Commedia Integrates Mobile Coupons

Commidea, which specialises in card processing technology solutions, is integrating the ability to process mobile gift vouchers and coupons in its range of Ocius Chip & PIN terminal solutions.
The Ocius credit card payment solution is used by a range of customers, including major high street retailers and smaller independents. By adding mobile voucher technology to its suite of products, Commidea says it has removed the final barrier to entry for many retailers - Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) integration - enabling thousands of retailers to accept mobile vouchers and coupons. Commidea has vast experience in delivering payment solutions to retailers via a managed service business model.
Commidea is using Eagle Eye Solutions' (EES) Mobile Voucher Redemption System (MVRS), which easily integrates into any EPOS, providing real-time reporting and tracking of any voucher campaign, making it simple and easy for retailers to validate and audit.
The mobile voucher solution from EES will be integrated into Commidea’s retail partners and customers as part of a structured rollout. The individual retailer will have the final say on whether they want to accept voucher campaigns or not.
“Commidea works with a number of large retailers, such as Thomas Cook and Poundland,” says Commidea Managing Director, Simon Wilding. “We process in excess of £16 billion worth of transactions annually and to be able to offer a mobile voucher redemption ability to our customers is a major advance in electronic retail payment solutions. We are delighted to be working with Eagle Eye Solutions.”

Diamonds Are For Mobiles

UK based jewellery retailer Fameo has announced the launch of the first British mobile jewellery catalogue, a new mobile service that’s designed to allow anyone with a GPRS or 3G phone to browse Fameo jewellery offers, monitor their order status, research information and get customer service on the go. The mobile site includes a search function, with access to Fameo jewellery products and SMS alerts for the latest jewellery arrivals, price changes, order status and special promotions.
“Fameo has always focused on it's customers needs and made them a priority,” says Fameo Managing Director, Louise Davies. “Most mobile phones currently used in the UK are capable of accessing the Internet to some degree, and with mobile access, we are continuing the tradition of our innovative approach to putting jewellery shoppers first and keeping them connected.”
Fameo notes that while the mobile Internet is still a niche market, the number of people accessing the Internet in the UK using a mobile device is already one quarter the size of those using PCs to go online, and that’s it's predicted by analysts to be 4 times bigger than the current PC web. Fameo adds that it is crucial to be at the forefront at a time when competition between online jewellery e-tailers for customers is at an all-time high. According to Fameo, most companies that have created mobile websites have put out cut-down versions of their PC sites instead of starting out with a mobile-centric approach. Fameo hopes its mobile-first approach will set the company apart.
Fameo’s long-term strategy involves building a WAP-based jewellery shopping portal featuring enhanced functionality for customers who want to buy jewellery using the browser on their mobile phone, as well as price comparison for loose diamonds and colour gemstones via SMS text messages, and the launch of push-based mobile marketing campaigns under the banner: ‘Jewellery that fits your phone screen’.
You can access the Femo mobile site at: http://mobile.fameo.co.uk or click here for a WAP-push link to your phone.

Buongiorno Goes Blinko

Mobile entertainment company Buongiorno has revealed that it will launch its premium digital store service across India this month. Branded as Blinko Gold, it will offer Indian mobile consumers access to high quality mobile downloads and entertainment content. Buongiorno says the content will be packaged in a rich set of services powered by an advanced database and CRM system that will analyse service provisions and track end-user behaviour, in order to maximize the consumer experience.
Buongiorno cites research from Stanford University that shows that at present, only 23.07% of India’s 1.1 billion population owns a telephone. But with 51% of that population estimated to be aged under 25, and with nearly 8 million net subscriber additions every month, says Buongiorno, it is a market clearly showing enormous growth potential, signified by the recent entry of operators such as Vodafone and Virgin Mobile into the market. Indeed, improved regulatory structures, combined with declining tariffs, innovative pre-paid tariff plans and cheaper handsets are fuelling unprecedented growth in mobile phone uptake across the country, Buoongiorno notes.
It adds that with competition increasing, voice tariffs have gradually declined over the years, causing operators to look at alternative revenue streams such as the Values Added services (VAS) that Buongiorno provides. VAS presently contribute 7% of the total telecom revenue for Indian operators and this is expected to rise to around 12% in 2010; a figure that represents a market value of $2.74 billion (£1.39 billion). VAS in India today consists mainly of SMS services and content focusing on the population’s passion for Bollywood movies and Cricket.
Buongiorno began working in India in early 2006 through a strategic partnership with The Times of India. The company also works with many other media partners in India, including MTV Mobile, Samsung Mobile and Sony BMG, affording a great insight into a market with phenomenal growth prospects. In addition, Buongiorno has partnered with Mumbai service provider BPL Mobile, to offer a completely new experience to its subscribers with its icon-based WAP site: wap.mizone.bplmobile.com.
Buongiorno’s Indian operations are based out of New Delhi, where the Company has over 75 employees.
“Entering into emerging markets, we have to overcome a number of challenges, including managing and aggregating a completely local content catalogue for the service provisioning, “ says Buongiorno CEO, Andrea Casalini, adding that more than 95% of the content is local Indian content. “Also, unlike Europe where subscription services are stabilized, in India they are just now receiving the thrust from the operators. So, to propose services and products to operators and its consumers, on a single transaction basis, is a strong challenge. With fantastic partnerships already in place, we are confident the Blinko Gold brand will help us capitalize on this significant opportunity.”

