My friend Jan Michael Hess, CEO of the Berlin-based management consultancy Mobile Economy GmbH, has just published an interesting whitepaper "How to build a profitable ad-funded M(V)NO and maximise Ad ARPU". Since he is an expert in mobile advertising and MVNOs, he decided to reengineer Blyk’s business model, share his findings and develop a number of strategy recommendations that might be valuable to Blyk as well as future ad-funded MVNOs and MNOs.

I believe that it is possible to build a profitable ad-funded MVNO. It is also possible for MNOs themselves to introduce ad-funded voice and data tariffs. You don’t necessarily need to build a new MVNO brand like Blyk to maximise Ad ARPU.

Since the actual values in Blyk’s business plan and the wholesale prices negotiated with the Host MNO Orange in the UK are secret, Hess uses his own assumptions for the parameters driving revenues, costs and profit in the whitepaper's calculation. The outcome is a very educated guess work which probably hits the spot and helps to understand the ad based MVNO business model.

Labels: Blyk, Mobile, MVNO

                                      

I just got a phone call from the UK. Blyk, the ad-supported MVNO, will launch next monday, 24th September 2007. They wanted me to interview the co-founders, Pekka Ala-Pietilä, former president of Nokia, and Antti Öhrling at their press conference in London.

The new virtual operator is targeting 16 to 24 year olds. Blyk rents airtime from Orange and uses technology from Nokia Siemens Networks to deliver free calls, sponsored by advertisers like Buena Vista, Coca-Cola, I-play Mobile Gaming, L’Oreal Paris, StepStone and Yell.com, says TechCrunch UK.

Unfortunately I cannot go personally, but I told Ewan MacLeod, blogger at SMS Text News, to ask a question in my name. I would like to know if they are in contact with Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of the airline easyJet and other successful low cost product ventures. He told me three months ago that his brand easyMobile would come back with free mobile calls sponsored by advertising.

Labels: Blyk, easyMobile, free phone calls, Mobile, MVNO, Nokia