Business models per il Mobile VoIP, l’approccio di Nimbuzz

Interessante intervista di iLocus a EJ Lugt, CEO di Nimbuzz (qui la nostra recensione), startup che sviluppa un software mobile VoIP e Instant Messaging compatibile con i principali networks (Skype, MSN, Google Talk, AIM…).

Interessante leggere come l’azienda stia sviluppando un business model basato sul mobile advertising e una strategia di distribuzione basata su accordi di partnership con social networks e operatori mobili con cui dividono i ricavi dalla pubblicità, che può essere inserita nelle conversazioni IM o nelle chiamate, come Jajah sperimenta da tempo.

My impression is that your revenue model is currently based on advertising and whitelabeling? How soon do you expect those sources to generate meaningful revenues for you?

We don’t do whitelabelling exactly. Although apart from consumer solutions we also have industry solutions, those industry solutions are social networks for mobile operators and device manufacturers. These are outsourced IM and VoIP platforms that we operate for a mobile operator. We also bring mobility to web based social networks.

Is that not whitelabelling?

No. In whitelabelling you would typically charge a certain license fee per subscriber. We do not charge the operator anything. Our solution is used for free. What we do is share the ad revenues.

How many social networks and operators have you partnered with? What is the usage among the operators right now?

We have signed up 10 social networks and 3 mobile operators. One of the operators is using the full Nimbuzz solution. The other two, for now, are promoting our web client to their mobile users. With regard to social networks we will go live with our joint offering with a social network in Germany in August.

You will also have PSTN termination business in place. Which part of your business do you expect to be bigger: ad revenue sharing or the PSTN termination?

My belief is that mobile advertising will be a bigger part in the pie. Mobile advertising is not cpm based. The ad rates you get for cost-per-click can be very attractive. But what you need for that is a large community in a particular region. Companies like us have a large but distributed community worldwide. From mobile advertising perspective it is better to have a large community in one country than having 10 million users scattered over 200 countries.

With mobile advertising, probably the most effective advertising medium is messaging like SMS. You are primarily VoIP oriented.

We have our own messaging system in place. You can also be creative about advertising while the users are having a text chat. We should not discount voice based ads either. Jajah has been doing some testing in the US. They found out that users actually like the idea of listening to some voice message while the phone is ringing quietly in the background.