Link: The idea that ‘content is king’ in the mobile space is a ‘mythâ€Â, and many of the industry’s big guns are wrong about the needs of younger subscribers.
That’s the view of the man behind Blyk, the startup that plans to offer free mobile services to users that opt-in to receive ads on their phones…
That’s sort of interesting news, but tucked away in the article was this bit:
Set to launch in the UK at the beginning of August, it is gambling that 16-24 year old mobile users will tolerate SMS or MMS ads in return for free text messages and calls.
August? Wait a minute, isn’t that one of those dead times of year that no one ever dreams of launching a new product, because we’re all off on our holidays?
We shall see what happens next.. Blyk are already in the UK pitching to advertisers, so it looks like they’re going to try to make a splash when they arrive.
By the way if you’re wondering what that green thing is in the top right hand corner, it’s apparently Blyk’s logo. Which is nice.
and so begins the death of the premium rate SMS industry….
Tell us more, John
Lets assume that Blyk is a completely free to use network, not just free calls if you spend X amount per month….
Premium sms isn’t going to work – it can’t because Blyk won’t be able to recover the costs customers could run up/won’t be able to pay out revenue share, even on the really cheap 12/10p rates you get on the BBC.
If they get any traction in the market place then the kind of people who buy ringtones, vote for Big Brother etc are the same people who are going to be attracted to a network which offers them free calls/ tests.
If they cause the paradigm shift that some commentators have predicted, then the whole PSMS market will shrink.
Having said all that, I’m sceptical that their business case stacks up. But that’s for another post…