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… Germany, Spain and Belgium to go live in 2009 …

Blyk, the new mobile network for 16-24 year olds funded by advertising, announces its next wave of European expansion into Germany, Spain and Belgium in 2009, following its announcement to enter the Dutch market earlier this year. Blyk’s rapid expansion is subsequent to its UK success where members embraced the Blyk concept so quickly that its annual member targets of 100,000 were reached six months ahead of schedule, establishing it as a powerful new media for connecting advertisers with young people.

Blyk’s CEO and Co-founder, Pekka Ala-Pietilä said, “There is a great opportunity for Blyk in these markets. Our research shows that young people in Germany, Spain and Belgium are interested in the Blyk proposition because they want to interact with brands they like in exchange for free communication. Our success in the UK, illustrated by robust member adoption, has proven that Blyk is a youth media that works and we hope to replicate this success as we enter new countries. We are also working to attract local talent who share our enthusiasm and can help build Blyk into a significant youth media in other countries.”

The press release mentions Blyk has run over 900 campaigns in the UK for brands such as Coca Cola, STA Travel, Penguin, Buena Vista, L’Oreal and music artists The Kooks and Alphabeat with an average response rate of 29 percent, an extremely high level for any media platform. For example, Penguin’s campaign to promote Nick Hornby’s new novel, saw 7 out of 10 members engage with the publisher in a dialogue.

Blyk will make further announcements related to activities in each of these countries in the near future.

I asked the company about the choice of operator network they’ll partner with in the next expansion series of countries but Blyk replied it hasn’t taken a decison yet… I can only think about this perfect strategy having the operators to fight to get the popular brand on their network… Ahead of the curve as we say… To follow!

I didn’t expect Blyk was going to grow that fast on other European markets. I’m looking forward the brand launches in Spain, I’ll have the advantage my daughters will have 16 by the time Blyk launches here, so it will be fun to discover the added-value services with them and get their direct feedback

FYI Leif Fågelstedt, COO of Blyk is participating to the Mobile 2.0 Europe conference next week in Barcelona as part of the Open Business Models panel moderated by Mike Butcher of TechCrunch UK.

advertising, Announcements, belgium, blyk, brands, free communication, germany, Holland, marketing, mobile, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Content, Mobile Culture, Mobile Lifestyle, mobile marketing, mobile music, mobile network, mvno, Netherlands, spain, startups, Trends, UK, United Kingdom, user adoption, Viral, youth, youth media

Choosing the 1st summer weekend to edit a Carnival of the Mobilists was probably not a great idea at start, but it turned out well for me reading all contributions after siesta in the shade on a Sunday afternoon, with a fine mix of the latest albums of Osunlade, Jaga Jazzist, Terry Callier, Ron Trent & Jerome Sydenham, Hercules and Love Affair, and The Herbaliser as a background… laid back and inspiring!

Luckily there were not too many entries this week due to the fact that many mobilists have changed the “blogging from home” to a more “hectic travelling the globe” lifestyle. Ubiquitous computing has progressed tremendously but hasn’t yet provided us with the perfect tools to keep the blogging up to speed from wherever we are.

Not too surprisingly more than half of this week’s contributions are on the “Location-Based Applications and Services” topic. Better get used to the coming hype words, since they’re going to be everywhere the coming months/years… Geotagging, location tracking, Assisted GPS (AGPS), location based advertising (of course!), location based aggregation, cost per location, zone detection, location based social media, location stamps, location reporting strategies, discovery, sensoring, geocaching, spatial data, geographically-oriented communities, location-based (life) streaming, social mapping or geo-social networking applications, etc.

Realising how advanced we may be with our ideas and technology these days, I still had to wonder where this week’s contributors actually lived? So, how come no-one is using an online tool to know about one’s location? How about then using this on the mobile?

This brought me to the idea of creating this week’s Carnival of the Mobilists map so you can read the entries browsing the map or just by reading this post. If you find out you’re near to one of the mobilists, who knows you might soon bump into him/her

But hey enough now as an introduction… let’s hear it from the mobilists themselves!

