see a growing interest in MMS from media companies, web portals and social networking communities in harnessing MMS for content creation and exchange.
Netsize provides publishers, brands, and content companies with an end-to-end solution that includes international MMS connections, with mobile-originated MMS (MMS MO) shortcodes to streamline the uploading of UGC and clips; and a mobile terminated MMS (MMS MT) shortcode to enable the delivery and download of multimedia content for UGC services, or rich-media for mobile marketing campaigns.
“Yatta Video is an innovative and original service,” saysGreg Robinson, General Manager EMEA for Hands-On Mobile “It offers a quality service to all fans of user generated videos, of which the MMS upload is an integral part, because it makes it easy for the community's budding directors to share their clips with the wider community. Since launching the service, we have witnessed fantastic growth in the number of videos users submit. Moreover, the Netsize MMS solution enables us to deploy the service quickly in France and execute our expansion plans across Europe.”

ShoZu Adds Nine

ShoZu has connected users of its mobile social media services to nine additional online communities, including photo printing and storage site Snapfish, personal media storing and sharing on Ovi by Nokia, and mobile photo sharing service SnapMyLife. ShoZu users can now upload images to and exchange content with a total of 46 Web 2.0 properties from a single screen on their mobile device for fast and easy mobile social networking,  including the ability to mass-publish any photo or video to multiple sites and/or email addresses simultaneously from the handset.
Other destination options added in ShoZu’s latest round of integrations include AOL’s new BlueString media sharing and Xdrive file storage sites; photo/video sharing communities DivShare and Smugmug; web creation and hosting site Free Webs; and citizen journalism site Reuters You Witness News.
The additions mark ShoZu’s third major expansion in seven weeks. In May, ShoZu added support for Twitter, Photobucket, Dailymotion, Friendster and five other community sites. Earlier this month, the company upgraded its Facebook services to enable Facebook status updates from ShoZu, as well as delivery of new Facebook photos, event listings and other friends’ posts directly to the phone.
ShoZu also supports communities ranging from YouTube, Flickr, Google Picasa, Kodak Easy Share Gallery and Webshots to personal blogging sites and news desks such as Google Blogger, LiveJournal, Textamerica, TypePad, Vox, WordPress, MetaWeblog, CNN, the BBC and Scoopt.
“Two months ago, mobile users could interact with 29 online communities through the ShoZu gateway,” says  ShoZu CEO Mark Bole. “Now we support 46 sites, and we continue to expand the menu of supported destinations so that users can stay in constant contact with their preferred social networks, without navigating from site to site on the mobile web. If you patronize more than one social media site – and the majority of users now do - ShoZu is simply the fastest way to stay in touch when you’re on the go.”
ShoZu says its service extends today’s burgeoning social media movement from the web to the mobile world where users spend the majority of their time. Users can send photos or videos to their favorite community, or transfer any image file to multiple communities and/or email addresses simultaneously, without opening a mobile browser, creating multiple messages, or paying multiple data upload fees from their wireless carrier.
ShoZu users can also have friends’ photostreams, status changes and social network invites sent directly to the handset in the background without mobile navigation or download downtime; send photos at blog quality or full resolution; upload video clips up to 10 minutes in length; and exchange two-way commenting and messages between the mobile and web.
ShoZu’s free mobile client is currently pre-installed on newer Motorola and Samsung phones and downloadable to almost 340 additional handset models. There’s a complete list of compatible phones on the ‘Get ShoZu’ button on the ShoZu website. 

T-Mobile in Bebo, Piczo Deals

T-Mobile UK and Intercasting Corporation have added social networking sites Bebo and Piczo to T-Mobile’s ‘My Social Sites’ service. As a result of the deals, users will be able to upload pictures from their mobile phone direct to the sites. 
My Social Sites is a mobile application that provides users with an easy-to-use interface that enables social networkers to manage their most important sites in a simple way, direct from their mobile phone. Every time anything new is added, T-Mobile sends a message updating the user. People can then check their messages for free, while on the move.
Bebo is the UK’s second most visited social networking site in the UK with over 12 million unique users in the UK, and Piczo will be added to the existing My Social Sites, Xanga, LiveJournal, BlackPlanet and Vox, and the mobile community, Rabble. Intercasting provides the technology platform behind My Social Sites, ANTHEM. This provides social networking category management for T-Mobile through applications, messaging and embedded handset features. Users can add popular new social networking sites as they become available to their mobile devices. 
“More than 800 million people are predicted to use social networks via a mobile phone by 2012,” says Pauline Lunn, Head of Beyond Voice New Proposition Development at T-Mobile. “Our customers have told us that they want to stay in touch with their social networks, wherever they are and My Social Sites allows exactly that. By adding Bebo and Piczo to the service we’ve added two of the industry’s most popular sites.”
My Social Sites allows users to send replies, add comments or post pictures direct from their mobile phone. It costs 5p to post a comment, send a message or accept a friend request or 20p to add a photo. Users can also search for friends, browse profiles and check out photos for 20p for 24-hour access. 
The My Social Sites application can be downloaded, free of charge, by texting SOCIAL to 49014 from compatible mobile phones. For more information, click here.

