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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Friendster releases mobile site in Philippines

Friendster, the famous social networking site, has released its mobile site in the Philippines. If you are a Filipino, you’ll now be able to access Friendster right in your mobile phone.

The Philippines has long been Friendster’s territory. Such is the overwhelming popularity of the site that over 94% of internet users in Philippines have a Friendster account. So, after becoming the market leader in the country, it’s only a natural progression for Friendster to get into the mobile phone. Especially, with mobile social networking being the buzz word now, Friendster has decided to join the party to grab its market share.

If you are a member of Friendster, you’ll be able to access the site in your internet enabled mobile phone. However, if you are not a user, you cannot open an account in Friendster through your mobile phone. But Friendster authorities have said that they are working on it and soon people will be able to open an account via their mobile phone.

I think Friendster has made the right move at the right time. At a time when mobile social networking is on the rise, this move can be very fruitful for Friendster. Especially, its undisputed dominance in the Asian market will help it grab its market share in the mobile market also.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

1 comment.

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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Text messaging - the most preferred form of mobile advertising

There are different options for advertising in mobile phones. Ever wondered which is the most profitable and the most effective of them all? Well; the answer for that question would be SMS or text messaging.

The most important reason why text messaging is considered the best mobile advertising option is simple. It’s the only facility available on all the mobile phones. While a mobile video clip or a product placement ad in a mobile site might be more attractive, it’s not available in most of the mobile phones. So, you’ll end up targeting only a few mobile users who use Blackberries or iPhones. Whereas, text messaging is one facility which is available even in the low-end phones, thereby making it easier for the advertisers to reach out to the end-users. If you wanna know how effective text messaging could be, here’s some data for you.

For this New Year, mobile users around the world sent over 43 billion text messages among themselves. That’s a whopping 30% increase than last year. Rapidly growing markets like India and Philippines sent over a billion text messages each during the New Year period, which is astounding. Text messages are faster to type and easier to send and you don’t have to own an iPhone to do so. So, users mostly use text messaging as their mode of communication, only next to voice calls.

At this juncture, mobile advertisers should undoubtedly target text message advertising options. If high-end mobiles become affordable and mobile internet becomes a lot faster and cheaper than what it is right now, I think we will see a similar boom in the usage of premium services also.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

3 comments.