Sportingbet Founder Joins Mfuse Board

Mfuse, which provides mobile-enabling technology, has revealed that it has raised £2.55 million at the close of its current funding round. The funding has came from existing investors Bestport Ventures LLP, who have invested a further £850,000 and new investors, including Mark Blandford, the founder of Sportingbet Plc, who has invested £1.55 million. Following the funding round, Blandford is joining the Mfuse Board as a Non-executive Director.
Mfuse was incorporated in 2002 to exploit the opportunities presented by the increase in mobile phones and the variety of activities they will be used for over the coming years. Specifically, the company’s aim is to enable businesses to deploy mobile transactional services across multiple devices and in multiple territories. Mfuse offers its clients a reliable and secure way to play, pay and transact using any mobile device. The company says its user-centred approach, combined with the latest robust, high performance technology, ensures a seamless, enhanced customer experience.
The new funding will provide working capital for Mfuse to expand both its product offering and its geographical reach. At present, Mfuse’s core offering is in the sports betting market, where it works with blue-chip clients such as Ladbrokes Plc, Sportingbet Plc, Bet365, Stan James and Paddy Power Plc. Part of the new capital has been allocated for further development and marketing of a mobile casino offering.
Mfuse says that Blandford’s appointment as a Non-executive Director will help strengthen the Board and provide the company with access to his significant knowledge of, and contact base in, the gaming industry. Blandford founded Sportingbet in 1997 after a successful career in traditional bricks and mortar bookmaking. In January 2001 the Company floated on London’s AIM market. Blandford was voted AIM entrepreneur of the year in 2002.He says:
“Mobile functionality is still in its infancy, and there is a very significant opportunity available to those with the technology and vision to facilitate the inevitable expansion of services and applications. Mfuse have the fundamentals in place and I look forward to working with their team in this crucial period of their corporate development.”

US Consumers Ready for Mobile Banking, Study Finds

Market research firm Harris Interactive has released details of a study that shows that US mobile phone users are increasingly comfortable using their phone for banking and purchasing while on the move.
The company interviewed 1,072 US adults aged 18 and over in December 2007 for its ‘2008 Winter Technology Report’. The study finds that 16% of mobile phone subscribers already use mobile banking services, with 60% of these using the services at least once a week. Many others presently not banking and buying on-the-go expressed interest in mobile banking, with 35% open to checking bank account balances and transferring funds via their mobile devices. A third of those surveyed also said they would like to receive text message alerts from their financial institutions.
The survey also finds that on-the-go mobile purchases are on the rise. About 25% of mobile phone users with mobile access to the Internet now use their devices to buy goods and services online via a credit card. One in five respondents said they would like to one day use their phone as a mobile wallet, with charges billed directly to their mobile accounts. In addition, 10% of respondents said they would consider wire transfers and stock trading via their mobile phones.
“Today’s mobile devices are the springboard for a whole raft of services, with huge pent-up demand for mobile commerce capabilities,” says Harris interactive Vice President, Joseph Porus. “If security concerns can be quelled, the sky’s the limit with consumer acceptance of mobile banking and purchase transactions. It’s a very intriguing prospect for the near future, considering how people have already embraced a variety of mobile technologies, beyond simple phone communications.”
Among those surveyed, the biggest barrier to consumer acceptance of mobile banking and commerce is security concerns over personal data. 66% of respondents expressed apprehension about using their mobile phone to transmit sensitive financial information. 63% said they feared the medium could expose them to potential fraud and financial scams, while 61% worry about losing a mobile phone containing personal financial information. Other consumer concerns around mobile commerce include questions about usability (43%), reliability (37%), and the speed of the wireless network (23%).
“While the survey indicates people have concerns associated with using mobile devices for financial transactions, it’s similar to the evolution of the Internet as a viable tool for banking and buying,” says Porus. “We expect mobile technology to only improve and become even more secure in the coming years. This should ease people’s fears and make mobile commerce appealing in the future.”
You can see more stats from the report here.