CellSpin Adds Twitter Support

CellSpin, has announced its support for sending ‘tweets’ in all four media types (audio, video, pictures and text) to the popular micro-blogging sites Twitter and Pownce. Users can post multimedia tweets using the CellSpin mobile application, now available on over 300 mobile phones worldwide, or by using the CellSpin website. 
CellSpin provides a free, secure, one-click mobile application that allows users to create and publish any media type - audio, video, photos and/or text - to their favorite blogging, social networking and auction sites including MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, Live Journal, Live Spaces, Twitter, Pownce and eBay, with more to come. 
“CellSpin makes posting to Twitter and Pownce very easy, and makes it more convenient for users to post multimedia in real-time,” says CellSpin Co-founder, Ian Fung. “This will definitely broaden the base for micro-blogging beyond those who use it only to describe what they had for lunch.”
CellSpin is free to users worldwide, and available from the CellSpin website. CellSpin supports Symbian, Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0, Blackberry operating systems, with others to follow soon. You can see a list of supported phones here. 

Flirtomatic Courts the iPhone

Flirtomatic, the London-based mobile and online flirting service, has released its alpha version of Flirtomatic for the iPhone and iTouch. The company says this is a major step in the service’s development, which will increase its potential user base and enhance the user interface.
The Alpha version is available worldwide and has a new enriched mobile interface which has been built specifically for the iPhone and iTouch user. The feature set includes registration, login, chat, search, rating and the ability to send and receive gifts. Flirtomatic says it is currently the only service in the UK to have optimised all of these features for the iPhone. Further functionality including location search will be available shortly.
“The development of the alpha version will bring the Flirtomatic experience to a new level that we will be looking to implement with other handsets in the future,” says CEO Mark Curtis. “This launch underscores our commitment to innovation and rapid evolution. We live in a mobile age and consumers increasingly expect to access entertainment whenever and wherever they choose. This launch provides a service that is quicker and easier to use, bringing us a step closer to our goal.”
Flirtomatic expects to see further take-up of its service by iPhone users following the anticipated launch of the 3G iPhone. Industry analysis by M:Metrics re-enforces the potential take-up from iPhone users, given that the phone is already the most popular device for using the mobile web. 85% of iPhone users accessed news and information in January 2008, and 49.7% accessed a social networking site, nearly 12 times the market average. iTouch users can access the same service over wi-fi.
This latest launch is part of Flirtomatic’s long-term strategy of extending its user base and enhancing the user experience. The company has over 800,000 regsitered users, and almost 400,000 mobile users in the UK alone. In May, over 1 million messages a day were sent between users, generating 21 million web page views and 115 million WAP page views.
 

JuiceCaster Adds Geotagging

JuiceCaster has added location-based geotagging to its award-winning mobile social networking service. The Geotagging facility has been developed initially for Qualcomm's BREW solution. With geotagging, JuiceCaster users can send pictures and videos that automatically include their location to various social networking platforms, including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
JuiceCaster provides one-touch, real-time sharing of pictures and videos directly from a cameraphone to many social networking and blogging sites. Users update their status with pictures and videos captured on their mobile phone using the wireless application. Through the geotagging feature, JuiceCaster now allows individuals to see a video's location information, which can be used as a friend-finding service. It also immediately notifies users when someone updates their status in a nearby area.
“Location instantly adds context to social communications,” says Nick Desai, CEO and Co-founder of Juice Wireless, the company behind JuiceCaster. “Knowing the location of a friend is just as important as knowing what they're doing. The ability to geotag mobile videos on-the-go and easily share them with friends and online communities such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter gives JuiceCaster the power to keep people constantly connected to their networks.”
JuiceCaster notes that since all uploaded pictures and videos are geotagged, users can also look for content based on specific location criteria, making searching for videos on JuiceCaster powerful and accurate. In addition, JuiceCaster's ‘Who was here?’ feature enables individuals to see a list of pictures and videos previously uploaded by friends and other people for a specific location, as well as add their own pictures and videos to its history. Location is only viewable by authorized friends and the feature can be turned off.