Read all this very interesting and insightful posts on LBS:

Mobile 2.0: Addicted to LBS by Tarek Abu-Esber (London, UK)

Top 10 Location Based Startups to Track by Zhou Wenhan (Singapore, Republic of Singapore)

Add context to your photos with Geotagging by Sachendra Yadav (Hyderabad, India)

Convergence or cooperation? by Igor Faletski (Vancouver, Canada)

Has Google won the location battle already? by Andrew Grill (London, UK)

Which GPS Reporting Strategy is Right for You? by Patrick Brannan (St. Louis, Missouri, USA)

Check also my contribution this week on this low-tech location-based urban travel guide from Louis Vuitton, called the Louis Vuitton Soundwalk.

My take is that location itself will become obsolete soon, it is something technical the user doesn’t really want to know about, unless he/she needs to read a map… But what about the many people who can’t read a map? Voice-activated GPS is one of the widely used GPS solutions, but what about all the services being build around locations? Who is around, interesting things to do, places to visit, find places? Top down information vs. bottom-up user-generated content?

I believe it’s more important to develop services based on discovery, but linked to your social network of friends, and contacts who can tip you on the best stuff and who can leave valuable comments about places and events - it’s about the value and quality of the recommendation. That was probably one of the missing pieces in Nokia’s LBS strategy and why Nokia bought Plazes.

Other topics this week:

Mobile Workforce

Hiring Opportunities and Redundancies in the Converged World of Telecoms and Mobility by Justin Oberman (New York, USA) and pointing to an Interview by Ajit Jaokar (Oxford, UK)

Mobile Advertising

Interesting presentation on Using mobile social networks to target advertising… one day by David Cushman (London, UK)

And more on context: NFC interaction by Barbara Ballard (Lawrence, Kansas, USA) and must read on Updates from mobile phone researcher Jan Chipchase by Bryan Alexander at Smart Mobs and Rob Knight entered this Video Interview with Ray Haddow and Tom Farell from Nokia.

And last but not least the ongoing discussion on Mobile Browser vs. Native Applications:

Browser as an application platform by Gábor Török (Miskolc, Hungary)

Apps on smartphones = Geek. Apps on Facebook = Fun. Why? by Dean Bubley (London, UK)

When Will Facebook Take Apps Mobile? by Carlo Longino (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA)

I also wanted to inform that Mobile 2.0 Europe is now fast approaching. Tickets are selling fast, so if you’re interested, don’t wait last minute to order your ticket, we’re heading for a full house. You can check the full program and complete list of speakers.

You can also follow latest Mobile 2.0 news on Twitter.

Also of your interest might be the Mobile 2.0 link exchange and discussion room we created on FriendFeed. When this goes mobile, it’s going to be next place to be Subscribe and join here - http://friendfeed.com/rooms/mobile-2-0

That’s it for this week, I learned something more this weekend and got to know some bloggers I haven’t heard about before, that’s what it’s all about, right?

Monday, June 23, 2008. Carnival of the Mobilists 129 edited by Rudy De Waele (Barcelona, Spain)

Next week, Andrew Grill is hosting the Carnival of the Mobilists at http://www.andrewgrill.com/blog

advertising, Announcements, Assisted GPS (AGPS), Carnival Of The Mobilists, carnivalofthemobilists, Conversations, cost per location, discovery, geocaching, geographically oriented communities, geotagging, innovation, lbs, location based, location based (life) streaming, location based advertising (of course!), location based aggregation, location based social media, location reporting strategies, location stamps, location tracking, mobile, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Apps, Mobile Events, Mobile Lifestyle, mobile workforce, mobilists, sensoring, social mapping or geo social networking applications, social media, spatial data, Trends, usability, user experience, zone detection

This week I’m going to spend most of my time in London starting with an event I’m really looking forward to, the Being Digital Mashup Conference on 10th June and organised by Simon Grice and Tony Fish.

The purpose of the event is to debate the commercial, investment and tactical issues that matter when delivering and designing digital services that rely on variety (mashup) of information, data & services. The event has seven themed debates on advertising, identity, content, location, social, retail and search across the important platforms of web, mobile and TV. In each theme there will be leading demo companies showing why it is real and how advanced some actually are. You can check the full speakers list here.

I am not sure if there are still tickets available (I believe the event is - or nearly - sold out). Registration is here.