Flirtomatic Proposal Pays Off

UK-based mobile and online flirting service Flirtomatic reports healthy interest in a virtual engagement ring promotion it ran at the end of February. Flirtomatic launched the promotion to give its female members the opportunity to follow leap year tradition and propose – via mobile - to the man of their dreams.
During the promotional period, which ran from 26 February to 2 March, 14,278 virtual engagement rings were bought and sold online at a cost of around £0.40 each. The figure was significantly higher than the 10,000 Flirtomatic had predicted.
The limited edition ring was part of the site’s value-added services (VAS) section, which includes a range of virtual gifts, from flowers and chocolates to champagne bottles and ‘Supersnogs’ - that users can purchase to send to the object of their affection. 
“The continuing popularity of VAS has demonstrated a clear appetite for users to pay for additional features relevant to the Flirtomatic experience,” says Flirtomatic CEO, Mark Curtis. “The popularity of the leap year proposal ring shows that social networks seem to be evolving to a point where there’s a definite interest in seasonality. We saw this at Christmas too, where our ‘Frosty’, Supersnog and Mistletoe gifts became bestsellers almost overnight.
The virtual gifts were introduced in April 2007, along with other services, including the option to purchase credits to reveal who has rated a member’s profile highly. Users can also bid to have their profile displayed on the opening ‘Look at Me’ screen. 
“VAS opens up an extremely powerful advertising medium to brands, with sponsorship of relevant gifts and features enabling intimate engagement with consumers as they communicate with each other,” says Curtis. “We’re currently in discussions with a number of brands to develop seasonally-tailored sponsorship opportunities.”

Bango Stages Analytics Webinar

Bango is staging a free Mobile Analytics Webinar on Wednesday 27 February at 4.00pm UTC. The webinar will look at how to get an insight into mobile visitors and maximize mobile marketing effectiveness. It will also cover the shift to mobile search and advertising models, and consider how mobile analytics can be used for precision marketing and effective monitoring of campaigns. It will also explain why traditional web analytics are no good for mobile.
There’s more information on the webinar here.

Telrock and TSYS Make US Move

Telrock plc, the mobile applications technology company focused on the financial services, utility and public-sector markets, and TSYS, one of the world’s largest companies for outsourced payment services, have revealed that they are jointly developing a suite of integrated mobile solutions for TSYS’s North American clients. The solutions will include a suite of SMS-based mobile services, including fraud alerting, account notifications, customer inquiries and payments.
Telrock has been providing mobile solutions for TSYS’s European card processing clients for more than a year. The decision to extend the relationship to North America is based on the success of the European relationship and an increased interest in mobile account servicing and payment solutions in the North American card market. 
“The expansion of our partnership with TSYS marks an important milestone for Telrock, and we welcome the opportunity to extend our proven mobile solutions into the North American market,” says Telrock Managing Director, Russell Robinson. TSYS gives Telrock a single point of integration to provide its mobile solutions to a market of more than 200 million North American cardholders, giving us a strong foothold in the US market.”

Groove Mobile Adds PayForIt Compliance

Mobile music service provider Groove Mobile has announced that its UK direct-to-consumer off-portal music service is now PayForIt-compliant across all UK network operators, simplifying the billing process for mobile music consumers. In addition, customers of TMobile UK, 3 and Vodafone can benefit from flat-rate data tariffs,  ensuring music from the off-portal service is delivered without hidden costs or ‘bill shock.’
Developed through a strategic UK cross-mobile network operator initiative, PayForIt improves the consumer experience for one-time and subscription services purchased via the mobile Internet by introducing a secure and unified approach to mobile purchases. Users can easily purchase full track Over-the-Air (OTA) downloads from their favourite artists on the mobile web without having to leave the session for billing purposes, regardless of their network operator or phone type.
“Growth in off-portal content sales has been slowed by multiple billing practices across different carriers,” says Groove Mobile Chief Marketing Officer, Adam Sexton. “With its PayForIt compliance, Groove Mobile assures that its mobile music customers in the UK are billed accurately and consistently for the content they purchase.”

Zong Announces Spaces Launch

Zong, the open mobile platform provider, has announced the launch of 'Spaces', which it claims is the first service allowing anyone to create a mobile website, including the necessary handset rendering, for free. Echovox, the company behind the Zong platform, says that with minimal technical knowledge, users can create mobile sites from existing web content such as RSS feeds.
Spaces has been developed to help media companies and other publishers create their own mobile sites, rendering and transcoding all the content for thousands of mass-market handsets. In addition to this, the platform will soon include integrated WAP billing functionality, allowing companies to monetise services through their mobile websites.
Echovox says that Spaces will give content owners a low barrier-to-entry route into the mobile web era. It will create new revenue-generating opportunities such as premium content, voting and tailoring of users' web presence. It notes that mobile micro-payments are growing as a new revenue stream for web content owners.
Spaces will be available through Zong's website. It offers an intuitive visual interface with which users can not only create a mobile site, but also combine and integrate dynamic content in the form of XML or RSS feeds.
“Launching a mobile website can be a much more complex process than launching a traditional website, where there are only a couple of browsers,” says Echovox CEO, David Marcus. “Companies looking to launch a mobile site have had to contend with issues with the different form factors, screen sizes, capabilities and uncertain and varying mobile bandwidth. Zong brings, for the first time, a one-size-fits-all concept to the mobile web by circumventing the traditional complexity of the mobile sector."
Zong Spaces is available globally and offers transactional capabilities in Europe.