Italian Job for iPoint

iPoint-media, which provides live, interactive video applications and delivery platforms for web, 3G mobile and media, has signed a reseller agreement with Italian systems integrator, Systeam Consulting.
Systeam Consulting will resell iPoint-media’s GOliveTV User-generated Content (UGC) moderation and delivery platform in the Italian media and broadcast market. Coinciding with this agreement, Systeam Consulting is working on an initial project with a leading Italian broadcaster. 
GOliveTV offers media and broadcast companies an innovative solution for incorporating 3G and web callers in live participation TV broadcasts, allowing the creation and deployment of new interactive TV show formats. The platform also enables the consumption, moderation, storage and playout of live and recorded UGC to other media formats, including web broadcasts and 3G mobile services. The platform is able to receive and process UGC in the form of audio, text and video via e-mail attachments, SMS, MMS and live or recorded 3G video calls. GOliveTV is currently in use with a number of leading broadcasters, including the BBC and MediaCorp in Singapore.
“The selection by Systeam Consulting to resell GOliveTV and immediate interest by an Italian broadcaster demonstrates the growing recognition our platform has received as the leading solution for delivering new user-generated content formats in the broadcast arena, » says iPoint-media VP Sales & Marketing, Joseph Daniel. “We look forward to working closely with Systeam over the coming months to further penetrate the Italian broadcast market.”

3G Video Dating Is Go

iPoint-media, which provides live, interactive video applications and delivery platforms for web, 3G mobile and media, has announced the release of Vitrage GOvideoDating, an interactive video dating delivery platform designed for use with 3G phones. iPoint says that GOvideoDating enables existing dating services, mobile operators and service providers to quickly and easily deploy video dating services on any 3G network and benefit from new revenue opportunities derived from 3G video calls.
GOvideoDating enables anyone with a 3G video-enabled mobile phone to search for and interact with other video daters. Features include the ability to create personal profiles and recorded video greetings; basic and advanced search options; sending, receiving and viewing recorded video messages; and the ability to engage in live video-chats with other logged in members, without the need for the user to reveal their mobile number.
GOvideoDating is targeted at the rapidlygrowing mobile dating industry. A recent Juniper Research report estimates that revenues from this industry will push past the $1 billion (£500 million) mark by 2010.
GOvideoDating is offered as a hosted/managed service, enabling carriers, aggregators and service providers to rapidly deploy customized dating services on 3G mobile networks without a capital investment. The platform supports multiple billing methods and offers the flexibility to integrate with existing web or voice dating sites as well as location based services.
“Dating sites are designed to help people find potential partners,” says iPoint-media Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Joseph Daniel. “The ability to see, hear and interact live with others, along with the flexibility of doing this at any time using a 3G mobile phone, will improve the experience of finding the right partner. GOvideoDating empowers dating providers to elevate virtual dating to this new level, while offering new sources of revenue resulting from the generated 3G video calling traffic. We believe that premium voice and web dating providers can easily deploy GOvideoDating to generate new revenues.”
iPoint-media is currently deploying the first GOvideoDating solution with what it describes as: “a leading UK voice-based social network service provider.” It says it hopes to announce additional European 3G video dating services later this year.”

Pringo and NINJA Team Up for Mobile Content Sharing

Pringo, which provides white-label online community platforms, has partnered with mobile media and advertising company NINJA Mobile to deliver an application that allows mobile users to view, create, post, and share content from their mobile phones on any website built on Pringo's platform, of which there are around 50 up and running or under development.
Pringo and NINJA's mobile service will encourage content posting and sharing via mobile phones, with consumers able to choose between subscription or ad-supported packages. With this application, says Pringo, site owners will benefit from the ability to monetize their websites through advertising, while advertisers can enhance their brands by incorporating photo and video content into their online communities.
“Cell phones are quickly becoming the primary device to spontaneously capture, create and share content within and across social networks,” says NINJA President, Fred Ebrahemi. “Pringo's platform for social networking and marketing is the perfect venue for users to produce and post content associated with a brand, keeping the content current, while also promoting viral distribution to other cell phones.”
Pringo CEO Majid Abai adds:
“The future of social networking and marketing will be based on the ability to deliver engaging content to users at anytime, anywhere and from any device.” NINJA's rich mobile solutions will give our branding customers the ability to deliver relevant advertising, while allowing social networkers to have an integrated and robust multimedia experience from their PC to their cell phone.”

