free mobile services, ad based

I've already written about free ad based voip services here, but this time it's in the mobile context. I am a big fan of the concept of free ad sponsored telecom services, i.e. the Internet business model applied to telco services. I believe in the concept and I have seen what giving away such 'free' minutes can do to the overall traffic and incomes in an IM / Internet telephony service. While the effects of a nicely wrapped offer and some good marketing can be spectacular, the problem is in changing the mindset of advertisers who are generally sceptical in adopting new advertising channels - telephony. Why should they pay for this new exotic channel when they can stick to the good old banners and page views in the Internet or TV/Radio ads.

The most popular free mobile telephony service is Blyk with their services in the UK and Netherlands. The service gives away free minutes and SMS monthly in return for receiving SMS and MMS based advertisements. Blyk started off their services as an MVNO in the UK and then in partnership with Vodafone in the Netherlands. The company has recently informed of closing their MVNO based services in the UK and will move from MVNO to operator partnership with Orange as their exclusive partner in the UK.

Blyk continues its move from MVNO to operator partnership – Orange named as Blyk’s exclusive UK partner

Another Blyk-like free mobile telephony service Tomato Plus has been launched in October 2008 in Croatia. While Blyk targets youth aged 18-24, Tomato Plus does not limit its offer.

If you are interested in this as much as I am, I'd recommend you read more on free ad based mobile offerings by following the very valuable links below:

ANAYLSIS: Orange UK Buys Into Blyk Ad-Funded Model; But Is There Something Better Than Free?

Tomato Plus Seems to be a Winner

Blyk concept validation, if clone can make big success out of it, then..

Final thoughts ?

* FREE is not only the kicker, it's the quality of their service offered
* The concept seems to be validated
* Tough market education of potential advertisers

2009-08-25, additional link:

Mobile Advertising: 100 times more customers - Blyk’s Wholesale Strategy

Gadu-Gadu MVNO finally launched..

Last week we have finally launched GaduAIR – Gadu-Gadu’s MVNO. The whole project took more than two years, and span off rapidly after we signed the deal with Polkomtel in December 2007. So what is GadAIR ?

GaduAIR pre-paid offer integrates the mobile phone with Gadu-Gadu Instant Messenger. GaduAIR combines mobile telephony, instant messenger, Internet telephony and Web 2.0 social networking services. It also combines all prepaid services to single account with one recharge valid for all paid services offered by Gadu-Gadu. It is a convergent offer – in terms of services and charging.

So what does the user actually get ? ..well first of all new, cool mobile offer with free access to mobile version to Gadu-Gadu. Other Polish GSM networks either charge for the data traffic or a fixed monthly rent fee – so it’s a clear distinction. The MSISDN number also becomes Gadu-Gadu number (GG uses numeric identifiers similarly to ICQ). Apart from that the user gets a bunch of bonuses for online recharges and data packages with each recharge which in effect make the offer quite interesting and an average user gets Internet access for free.

GaduAIR innovative offer includes:
1. Single number, the MSISDN number is also Gadu-Gadu number
2. Mobile/Java version of Mobile Gadu-Gadu for free
3. SMS, MMS, voice notes to SNS blog profile and gallery
4. Single prepaid wallet for all services, mobile, voip, e-commerce
5. Single voicemail box for all services, GSM and internet telephony/IM

I have my fingers crossed and hope to see the statistics shoot sky high…