Mobile Internet Forum 2009: how to make money on the mobile Internet

Sergio Falletti, Commercial Director, Future Platforms presented two very interesting case studies at the Mobile Internet Forum in Vienna. They were both companies who have successfully brought products to the mobile Internet, and have made a profit from them. The companies are mobile social network Flirtomatic, and puzzle publisher Puzzler. Falletti examined how they produced a decent product, and how they got it to market.

Flirtomatic is a London-based mobile social network. It currently has over 1 million users, and has been growing rapidly in terms of revenue.

Puzzler has been publishing puzzle magazines for years now. On it’s mobile website, it currently gets 100k+ paid for downloads a month in the UK alone.

So, how did these guys get to this point over the last few years? What did they do right?

Design/Research

One thing they shared is a passion for design - they spent a lot of time researching what their end-users needed, and presenting that in the simplest manner possible. Puzzler had over 150 puzzle formats in its paper format, and decided to whittle that down to one or two for its mobile offering. After examining customer needs, crosswords and sudoku were chosen. Flirtomatic did much the same. A lot of research was done, and it decided that users didn’t want just another chatting channel. So design effort went towards making it not just a feature set, but making it entertaining and fun to use. Even the sign-up process has fun elements to it.

Implementation

Both brands approached the technical implementation of their services in very different ways.

Flirtomatic instinctively went for a Java app from the very start but they also built a mobile web version of the service, just in case. After launch, they quickly dropped the J2ME, and concentrated on the mobile browser version. Why? Because and J2ME creation and maintenance is very complex, and later changes would have been difficult. With a browser service, changes are easy to implement.

Puzzler went a very different way, because crosswords and Sudoku are complex to create in a mobile browser. The Puzzler service is essentially a very light, simple application. Each crossword is basically a new app. Once you’ve finished the crossword, you delete the app and download a new one. This also allows for easy upgrades, as once Puzzler implements a change, it is automatically downloaded by the user the next time they access a puzzle.

Evolution

The most important thing is that they never stopped developing and evolving their product. Puzzler very quickly expanded their portfolio after launch, and added a subscription model to compliment the pay-per-download service. It also added an on-line community aspect, which allows users to store their scores and compare against a global “league”.

Flirtomatic experimented a lot with ads, and this where a lot of its revenue now comes from. It has also added a lot of value-added services that users can pay for. For example, flirters can buy personal adspace on Flirtomatic that displays on the homepage. Other purchasables include e-gifts, and mobile coupons.

In terms of flexibility, both sites keep a close eye on stats and user-behaviour.

Discoverability/Advertising

How did the sites actually get to market, and attract users? Both services found that traditional media DIDN”T WORK. Even Puzzler, who had their own publishing channel, found that paper advertising gained no users. Flirtomatic got almost no response from published campaigns. On-line advertising also didn’t work, and acquired very few people.

They’ve found that mobile advertising is the best channel for mobile services. Both service worked closely with operators, getting on-deck placement. They also worked with mobile advertisers and distributors like AdMob and GetJar, but both companies found that on-deck placement with MNO’s was more effective.

End results?

In the end, Future Platforms had four pieces of advice for anyone trying to drive a mobile website:

Delightful user experience – it is better to make your service fun and attractive than it is to have a bland but effective feature set.
Target audience rather than target platform – worry more about who you are designing the service for, rather than how you will get the service to them
Keep evolving – pay close attention to your audience and what they want
Master mobile marketing – mobile services are best marketed through mobile channels