Voda Buys ZYB for £25 million

Vodafone has agreed a deal to acquire 100% of ZYB, the privately-owned Danish company that operates a social networking and online management tool enabling mobile phone users to back-up and share their handsets’ contact and calendar information online. Vodafone Europe BV, a holding company of Vodafone Group is paying €31.5 million (£25 million) for the company.
Vodafone says the acquisition of ZYB is a further advance in the implementation of its ‘Total Communications’ strategy, which the company says is delivering new revenue growth around fixed broadband, mobile advertising and a rich set of Internet services that integrate the mobile and PC customer experience. Vodafone says that ZYB fits into this strategy by enhancing the range of communications services the network operator can provide to its customers.
ZYB is designed with the mobile device at its heart, allowing customers to share information and messages between their friends and colleagues who are held in their mobile phone’s address book.
ZYB enables users to send messages and images from their PC to multiple mobile devices in their mobile community, as well as taking advantage of the functionality of an instant messaging service.
“Vodafone understands that the core of any customer’s personal and business network is the set of contacts they hold on their mobile phone,” says Vodafone Group Internet Services Director, Pieter Knook. “Using a web portal as a link between the PC and the mobile device, ZYB provides an interactive way for people to nurture, contact and develop their relationships with their most important friends and colleagues and builds links with those contacts’ wider networks. This is Web 2.0 in action.”
ZYB will remain based in Denmark and upon acquisition, will be incorporated into Vodafone’s Internet Services Division.

Ministry of SpinVox

Voice-to-screen messaging company SpinVox has announced a partnership with Ministry of Sound to allow clubbers to share their favourite track, DJ or clubbing experience with their friends ‘on the go’ using the SpinVox voice-to-text service.
By calling 01512 667075, clubbers can generate posts on Ministryofsound.com and the official Ministry of Sound Facebook page - wherever they are located. SpinVox automatically converts their voice into text and then posts directly to the Ministry of Sound blog and Facebook page.
Ministry of Sound is the first club brand to team up with SpinVox to make use of its voice-to-text service. Tom Kihl, Managing Editor, Ministryofsound.com, part of Ministry of Sound Group, says:
“This is the first time we have used a service like SpinVox to interact with our clubber fanbase. We are always looking at innovative ways for people to engage with the club and our website more intimately. We want to know what our fans think of their nights out, the music, the DJs and the club experience. We were attracted to the SpinVox service, as clubbers can tell us what they are thinking as they are thinking it, they don’t need to be online or near a computer keyboard to stay in touch.”
Christina Domecq, SpinVox Co-founder and CEO, adds:
“SpinVox is all about using voice to enable person-to-person messaging through any network or service - whether by SMS text, email, blog, or social network walls and spaces. We believe that this is the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership with the international club brand. Watch this space for further exciting opportunities.”   
In February 2007, SpinVox enabled voice to enter the online world for the first time with its ground-breaking service, Spin-my-Blog. The service was the first to allow users to post their thoughts onto a blog by calling a phone number and speaking the message, which is then converted automatically to text and posted on the site.

MEF in Mobile Social Networking Push

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has announced the next stage of its mobile social networking initiative, which is launching simultaneously in the UK, France, Italy,  India and the US, focusing on revenue generation, business models and consumer protection.
In 2006, MEF and Informa forecast that the mobile communities and user generated content market globally would be worth US$13.2 billion (£6.8 billion) by 2011, with photo and chat-based services being the top revenue generators. According to MEF’s recent membership survey, the global phenomenon of social networking tops the industry’s agenda, with almost 60% of MEF members identifying it in a recent member survey as a top priority.
By localising the initiative, MEF plans to develop best practices for different territories, which it says are vital for meeting local market conditions, which are controlled by local regulatory standards. Each country will have three full MEF members leading the initiative and will generate its own project plan, schedule of deliverables and communications outreach.
“According to Universal McCann, around 275 million Internet users manage a profile on a social network at least once a month,” says MEF Vice Chair, Marco Argenti. “MEF’s goal is to ensure that the mobile entertainment industry understands how to offer mobile social networks that provide a good user experience and ensure revenue generation within a safe environment for consumers.” 
Gerard Grech, MEF EMEA Chair, adds:
“Our members realise that the mobile device is the perfect social networking platform. This initiative provides a framework upon which the industry can base forward-looking business decisions and plan long term growth. The importance of mobile social networks is reflected in this year’s Meffys special recognition award, which went to the founders of UPOC for the creation of the first mobile community.”
For more information on the initiative, please email Suhail Bhat at: [email protected]