O2 Launches Major London NFC Trial

O2 has announced the launch of the UK’s first large scale pilot of NFC (Near Field Communications) technology on mobile phones. The trial, which will involve over 500 people invited from the O2 customer base, takes place across selected sites throughout London. It begins on today, and runs for six months until the end of May 2008. The company says the trial of the O2 Wallet paves the way for the mass market use of mobile phones to pay for purchases, access events or even be used as Oyster cards for travel around London, simply by touching the phone to a reader.
“Research shows that people are more likely to return home if they leave their phone behind than their wallet or keys,” says Cath Keers, O2 UK Customer Director. “So why not have your wallet on your phone? We believe that NFC technology is going to fundamentally change the way people use their mobile phones.”
NFC is a contactless functionality, enabling a wide range of secure uses, including cashless payments, public transport and event ticketing, and smart posters. In order to make this as comprehensive a pilot as possible, O2 has brought together a broad range of partners, including Transport for London, TranSys, Barclaycard, Visa Europe, Nokia and AEG.
Each triallist will be given a Nokia 6131 NFC handset installed with the O2 Wallet. Just like a normal wallet, this will hold various everyday cards, including Oyster and Barclaycard, but in virtual form, and with NFC functionality. Trialists will be able to test a wide range of different services in London, such as making purchases in retail outlets and travelling on London’s public transport system. All participants will be asked to provide feedback on the services featured in the O2 Wallet, evaluating its ease of use, security and overall usefulness.
Accessed from the phone’s main menu, the O2 Wallet shows all the NFC services available on the handset in addition to information about each service and customer support.
All 500 triallists will have the Oyster card on their phone, enabling them to use their handset to pay for travel on the Tube, buses and trams across the Capital. They will also be able to top up their Oyster by touching their handset on Oyster ticket machines in tube stations or at Oyster ticket stops. If a triallist’s phone rings, they can still answer the call and continue to make a transaction. A call or text message will not interfere with the NFC service.
Triallists will also be able to touch the NFC-enabled handset on selected smart posters at the launch and at other locations over the course of the trial. The smart posters contain embedded tags which serve as shortcuts for services enabled through the handset. Once the user taps the poster with the handset, they will automatically dial a number, send a text message or be sent a shortcut to a mobile Internet site, with more information about the subject on the poster, such as an event or a content download.
The trial will also examine mobile payments, using the Barclaycard payment application in the O2 Wallet. A subset of triallists will be able to use the growing number of contactless payment readers at retailers in and around London to purchase goods for £10 or under. They will simply need to tap their phones on the secure reader, and transactions will be completed in a matter of seconds.
In the initial phase of the trial, Barclaycard will credit each phone with £200 worth of non-reloadable funds which triallists can use and spend as they see fit at any participating retailer. As well as making payments, they will also be able to use the phones to check available funds and to locate retailers close to them that accept contactless  payments, including Books Etc, Chop'd, Coffee Republic, EAT, Krispy Kreme, Threshers and YO! Sushi.
The partners are keen to extend the payment functionality delivered to triallists as part of the O2 Wallet, and are actively discussing the opportunities to develop the trial service further in 2008. Possible developments include PIN capability, purchases over the current £10 limit, and reloadable/credit funds capability.
AEG Europe, which operates The O2 venue, will also be looking into how the NFC handset can be used to enhance the customer experience at The O2. All triallists will be able to use their NFC handsets to gain entry into the blueroom – the exclusive bar for O2 customers and guests at the venue. The experience will be managed by ‘O2 Angels’, whose own NFC handsets will display the name of the triallists, enabling a personalised greeting into the blueroom.
“This trial is going to provide insights which will prove crucial to getting the customer experience right as we bring NFC on mobile to market.” Says Keers. “But the trial is just the start of this journey. For this to work, we will need the whole ecosystem to come together, which means mobile operators, banks and retailers all working together to fulfil a shared vision. If we get this right we can place the UK at the forefront of technology innovation.”

