Ahtisaari

Blyk UK hits 100,000 members

Blyk UK has reached 100,000 members. This is an important milestone in building a media for young people.

See Shaun Gregory's post on the Blyk company blog. And coverage in The Daily Telegraph today: Yesterday's blip could be today's Blyk (comment by Damien Reece) and Blyk, the advertiser-funded free mobile phone service, has hit its target of 100,000 users five months ahead of schedule.

For more on Blyk and the how Blyk works for advertisers please see our recent case studies and this short video interview covering All About Blyk (mobuzz.tv).

Dopplr in Fortune and The Wall Street Journal

Two recent pieces highlighting the benefits of Dopplr for frequent travellers. David Kirkpatrick, senior editor at Fortune, features Dopplr alongside LinkedIn and Facebook in "Web 2.0 gets down to business: Business people find ways to save time and make money from social software pioneered by their kids" in both the print and online editions:

J.P. Rangaswami, who oversees 4,000 people as a managing director at BT, has become a heavy user of this tool for sharing travel itineraries. (He also has 500 friends in Facebook and follows 300 on Twitter.) Before Dopplr, which launched last December, it took repeated e-mails to keep contacts informed of his whereabouts. Now his 140 Dopplr contacts know where he is at any moment.

"You can really optimize your time when traveling," says Rangaswami. One Dopplr friend recently saw he was going to Dublin and out of the blue recommended a good Indian restaurant.

Dick O'Neill, a former Pentagon strategist who now runs a think tank called the Highlands Forum, tracks about 115 mostly professional friends on Dopplr, even when he's not traveling.

"My business is about new ideas," he says. "I want to know when colleagues come to town because I need to keep up with what they're thinking."

And Esther Dyson writes in a column in The Wall Street Journal "The Coming Ad Revolution" about Dopplr and the business models of social networks, in the print and online editions:

Look at Dopplr (where I plan to become an investor), a site for travelers. I list my trips, and see how they intersect with my friends' itineraries. "Oh, we'll both be in London April 4? Let's get together!" Or, "Juan and Alice will be in town next Tuesday. Let's hold a dinner!" You can imagine or visit equivalent approaches for books (a hypothetical Amazon 2.0, new and more personalized), clothes (Glam.com and Stardoll.com), and even money management.

So what's the business model? I'll "friend" British Airways, which will say, "We see you're going to Moscow next month. Why not fly through London and we'll give you 10,000 extra miles?" I'm no longer in a bucket of frequent travelers, my privacy protected. I'm an individual with specific travel plans, which I intentionally make visible to preferred vendors. British Airways, of course, will pay Dopplr a handsome sponsorship fee to be eligible to be my "friend" (just as a Nike rep might pay to sponsor a basketball game and be part of the community). Someday NetJets may show up, offering to ferry me and my friends to a conference we'll be attending together.

I'm far more likely to respond to BA or NetJets within a trusted site, and for a specific offer, than I am to heed their ad while reading a newspaper article on the troubles in Russia. (As for Orbitz, my old standby: After five years, it still doesn't acknowledge my preferred airlines.)

The new model creates a more trusted environment for reaching high-value, frequent purchasers, whether of airline tickets, electronics, clothes or other items. Where does that leave the less-frequent purchasers? Probably looking to their friends rather than to advertising for advice. I'm an expert on travel; my friends may look to me for hotel choices. When I'm in the mood to buy a book or a new computer, I'll check out what my friends on Facebook are doing.

This does not mean that traditional online advertising will go away, just that it will become less effective. Value is being created in users' own walled gardens, which they will cultivate for themselves in real estate owned by the social networks. The new value creators are companies -- like Facebook and Dopplr -- that know how to build and support online communities.

For more press coverage of Dopplr check the press section at Dopplr.com.

MediaGuardian Exec Poll Names James Murdoch, Google and Dopplr as "media sensations in 2008"

Jemima Kiss of MediaGuardian cites an executive poll that rates Dopplr among “media sensations to watch” this year:

Search giant Google, its mobile developer platform Android - and James Murdoch - are the media sensations to watch in 2008, according to a survey of media executives and consultants carried out by the Guardian Media Group. GMG, which owns the MediaGuardian.co.uk website, asked 120 influential digital practitioners to predict the brands, sites and people to watch this year. Respondents picked out the social travel network Dopplr.com, the popular teen site Bebo, tech giants Apple and Microsoft as well as TokBox, the online video phone service.

Dopplr in TIME Magazine: Let's do Lunch in London

The European edition of Time Magazine (Feb 4) has a full-page story on Dopplr entitled “Let’s Do Lunch in London.”

“If karma isn’t quite working out for you,” writes Vivienne Walt. “Dopplr could be the next best thing.”

Check out the full story in the print edition or online.

Blyk Update: First European Expansion and Goldman Sachs Invests

Blyk has been live in the UK for four months now and we are well on track to hit 100,000 members in our first year of operations. This will make us a significant high-growth youth media in the UK.

I'm truly excited about two announcements today from the Blyk team:

First, Blyk announced its expansion to the Dutch market. Blyk will use Vodafone Netherlands as its host operator. From a marketing industry perspective the Netherlands is an incredibly creative and dynamic market, so it is a perfect fit for an innovative interactive media like Blyk. Blyk will launch in the Netherlands in the second half of 2008. Other European markets are under discussions and details will be released later.

Second, Blyk announced new investors Goldman Sachs and Industrial and Financial Investments Company (IFIC), who will join a roster that includes Sofinnova Partners and a number of private investors.

For more on the Blyk model and user experience you can watch this video: All About Blyk (mobuzz.tv).

All About Blyk

I recently met up with Olivia and Anil from mobuzz.tv. This short clip about Blyk was recorded at the Monaco Media Forum. At the end Olivia refers to the open code approach of the Blyk brand.

Say Hello to Blyk

A short video introducing Blyk and answering most FAQs.

Blyk - an "open code" brand

Many people have asked me about the Blyk animations that are making the rounds on the Internet (like this one: Blyk by Beatrice Richardson) and about the design of the Blyk brand identity.

When we started designing the Blyk brand we took a deliberately “open code” approach. I've written a post on what we’re doing and why. This coincides with the launch of Shift6.net the blog of the new Blyk open brand lab. Fellow bloggers include danah boyd, Inma Martinez and Alison Black.

Blyk animation by Elin Svensson

This is one of several animations in our "open code" approach to the Blyk brand. Enjoy.

The Economist on mobile marketing and Blyk

As always, The Economist gives a clear overview:

The next big thing: Marketers hail the mobile phone as advertising's promised land

And mentions Blyk:

"In September Blyk, a new mobile operator, launched a service in Britain that aims to do just that. It offers subscribers 217 free text messages and 43 free minutes of voice calls per month as long as they agree to receive six advertisements by text message every day. To sign up for the service, customers must fill out a questionnaire about their hobbies and habits. So advertisers can target their messages very precisely. “Britain is the largest, but also the trickiest European ad market, so if it works here it will work everywhere,” says Pekka Ala-Pietila, chief executive and one of the founders of Blyk."