Linda Barrabee, program manager with The Yankee Group, comments, "With the SMS ecosystem continuing to grow and gain further acceptance in the U.S., we will continue to see innovation in the mobile content market." Three examples of successful niche content providers, Telemundo, Ringspirations, and Chikka, are using mBlox’s mobile transaction network for message and content delivery and billing.
Telemundo a la Mano Wireless, in conjunction with mBlox, provides local news, sports, entertainment, and other content for mobile phone subscribers.
Telemundo, a leading Spanish-language television network, provides unique national and local programming for the Hispanic market in the U.S. The network reaches 93 percent of U.S. Hispanic households in 210 markets through its 16 owned-and-operated stations, 40 broadcast affiliates, nearly 684 cable affiliates and direct broadcast satellite.
"Mobile devices are a primary form of communication for much of the Hispanic community which can now receive Spanish language content on their mobile phone," says Enrique Perez, senior vice president of sales, Telemundo Station Group. "By delivering relevant news and information in Spanish, we play a major role in this community because there are so few media outlets for our audience. SMS is an ideal way for us to extend the reach of our brand because of the ubiquity of the mobile phone and its effectiveness as a channel of communication."
mBlox provided Ringspirations, a mobile Christian content provider, the opportunity to reach out to the estimated 150 million Christians in the United States.
Ringspirations is an exclusive mobile content provider that offers a large collection of Christian and inspirational ringtones in English and Spanish. With more than 250 artists, the Ringspirations catalog of music and voice tones uniquely mirrors the cultural, ethnic and musical diversity of the faith-based community. This niche market was disproportionately underserved as compared to mainstream secular mobile content.
“Ringspriations gives Christians the opportunity to openly display their faith every time their cell phone rings,” said Jewyl Gibson, CEO of Ringspirations. "We also discovered a mobile content downloading disparity with first time consumers. Many of our consumers are more than 40 years old and first time mobile content downloaders. By using mBlox, we can offer a simple way for our customers to download and pay for content via their mobile phone."
Manila-based Chikka.com, with more than 38 million registered subscribers, is one of the largest mobile subscribers in the Philippines. The company’s focus on SMS communications is related to the many Filipinos going abroad to work and earn a better income due to the economic situation of the country. The communication options are expensive and with the large adoption of mobiles in the country, SMS plays a key role. Chikka.com’s services are aimed primarily at overseas Filipinos who need a convenient and reliable way to communicate with family and friends back home.
Chikka.com subscribers can enjoy free PC-to-mobile and a less expensive international text response or they can download some of the sights and sounds of the Philippines that make them feel closer to home. "We have seen a tremendous response for our Chikka messenger as we average a million new users a month and we are now generating more than 20 million messages per month," said Gio Bacareza, director of Chikka.com. “mBlox has been instrumental in allowing us to reach more customers around the world.”
"As the number of mobile phones in the world approaches 3 billion, far surpassing PC connectivity, more companies are recognizing the enormous opportunity that lies in mobile communications," said Steve Livingston, chief marketing officer at mBlox. "Mobile transactions, such as SMS and PSMS, are the fabric of the mobile business, and allow niche players to drive new and improved forms of marketing, communications and revenue streams."