Bango Reports Positive Payforit KPIs

Bango has reported positive key performance indicators, based on an analysis of the first million transactions the company has processed since the launch of Payforit in the UK mobile market earlier this year. 92% of transactions were completed successfully with an error rate of less than 1%, the company says. And with refund levels at below 0.01%, there was a significant reduction in the need for expensive customer care.
The Payforit scheme, developed by all five UK mobile network operators in collaboration with leading technical service providers, including Bango, provides a standardized and familiar web-like payment experience for consumers browsing and buying content and services from mobile phones.
Bango’s analysis demonstrates that:
92% of transactions were successfully completed through the company’s Payforit flow, and at levels exceeding previous types of transactions.
A 1% error rate – incomplete transactions resulting from a payment processing failure, often leading to a retry.
7% of transactions failed because users had insufficient funds to complete their purchase.
The UK market has a comparatively high pre-paid user base, accounting for over 60% of all subscribers. The occurrence of insufficient subscriber funds is more noticeable where a high pre-paid base exists and consumers are unaware of the money they have remaining on their phones before making a purchase.
“It is great to see such clear evidence that Payforit is performing so well,” comments Steve Ricketts, Head of Third Party Services at Orange UK. “Bango’s numbers show that the scheme is delivering a happy end user experience and a successful payment scheme for content providers.”
Mobile Data Association Chairman Mike Short adds:
“This shows great progress for the industry and for our customers who have growing confidence in purchasing a wider choice of mobile web-based content. Payforit grew out of a need for consistent operational standards, light touch regulation and interoperability across all networks. As Bango`s results show, this is a very good start.”
The benefits of the Payforit scheme go beyond maximizing content provider revenue to include widening the content choice available through easy payment and, through web services, offering a significant reduction in the need for expensive customer care, says Bango. The research shows that the biggest improvement is in very low refund levels being requested, and fewer than one in ten thousand customer refund payments in the UK compared to higher levels approaching 10% with Premium SMS.
As part of its research, Bango also calculated the average transaction speed, a key metric for improved customer experience. This is calculated as the time elapsed between the user clicking the ‘Buy’ link, and seeing the confirmation web page. Across all five networks, the average is five seconds and in the best cases, a figure of two seconds is achieved.
In addition to improving the payment flow, the Payforit scheme enables content providers to legitimately and safely market to their consumers by allowing them to ‘opt in’ to marketing campaigns. Bango gives content providers full control over the capture and management of customer marketing within the Payforit rules. By providing content providers with a real-time, updated list of opted in users, they are safe in the knowledge that all marketing activity adheres to the guidelines at all times. Typically, the opt-in page is presented when content is being purchased. With Bango, the company notes, content providers can offer this opt-in page at any point during the browsing process which means those who do not charge for content can still opt consumers in to their marketing messages.
“Bango is delivering the benefits of the Payforit-style WAP model across the world’s leading mobile content markets,” says Anil Malhotra, SVP Marketing at Bango and chair of the MMA mobile web committee. “In the US, this approach to off-portal content is increasingly supported by operators, content providers and though the work of the MMA, to the benefit of consumers and content providers alike.”

Upaid Rolls Out Mobile Payments in Serbia

Mobile payments specialist Upaid has announced the national launch of its Mobile Payment Service (MPS) marketing campaign in Serbia. Including all three mobile operators and 10 banks in Serbia, this national launch is an expansion to a service started in October 2006 with Visa International and Serbian mobile operator Mobile Telekom Serbia (mt:s). Serbia is the third in a series of markets to sign up to the MPS, with operators in Jordan and Morocco already using Upaid’s payment platform.
Customers of all three Serbian mobile operators: mt:s, Telenor and Vip mobile, who register their Visa cards to the service will be able to recharge (top-up) their mobile phones instantly with a simple SMS message. They can also use an SMS message to top-up the prepaid phones of friends and family against the same card. Upaid anticipates increasing the portfolio of its services with the operators in the future.
mt:s has been using the service for the past year, while Vip mobile launched the service yesterday, and Telenor is finalising the pilot stage, ready for live transactions in November.
All customers of the MPS consortium of banks in Serbia who have Visa payment cards and a mobile phone service can sign up to the enhanced service at no cost, setting a new standard for recharge services in Serbia.
The MPS consortium is currently made up of 10 banks and all three mobile operators in Serbia, and like the operators they represent, the consortium includes a mix of local and international banks, including Continental, Komercijalna and Piraeus, as well as Austria’s Raiffeisen, France’s Société Générale, Greece’s Alpha bank and Italy’s Banca Intesa. Together they represent over 75% of card holders, and more banks have applied to join. Together, these banks and operators are cooperating to bring a full mobile payments system to the country’s 6.6 million phone users. Banks will be including MPS in their own marketing campaigns from November.
Upaid has provided consortium members with a marketing toolkit to ensure a coherent national marketing campaign, and leads this effort with a print and billboard campaign which broke yesterday and runs through to the end of the year.
Upaid has also created and launched an information website in English and Serbian for customers to learn how to practically use the MPS service. The MPS site contains instructional demos on how to top-up mobile phones with each mobile operator, and how to contact banks to sign up for the service.
“Compared to other recharge options, such as electronic recharge in shops, or scratch cards, this mobile service gives consumers the freedom to top-up instantly and independently at shops and merchants,” says Jean-Marc-Tonti, Vice President, South East Europe, Visa CEMEA. “We are delighted to see more banks and operators signing up to this service. Upaid has been instrumental in our expansion in the Serbian market and we hope to repeat and even exceed the success we had in Jordan and Morocco here in Serbia.”
For Upaid, Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations, Terence Trench, adds:
“Since launching this service a year ago, we have seen great progress in the Serbian market, and have expanded to include 10 banks and growing. With the addition of mobile operators such as Telenor and Vip mobile to our service already offered by mt:s, we are confident that we will reach the majority of Serbian mobile users and Visa card holders. This market is perfect for Upaid to roll out additional services in the future, such as utility payments.”
There are currently 2.2 million Visa card holders in Serbia, a large proportion of whom will have access to the new Upaid service. Serbia has 6.6 million mobile phone users, and a population of 7.6 million.   

