2 November 2006 - Posted in: Press
Press Release: Launch of Blyk Heralds a New Opportunity in Mobile Advertising
Blyk, the pan-European free mobile operator for young people, funded by advertising, today announced that it will launch in the UK in mid-2007.
Co-founded by university friends Pekka Ala-Pietilä, former president of Nokia Corporation, and Antti Öhrling, Chairman and CEO of Contra Group, Blyk is a mobile media that offers brands an opportunity to directly interact and engage with young people and receive real-time feedback.
Blyk has been in development since January 2006 and is backed by individual private investors and Sofinnova Partners.
Commenting on the announcement, CEO Pekka Ala-Pietilä said, “We have been talking to a number of major brands and agencies about the opportunities to reach and engage with the 16-24 year old market via Blyk. We are going public now to invite all creative marketers and advertisers to join us in shaping this exciting new channel.” Co-Founder Antti Öhrling continued, “Our Blyk business model brings a fresh approach to the entire industry. We’ve assembled an outstanding and energized team to make this innovation a reality.”
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November 2nd, 2006 at November 2, 2006
Congratulations and good luck to all from Istanbul.
When will we able to get more info
on Blyk and its services?
November 2nd, 2006 at November 2, 2006
Congratulations. Blyk’s looking very much like a new category of mobile
operator, bringing in the ad-based business model. It’ll be exciting to see how it
works.
November 3rd, 2006 at November 3, 2006
Whose UK network are you MVNO-ing on?
November 6th, 2006 at November 6, 2006
[...] Incidentally, a chap called Steve has posted a note on the Blyk
blog asking who they’re MVNOing with — The comment was posted on the 3rd… that’s
3 days and no response yet. Either Blyk don’t know, haven’t done the deal yet, aren’t
quite as open as they pupport to be or are too busy to see to their blog at the moment.
[...]
November 6th, 2006 at November 6, 2006
Cool…
I’d like to know:
- how they get ads to the consumer?
(spamming
sender/recipient via separate messages)
- how they deal with IOT costs and how much an advertiser
needs to pay (to cover these costs)
- how they guarantee a conversion rate of (at least) more than
5%
Seems to me like an inspiring and refreshing initiative, but also quite mission
impossible
November 10th, 2006 at November 10, 2006
SETI did not yet discover us . . . 12 parsecs from Earth on Tila – but
we have just received news of Blyk via a deep space drone communicating via a worm hole. We advocate free
communications on Tila also.
We found that free calls based on a form of unsolicited push advertising
- using data-mining and web-surfers interests – did not ‘cut the mustard’ here when it was launched. I
hope your business model comprises additional dimensions and is much better received.
We wish you
enormous success. Free communication is everyone’s right. Interestingly ‘Blyk’ means ‘ubiquitous
endeavour’ in one of our languages.
Please do come and vist us soon. Hector
November 13th, 2006 at November 13, 2006
This is – of course – a VERY interesting part of the business and the one, who is really able
to deliver a solid model with a really good user experience, gowing user base and attractive response
rates to mobile marketing projects clearly will have found a very nice place in this market.
We are
discussing these models, user experiences, what it needs to be done here since 1998. It`s avery
interestng and funny marketplace, so watch out.
Wishing you all the best for this venture
!
Guido
November 13th, 2006 at November 13, 2006
We would like to know more about your plans in Central Europe. For us it
is not clear how your business modell should work to generate the critical mass for free phone
calls/message/IM etc. Please let us know.
Mika
November 20th, 2006 at November 20, 2006
[...] Hot Mobile News Mobile Web “Worth $13bn by 2011″ 29%
of UK mobile owners currently use the mobile Internet. Orangeas highly-successful abuff or rougha concept
suggests that mobile UGC (User Generated Content) will prove to be the akiller appa for mobile internet.
Tocmag now has impressive beta user stats. Since May this year, more than 10,000 Tocmags were built,
generating almost 125,000 downloads a entirely by word of mouth. Launch of Blyk Heralds a New
Opportunity in Mobile Advertising Blyk, the pan-European free mobile operator for young people, funded by
advertising, today announced that it will launch in the UK in mid-2007. Blyk is a mobile media that
offers brands an opportunity to directly interact and engage with young people and receive real-time
feedback. Mobile TV sports viewing is on the move The global market for mobile sports content and
services will grow from just over $1bn in 2006 to $3.8bn in 2011. Key drivers will be the increasing
availability of 3G services and support for high quality video, the globalisation of sport personalities
and improved flow of digital sports rights for mobile distribution. [...]
April 10th, 2007 at April 10, 2007
[...] Incidentally, a chap called Steve has posted a note on the Blyk
blog asking who they’re MVNOing with — The comment was posted on the 3rd… that’s
3 days and no response yet. Either Blyk don’t know, haven’t done the deal yet, aren’t
quite as open as they pupport to be or are too busy to see to their blog at the moment.
[...]
October 16th, 2007 at October 16, 2007
It is a very interessting model which you have. Will you be launching a Blyk in France eventually?
Laurent