Moderator: John Styers, Dir. Data services- Sprint PCS
Panel members:
Alex Panelli, CEO – Trilibis
Ted Ceranu, VP – Enpocket
Greg Wilfahrt, EVP – SMS.ac
SMS.ac is community based. Trilibis and Enpocket are dating apps.
Enpocket created Match Mobile
2001 – 30k text messages per month.
June 2004 – 3 billion per month.
Alex Panelli – “Barrier to entry is high.” He’s right, dealing with multitudes of phones, carriers and technologies makes getting into the game a daunting proposition. Alex gets lots of unsolicited VC inquires. We have a deal with BeliefNet mobile. “Stay connected to communities of choice. We’re ready for E911.” Alex knows the technology, needs feedback from partners and users.
Ted said that Match Mobile is separate from Match.com. Different databases, which was a technology limitation. I hear 100k profiles.
LBS- Location-based services are where it’s going to be at. I’ve tried Dodgeball, but there’s only a handfull of Boston-area users so I can’t say much about it.
Enpocket has services in India, “Track your Mate.”
Handset and network advances leading to anonymous voice chat.
Everyone mentioned JamNet, who IPO’d 3 months ago. Already they’re at a $500 million market cap with $15 million in revenues.
Greg – Suite of mobility products. Consumers, much less of a headache than his last gig at MP3.com.
SMS clubs – 1M members join a month. Romania has 18,000 people in the “Fans of Vanilla Ice” club.
Dating services should use mobility as a product differentiator.
John- 20% of Sprint PCS revenue is from mobile services.
Now is the time to get your mobile dating initiatives started, it’s a year from brainstorm to deployment. Lot’s of interesting applications are around the corner.
Pricing packages need fine tuning.
DRM (digital rights management) issues.
Don’t build on expectations of increased speed.
Imode launched in Germany, a failure, only 3M subscribers.
When I asked how value-added services would be able to access the dating site members using their services and how a soup-to-nuts application could be developed, all I heard was “we can do that for you.” SMS.ac has free community setup, which would be an easy way to get your feet wet.
Key a-ha moments.
Greg – Make sure you’re not chasing the content. Wrap mobile initiative around community-driven content.
john – Killer app is communicating, not silos of content.
Ted – There are more mobile phones than PC’s.
Alex – Fragmentation happening, new phones, carriers, etc, take advantage of market shifts.
Most interesting apps:
ted- TV on phone.Ted was as vodaphone. Demoes video stream on his phone.
Alex- Nextel turn By turn Directions. buletooth apps.
Closed API is problem,
Social Light company?
Alternative to on-board GPS.
Billing – 1% of world has credit cards. Everyone has acccess to micro-billing via pre-paid cards or carrier billing systems.
