U Mobile’s free mobile service gets mixed response from users

Just a few days back, I had blogged about U Mobile, the Philippines based company, which claimed to offer free mobile phone service for users who are willing to view ads on their mobile phone. Now, just a few days later, some people have expressed their concern over the company’s ad policy.

The company claims to offer mobile services worth 350 Pesos (Philippines currency) every month for free, in exchange for mobile ads. However, it turns out that you need to get as many as 23 ads in a day to make use of this free service. In other words, every ad is roughly worth $0.01.

Customers have already started to compare this service with Blyk, the U.K. based company which offers free mobile service in exchange for mobile ads. However, Blyk’s customers are asked to view only up to six ads per day to be able to make use of the free service. So, customers of U Mobile feel a little disappointed to see this apparent difference between the two service providers.

However, some people also speak for U Mobile. They say that they get spam ads in their mobile phone every day which are good for nothing and the ads from U Mobile, however little they are worth, are still better than those spam ads as they tend to gain something at the end of the day.

U Mobile’s service has managed to get a mixed reaction from its user base so far, but I think we should cut them some slack. After all, the company has just introduced this new service and we should give them some time to get settled. If they do really well, advertisers might pay them more and in turn they will be able to cut down the number of ads to fund their free service. I for one will wait for sometime before taking a stand in this issue. How about you?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Ad funded mobile phone service in the Philippines

A new mobile phone service, fully funded by advertisements, has been launched in the Philippines. The service is called U Mobile and it is targeted mainly toward young people.

This is the first-of-its-kind service in the Philippines, where more than 45% of the people are said to own mobile phones. This service is specifically targeted toward people from age 15 to 34 – popularly termed ‘the youth and yuppies’. The phone service is open for people only on an invitation only basis. You can use this service absolutely free of cost provided you’re willing to get that many ads in your mobile phone as specified by the service provider.

The company aims to get anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 subscribers within one year.

This company reminds me of Blyk, which has had phenomenal success so far. However, the success of this ad funded phone service depends on user response. If you remember, Blyk set a similar target of 100,000 subscribers in one year in the UK and reached it in just six months. It remains to be seen if this Filipino company can do so.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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