hosting.mobi Domain Sells for $101,000

dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi Internet domain, successfully closed its first-ever online auction on 3 October. dotMobi auctioned 100 domain names through Sedo.com (Search Engine for Domain Offers), the online marketplace for buying and selling domain names and websites. dotMobi says it is the first domain company to offer selected names directly to the market via an online auction process rather than a traditional ‘first come, first served’ process.
Dozens of names were purchased, and more than $850,000 (£425,000) generated for the continued creation of mobile content tools like dotMobi's http://ready.mobi and http://site.mobi tools.
With bidders from 34 countries, the auction's most desired names were hosting.mobi (which sold for $101,000), bank.mobi ($51,501), download.mobi ($51,500), currency.mobi ($47,000) and insurance.mobi ($42,005).
insurance.mobi was purchased by Insurance.com, an independent, online insurance agency which enables consumers to compare and buy competitive auto insurance quotes directly from more than a dozen leading insurance companies.
“We see the long-term value of the mobile Internet,” says Insurance.com Director of Information Technology, Joe Singleton. “The .mobi domain will be a valuable tool in continuing to build our future consumer offerings.”
Commenting on the auction, dotMobi Chief Marketing Officer David Ryder says:
“With more than 1.6 billion mobile users around the world, it's obvious that brands are quickly realising that the audience for mobile content is enormous. This auction proves that dotMobi has some of the most-wanted domain names in the world, and it’s exciting to start seeing how they'll be used for content."
The next .mobi Sedo auction takes place on 31 October. Domains up for grabs include flights.mobi, hoteldeals.mobi and cars.mobi. You can see the complete list of names going under the digital hammer, along with terms, condition and buyer requirements, here.

Bango Billing Powers Footie Downloads

AnimationFC says it is set to become the UK’s number one football mobile content provider, with the help of Bango. By the end of the year, 70 football clubs in the league will have a presence on the mobile web, including Spurs, Newcastle United, West Ham and Aston Villa.
AnimationFC creates and supplies content to UK league football clubs, including its unique brand of player animation videos that can be downloaded and paid for by fans anywhere in the world using Bango’s global payment system. Celtic and Rangers are currently live, with West Ham, Fulham and Sunderland being activated within the next few weeks. The mobile club sites will be powered by Bango to provide fast, easy access and charging for content from football fans worldwide. In addition to its trademark animated videos, AnimationFC provides other official, high quality content, including screensavers, wallpapers and realtones, tailored for each club.
“Football clubs are keen to engage directly with their fans no matter where in the world they are,” says Animation FC Director, Gavin Skelhorn. “By providing a bespoke solution for each club with Bango’s technology powering the sites, we are giving the clubs an easy on-ramp to the mobile web. Now users can directly experience their favourite club and buy fun and exciting content on their mobile phones over the Internet.”
Fans from around the world can access and pay for content using Bango’s global payment system, which offers a seamless and transparent experience, including compliance with the Payforit billing standard in the UK. Fans can also pay for content using debit or credit cards and PayPal.
Promotion of the sites is carried out by each individual club. For example, Celtic capitalizes on traffic to its main website at www.celticfc.net and directs visitors to specific pieces of content on mobile using the Bango Web Trigger. The club also provides a direct link to its mobile site via an SMS shortcode using the Bango Txt Trigger. Here, users simply text the word CELTIC to 62866 and receive a WAP Push back to their mobile which, when clicked on, takes them directly to the Celtic FC mobile site where they are free to browse and buy content.
“The mobile web now has something for everyone, whether you are a sporting fan, want to follow your favourite band, play games or keep up with news and events,” says Bango CEO Ray Anderson. “It’s important for football clubs and all businesses to capitalise on this new mobile opportunity, and our job at Bango is to make it easy for everyone.”