BuzzCity Reports Huge Mobile Ad Growth

BuzzCity, which provides global wireless communities and consumer services, has revealed that it has seen year-on-year growth of 917% in mobile ads served across its mobile advertising network in the US. The company says that it expects mobile ads served on its network in the US market to reach more than 100 million ad views per month by the end of Q2, 2008.    
BuzzCity’s myGamma Advertising Network serves ads on more than 2,000 mobile publisher sites in 70 countries in the US, Europe, Asia and Africa, and on the company’s myGamma mobile social networking community. myGamma and the myGamma Advertising Network have been quietly operating in the US market for more than a year now. BuzzCity recently marked its official launch in the US by announcing the planned opening an office in San Francisco this summer.
“The U.S. mobile market is primed for huge mobile advertising growth,” says BuzzCity CEO, K.F. Lai.  “As operators and carriers continue to move toward unlimited data plans and awareness of the mobile Internet continues to grow, we expect to continue to experience massive growth in ad impressions in the market this year.”   
The US is now in 4th place in the company’s latest quarterly mobile advertising index, which measures the total number of ads served during each three-month period of the fiscal year. For the period between 1 January and 31 March, approximately 132 million ad impressions were recorded across BuzzCity’s US-based publisher partners and on the US version of its myGamma social networking community.
The myGamma Advertising Network serves both banner and text ads on mobile devices, and provides advertisers with tools and analytics that allow them to target their campaigns and track results. In Q1 this year, the network’s top 10 markets served a total of 2 billion ads, representing a year-on-year growth of 800%.

Have You Got the Nimbuzz?

Nimbuzz has announced the UK launch of its application of the same name, that provides mobile users and online communities with free calls, chat and more. Nimbuzz says it offers an all-in-one solution for free mobile VoIP calling, conference calling, instant messaging, chat and group chat, and photo and file sending across multiple Instant Messaging (IM) communities, including Skype, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo!, AIM, Jabber and ICQ, plus 23 social networks, including Facebook and Myspace.
Once users download the Nimbuzz application for the mobile and register as a new user, contacts from their selected IM communities are aggregated into a single contact list, with icons indicating real-time presence, showing which contacts, from which communities, are online or offline.
“Everyone loves Skype (on the PC). But when it comes to the mobile, we believe we offer a better solution,” says Nimbuzz Chief Marketing Officer, Tariq Dag Steinberg Khan. “Nimbuzz works across all the major communities and on more than 500 handsets worldwide. With this new release, we now also have a genuine free mobile VoIP solution that works on more than 90 handsets including Nokia, Samsung and LG.”
The Nimbuzz mobile VoIP application works worldwide on Nokia Symbian Series 60 devices when connected using a 3G or wi-fi network, with a Windows Mobile offering due for release in June. iPhone is not currently supported,but, the company says, is an important product under development. For GPRS/EDGE connections, or when using Java-enabled phones, Nimbuzz also offers its “hybrid-VoIP” solution, as used by Skype, for making international mobile calls at local dial-in cost, in 50 countries. 
Nimbuzz is free to download and, the company says, easy-to-use, but it adds that data usage is subject to network operator rates when used on the mobile, unless using a flat-rate data plan.
“The good news is that mobile data costs are coming down dramatically,” says Khan. “Flat-rate data plans didn’t exist last year in Europe, now they’re everywhere. This makes using Nimbuzz the closest thing to free communication there is.” 
On the social networking front, Nimbuzz brings voice and mobile chat to social networks. The new six-button ‘Communicator’ widget brings free calling, chat, text and voice messaging, and file sending to social networks, email signatures and personal websites or blogs. There’s also a ‘buzz/ feature which alerts friends offline to join users online for a call or chat.
Funded by Mangrove Capital Partners, the original Skype investor, and staffed by award-winning developers and industry experts, Nimbuzz says it is bringing to the mobile and to social networks what Skype pioneered for the PC. Nimbuzz has already attracted more than 500,000 registered users, with 25% active per month, and is generating more than 1 million logins per week, despite the product still being developed.
“Our users drive our development, so even with what we think is a great product, it always feels like we’re in beta,” says Khan. “The truth is, we wouldn’t be innovating fast enough if we weren’t,” adds Tariq. “With users from 176 countries, it’s easy to see why. There is remarkable consumer appetite out there, worldwide, and the industry tailwinds are picking up pace. We are grateful for our pre-launch momentum and look forward to announcing some exciting new products, features and strategic partnerships with key operators and social networks over the summer.”
To download Nimbuzz Mobile, click here, or visit m.nimbuzz.com on your mobile. To download Nimbuzz widgets, click here.