NOTE: “Being Digital” is also the title of a great book, written by Nicholas Negroponte; it was the book I read in 1995 that spearheaded me inside the digital age!

advertising, amf ventures, Announcements, being digital, beingdigital, content, convergence, Conversations, events, identity, innovation, iptv, lbs, location, location based, londonm event, Mashup, mashups, mobile, nicholas negroponte, platforms, retail, search, social, social media, startups, tonyfish, Trends, tv, Ubiquity, web, web 2.0

On November 15, I’ll attend - as a judge this time - the Under the Radar | Mobility conference, organised by Dealmaker Media in the Microsoft Conference Center Building in Mountain View, CA. It is a unique chance to see, hear, and meet key players in the mobile universe, from the elusive carriers to the content developers, stealth startups and the industry leaders… 42 Startups will present their company/product/service in 1 Day! The event is also a forum for partnerships, dealmaking, business development, and growth opportunities.

To me, it’s one of THE important events on a global level if you’re in for new innovative ideas and companies in the mobile value chain space. If you don’t know the event, feel free to check my Under The Radar - Mobility 2006 conference review.

You’ll see a collection of companies in areas such as mobile content/video; social networking; voice services; marketing and advertising services; and a host of enabling technologies. From the industry experts and pundits to the company presentations and demos, you will learn about the future of mobility - its challenges and opportunities from consumer adoption to monetization of services.

Check this years’ detailed schedule here.

PRESENTING COMPANIES:
Boopsie | Buzzwire | Dial Directions | eZee, inc. | FoneMine | Frengo | Heysan! | Hovr | IceBreaker, Inc. | Imthere | Kadoink | Lypp | Mobile Distillery | mobio | Mocapay | mPortico | QuickMobile | RemoTV, Inc. | Utterz | TagText | Talkster | Tilefile Limited | Transpera | Tricast Media, Inc | Trutap Limited | Vlingo | Vollee | Xosphere | Yap | YoMedia | ZenZui

GRADUATE CIRCLE:
Cellufun | Concilio Networks | Iamota Corporation | Jangl | Juice Wireless | Mocospace | Quattro Wireless | UnWired Nation | Vringo | Waterfall Mobile

mTrends readers get a $100 off the price of the Under the Radar | Mobility conference. You can get your mTrends VIP Rate here, just mark mTrends in the “How did you hear about this event?” field. mTrends readers get a Special VIP Price at $595.00. Normal price for Non-Members is $695.00 in advance and $795 at the door.

I’ll be in the valley from November 13 till 18, let me know if you would like to catch up.

advertising, Boopsie, Buzzwire, carriers, cell phone, Cellufun, Concilio Networks, Dial Directions, discovery, events, eZee, FoneMine, Frengo, Heysan, Hovr, Iamota Corporation, IceBreaker, Imthere, infrastructure, innovation, Jangl, Juice Wireless, Kadoink, Lypp, media, messaging, mobile, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Apps, Mobile Content, Mobile Distillery, Mobile Events, Mobile Lifestyle, mobile marketing, Mobile RSS, Mobile Search, mobile video, mobile web, mobility, mobio, Mocapay, Mocospace, mPortico, Operators, platform, publishing, Quattro Wireless, QuickMobile, RemoTV, search, sharing, social media, social networking, startups, TagText, Talkster, Tilefile Limited, Transpera, Trends, Tricast Media, Trutap Limited, Under The Radar, UnWired Nation, Utterz, Vlingo, voice, voip, Vollee, vringo, Waterfall Mobile, Xosphere, Yap, YoMedia, ZenZui

Following the response and feedback I got on the “Understanding Mobile 2.0” article I wrote at Read/WriteWeb a couple of weeks ago, I created a wiki space to start categorizing the so-called Mobile 2.0 companies.

You can acces the directory at mobile2companies.com.

I decided to use a wiki tool, called Wepaint, so companies can add their own information and keep it updated. You just need to sign-up to add your Mobile 2.0 company info page, you can add images, slideshows, video’s, and RSS feeds as well, and tag your page(s).

Companies can use the tool to keep the web community updated with latest news, elevator pitches, presentations of new products/services, etc. You can browse the wiki by category, by keywords, subscribe to the wiki feeds on new pages added or updated, comments and news, a lot of other stuff out there yet to discover.

The directory is far from complete, I just gave it an initial injection and added some companies I know to start with, so the best thing to do is add your page if you don’t find your company in there and update your page if you don’t like what I added, it’s a wiki, you know

Kudos to Carlo for helping me with the introduction texts.

Contact me if you would like to contribute to this project, to become a writer/moderator, to help develop the wiki, and for any suggestion and comments. I hope these pages will be usefull for the entire mobile value chain, spread the word!

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