Wapple Extends Canvas Capabilities

Wapple has extended its popular mobile Internet site-building platform Wapple Canvas, to include a suite of powerful mobile marketing tools. The new Wapple Canvas Market package allows any business with a mobile Internet site,  from small local retailers to major global brands, to run effective mobile marketing campaigns to reach a local or worldwide audience.
The Wapple Canvas Market package includes templates for creating dynamic and vibrant mobile marketing campaigns that can be targeted at specific mobile phone users. And by using features such as campaign, forms and content downloads, says Wapple, companies can create truly interactive sites, driving traffic to them via WAP-push, text trigger, brand domains and through Wapple's ad partners. Success can then be measured using detailed statistics and changes can be made easily to the content throughout the campaign to enhance results.
The package also gives full access to the Wapple Canvas toolkit, which was judged the ‘Best Mobile Publishing Platform’ at the Mobile Entertainment Awards earlier this month. This extensive mobile site-building suite is a fast and effective way to create, publish and manage professional mobile Internet sites, which can be viewed on virtually any device on any network around the world.   
”With Wapple Canvas Market, we don't just help companies to establish a strong mobile presence, we also give them the tools to create dynamic and exciting mobile marketing campaigns," says Anne Thomas, Co-founder and Business Development Director at Wapple. “Whether you are a small shop interested in consumer awareness,  or a large corporation looking for global brand presence, building your mobile Internet site with Wapple is an easy and extremely effective addition to any company's marketing plan."

myGamma Adds WAP Billing

BuzzCity, which develops global wireless communities and consumer services, has announced a new billing service across its myGamma social network portal in six countries in Europe: the UK, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden. WAP billing will supplement the current billing method of Premium SMS (PSMS), ensuring transactions are simple, fast and reliable.
The new billing method makes transactions simple; with consumers clicking a “Pay Now” (or similar) link, generating a transaction through the system once it has checked that credit is available in the consumer’s account. This avoids the pitfalls of PSMS, where there is no way of credit checking a buyer, no means of refunding a purchaser, and crucially, very little transparency. It also means that the user does not have to leave the session to send a PSMS.
The new billing solution will enable more European users to have access to BuzzCity’s merchant products beyond Europe, and will also enable more European merchants to sign up with BuzzCity and enjoy added cross-border distribution.
“This European offering shows that we are continuing to expand our global community,” says BuzzCity CEO, Kok Fung Lai. “The WAP billing capability increases consumer choice and merchant payment reliability, with users in Europe able to enjoy access to myGamma paid services and participate in the various ‘in-game’ activities. myGamma has built critical mass with more than two million users and continues to extract value from members via advertising and merchant downloads.”
WAP billing capabilities will be rolled out before the end of the year in additional countries in Eastern Europe.

Payforit Under the Spotlight

Mobile payment initiative Payforit came into force across all mobile Internet services and UK networks officially on 1 September. The payment system was welcomed by the mobile industry; and now key operators, content providers and API's (Accredited Payment Intermediaries) believe the future success of the initiative will rely on the developments made over the coming months.
Dialogue Communications hosted a seminar on the future of Payforit in London on Wednesday night to look at what the future holds for the mobile payment mechanism. Dialogue MD Guillaume Peersman was joined by Iain McCallum of O2, Jeremy Flynn of D2See, and formally of Vodafone, and Phil Cooke of I-Play, to discuss where Payforit is heading.
Since Dialogue went live with Payforit in January 2007, the feedback has been positive, with statistics from content providers demonstrating a clear increase in conversion rates. Dialogue has seen a rise of up to 27% on conversion compared to Premium SMS solutions for its connected customers, and I-Play is now approaching a 15% conversion rate for customers visiting its mobile site.
Speaking at the seminar, Peersman said he believed that Payforit would be a success and that consumers would trust the service. “I believe Payforit will dominate m-payments for some time to come, but it is by no means the finished product, and further developments need to be made, which is something all operators and API's are working to achieve over the coming months," he said.
Price points have been one area of debate among operators, with the consensus being that a £5 maximum purchase value is not enough to offer a broad range of content, and that ceiling  should be increased to £10. Operators are already working on solutions to tackle this problem and in only a matter of months some may well raise the limits.
Ian McCallum, Head of Interactive Messaging Products at O2, believes that improvements need to be made to the customer experience and that this is the key issue that Payforit is trying to address.
“A lot of work and expense, by APIs and MNO's working together, has gone into optimising the PFI scheme rules to ensure that they are both robust enough to deliver the best possible subscriber experience and can be implemented by our partners with the minimum hassle and complexity” he said. “The next few months will, no doubt, throw up issues of concern and the MNO group will study these and fine-tune the scheme rules accordingly."
The seminar also looked at some of the challenges that Payforit faces in achieving widespread consumer adoption. Consumer awareness is one of the key issues facing the brand. Simply, consumers are not being told what Payforit is and what its purpose is. Operators need to promote the system more aggressively if it is to achieve its objectives, delegates concluded.
Data charges involved in buying the content are another major concern for Payforit. Consumers don't know the final amount they will end up paying for a game or music download, as the purchase price does not include the data charges that come with downloading the content. Two solutions were discussed at the seminar, including listing the size of the download at the point of purchase, so the customer can work out how much extra it will cost to download. Secondly, some operators have introduced all- you-can-eat data tariffs that remove the worry of not knowing how much you are paying for a download, as all data downloads are included in the monthly line rental cost. This seems to be the way the industry is heading and would remove the barrier of unknown data charges.
“The next stage in the Payforit development process is to ensure that the standard is used not only in the off-portal market but also on operator portals,” said D2See CEO Jeremy Flynn. “For it to truly achieve its goal, the customer needs to see the standard payment screen wherever they buy content, be that on- or off-portal,"
Currently, on-portal content purchases make up around 25% of the market, therefore it is very much an active area in purchasing content and needs to incorporate the Payforit standard to ensure the user's buying experience is always the same.
Subscription services have been available on mobile for many years, but the trust in them has diminished over time as customers are unclear as to what, when and how they will be charged.  Phil Cooke, CTO at I-Play believes Payforit could lead to the revival of mobile subscriptions. He said:
“With Payforit taking over off-portal buying, subscriptions are set for a rebirth, as APIs now ensure consumers receive all the payment terms, including details of how to unsubscribe and helpline information at the time of purchase. This will hopefully demonstrate to the customer that a streamlined system is behind the subscriptions and that all previous problems have been resolved."
In terms of marketing, opt-in boxes are currently left ticked on certain networks and unticked on others, and there is a feeling among some operators that this is an issue that needs to be standardised across the whole industry. In addition to this, there is the matter of a merchant's memory of consumer choices. Put simply, should consumers have to re-tick a box every time they revisit the same merchant?
The seminar concluded that Payforit will come up against some tough competition over the coming year from systems such as Google Checkout and Paypal Mobile, but that, with some minor developments, it stands every chance of becoming the market-leading initiative it was designed to be.