It's Official: Social Networking Goes Mobile

Research just published by Nielsen Mobile reveals that one in four members of UK social networks use their phones to network. 44% of UK mobile phone subscribers belong to an online social network. Of this group, 25% use their mobile phone for social networking-related activities.
Around 812,000 Britons each month, or 1.7% of all UK mobile subscribers, visited a social networking website using their mobile during the first quarter of 2008. Facebook is the most popular site for mobile social networking, being visited by over 557,000 Britons from their mobiles, or 9% of all UK mobile Internet subscribers. In second place is MySpace (211,000), followed by Bebo (162,000), Windows Live Spaces (109,000), and Flixster (90,000).
“Social networking is already a global phenomenon, and mobile could be the next big thing in the space,” says Nielsen Mobile Client Services Manager, Kent Ferguson.
“Large numbers of people are interacting with their social networking profiles while they’re on the move. There could be increased consumer demand for mobile social networking driven by the flat-fee price plans offered by the leading operators that give subscribers unlimited mobile Internet access.”
The most popular mobile social-networking related activities are sending messages and mail (55%); reading messages and mail (47%); viewing photos (33%); uploading photos (29%); and adding friends (21%).
The four most popular social networks on the mobile are also the four most popular on the PC. Travel social network WAYN has the strongest performance on the mobile compared to the PC, ranking 7th on mobile Internet compared to 21st on PC Internet
“The increasingly competitive nature of social networking online is being replicated in the mobile space,” says Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst at Nielsen Online. “The leading players remain the same but networks such as WAYN and Faceparty have considerably improved on their PC ranking in the mobile world. In an effort to differentiate their offerings and pull ahead all the networks are looking to what the mobile medium can offer – particularly when it comes to attracting 15-24 year olds, a group highly representative amongst social networking addicts.”

ShoZu Expands

ShoZu has expanded its mobile social media service to Photobucket, Dailymotion, Friendster, Twitter and seven additional Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 communities. With these 11 new integrations, ShoZu now enables mobile users to interact with their choice of 36 social networks from a single screen on their handsets, reducing the time, effort and money required to upload images, update social profiles and check friends’ latest posts from the phone.
Photobucket is one of the most popular photo sites in the US, while according to Comscore, Dailymotion is the second largest  video sharing website worldwide with 36.2 million unique visitors. Friendster is a global social network that ranks as the 35th most highly visited website on the planet, while Twitter is the micro-blogging service 
Other additions to ShoZu’s roster include photo-sharing site Twitpic; photo and video sharing community Cellfish; interactive personal video ‘dashboard’ Seesmic; and online storage site Ipernity. They join ShoZu’s existing integrations, which include Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Google Picasa, Moblog.uk, and the major web blogging platforms such as Blogger and TypePad.
ShoZu notes that its service extends today’s burgeoning social media movement from the web to the mobile world where users spend the majority of their time. Users can send photos or videos to their favourite community with a click, or mass-publish any photo or video to multiple communities and/or email addresses simultaneously, without opening a mobile browser, creating multiple messages, and paying multiple data upload fees from their wireless carrier. 
Other features unique to ShoZu include the ability to have friends’ photostreams, status changes and social network invites sent directly to the handset in the background without mobile navigation or download downtime; send photos at blog quality or full resolution; upload video clips of up to 10 minutes in length; and exchange two-way commenting and messages between the mobile and web.
ShoZu’s free mobile client is currently pre-installed on newer Motorola and Samsung phones and downloadable to nearly 340 additional handset models. A complete list of compatible phones is available here. 
“People today often belong to more than one online social media site, including social networking sites, personal blogs and media storage and sharing sites,” says ShoZu CEO, Mark Bole. “In addition, different social media sites are popular in different parts of the world. Our goal is to provide mobile access to the broadest possible range of communities from the ShoZu service, so that users need only one tool to stay connected on the go. This latest batch of additional sites to our service gives users more choice than ever before. Also, be on the look out for another batch of new destinations added in the upcoming weeks.”