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MobileMonday and MVNO’s started in Spain around the same time in 2006, so we thought it’s about time for an update. The next MobileMonday Madrid will have a session dedicated to the MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) perspective with speakers from three MVNO’s: MásMóvil, Bankinter Móvil and Simyo, and the analysis from a pricing expert from Simon – Kucher & Partners. As usual, we will also have two presentations from Spanish startups to be announced at the event itself.

Speakers include: Philip Daus, Senior Consultant at Simon – Kucher & Partners Strategy & Marketing Consultants in the Madrid office. Maini Spenger, Co-Founder & CEO, MásMóvil Sergio Martínez-Cava Camacho, Innovation CTO and Head of Strategy & Marketing at Bankinter Móvil. And Jochen Doppelhammer, CEO of KPN (Simyo) in Spain.

Attendance is free; all you need to do is register and/or confirm your presence for this event at www.mobilemondaymadrid.com/subscribe/ and reserve one of the 150 seats available. Book now to avoid being left out! Our last event was entirally booked.

NOTE also that we opened an online forum for the Spanish-speaking community at Yahoo! Groups: MobileMonday en Español. Subscribe and participate with other mobile professionals and entrepreneurs worldwide.

(Header Image © by Friendi Mobile)

… 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.