Cross-border Mobile Internet Sales Up

Bango has reported huge growth in cross-border mobile content sales, with 30% of purchases from its growing community of content providers crossing country borders, compared to just 5% a year ago. The mobile web is helping businesses to reach overseas markets and with more people searching for content, this trend is expected to grow to 55% or more within the next year, the company says. 
“Businesses often start by selling mobile content in their own country," says Bango Senior VP of Marketing, Anil Malhotra. “But they soon realize they have visitors from all around the world with minimal promotional effort. Because Bango solutions are global, businesses can leverage the mobile web to quickly and easily capture sales from a world-wide audience."
This experience is markedly different from the Premium SMS model, says Bango. With Premium SMS, content providers sold their content country by country, doing specific promotions and setting billing for each region they wanted to sell into. With Bango, content providers simply plug into the Bango platform once and can collect payments from over 150 countries world-wide on the mobile web for one monthly fee of as little as £299 for the Bango Focus package.
Content providers often stimulate cross-border sales by publishing their mobile URL on their website, get listed in mobile search engines such as Google and Yahoo! or pay for sponsored links within the search results.
“We drive traffic to our mobile sites using search marketing through Yahoo!, Google and other search engines, as well as mobile advertising networks," says Giles Richardson, VP Consumer Marketing at Mobile Streams, whose sites, which include Ringtones.com, are engineered specifically to receive traffic in this way.
"We see increasing numbers of visitors from across Europe, the US and Asia Pacific as access and use of the mobile web grows. Bango detects from which country the user originates, so we offer the best payment method for the user in that country. This is key to increasing the all important conversion rate, essential if you have just paid for the click"

Fonestarz goes D2C with kazzip

Mobile retailing specialist FoneStarz Media Group has launched kazzip, its first direct-to-consumer (D2C) mobile offering. Having experienced significant success with its on-portal strategy, FoneStarz is one of the first mobile content providers to take its off-portal offering to market.
Initially available to consumers in Germany, the United Kingdom and the US, the D2C platform will go beyond the ‘walled garden’ to offer end-users a range of bespoke mobile infotainment services which includes images, animations, videos and tones.
In a market analysts suggest is already worth $5billion (£2.5 billion), FoneStarsz says the kazzip service has already attracted interest from major brands looking to partner with a mobile imaging specialist.
“The launch of kazzip is a significant and exciting step for FoneStarz,” says CEO Dave Moreau. “In the last seven years we have built FoneStarz into a successful global
content provider and we now have the infrastructure and expertise to launch this standalone service. As the significance of the potential revenue streams in this market become clear, there will be an influx of direct to consumer launches, but we feel we are in the ideal situation to establish ourselves as one of the leaders in this dynamic marketplace.”
FoneStarz distributes and manages content in 25 countries across Europe, Asia, Australasia and the Americas, and sold more than 8 million items of mobile content in the first six months of this year. Listing high profile companies such as Manchester United, Warner Bros and McLaren among its clients, FoneStarz is currently expanding its core specialties by moving into the mobile search and advanced video markets.