Mobile content gets new viral sales tool
27-10-2004
by Deirdre McArdle

NewBay Software has released a mobile content sharing application which will encourage users to recommend items like ringtones to their friends.

FoneShare, the latest application from the Irish start-up NewBay, aims to creates a community where users can legally share their mobile ringtones, music, wallpaper and games with friends and other subscribers.

Paddy Holahan, CEO of NewBay Software, said FoneShare was specifically designed to enable the legal, viral distribution of mobile content. The idea is for users to recommend content to each other; NewBay says that users benefit because they'll find it easier to source material they like. But mobile operators and third-party content vendors also benefit, since content sales are likely to rise from these word-of-mouth recommendations that cost the vendor nothing.

Users are given a personalised web address which can be accessed by mobile or PC browser where all their purchases and preferences are stored. They can set up a friends directory -- FonePals -- and see what their friends are buying, or let friends know their favourite ringtone or wallpaper, or they can be part of a larger community -- FoneClubs.

An hour after a user purchases a ringtone, FoneShare will text them and ask if they enjoyed the product. If a user replies positively to the text, FoneShare will then send texts to the user's FonePals urging them to purchase the ringtone on the recommendation of their friend. Initially users will be billed through premium SMS but NewBay hopes to be able to incorporate the billing for the service into mobile operators' billing systems eventually.

"FoneShare is essentially a social networking product," said Caelen King, vice president of product management at NewBay, speaking with ElectricNews.Net. "Using FoneShare couldn't be easier, the content is spread through personal referrals and can be purchased through a single click."

The mobile content market is expected to be worth over USD16.8 billion by 2005 according to mobile marketing analysts, ARC Group. Eager to be part of this lucrative market, NewBay aims to market FoneShare to mobile operators worldwide. NewBay claims that FoneShare will enable operators to increase mobile content sales, reduce marketing costs, increase ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) and decrease subscriber churn.

It's turning into a successful year for NewBay; at the beginning of 2004 it announced it had raised EUR3.2 million in venture capital from Benchmark Capital. At the time the company said that the money would be used to expand its operations globally and to launch new products.

NewBay was previously best known for its FoneBlog software which it released in January 2003. The software currently has 1 million users worldwide and as well as being deployed by O2 in Ireland, it has been adopted by T-Mobile in the US. FoneBlog enables mobile phone users to create and maintain weblogs or "blogs" using only their phones.