TIL 58888 Launches AdRBT service and MocoLife.com

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TIL 58888 Launches AdRBT service and MocoLife.com

—Indiatimes mobile arm, 58888, has unveiled an ad ringback tone service called Adringles. An internal communiqué CS managed to obtain suggests they are currently soliciting ads for Airtel’s AdRBT (NYSE: BT) platform. The website doesn’t give any indication of which operators the service is live on, but makes it clear that the service gives a pay-out in the form of discounts and vouchers and not cold hard-cash, as suggested in our exclusive on the same subject. 58888 expects FMCG, financial services and consumer durable brands to come on-board as advertisers. The service is expected to launch formally in January 2009 while the beta will launch in October. Indiatimes plans to take the service to South-East Asia by 2010. Others currently in the same space include OnMobile and Airtel.

—The second launch by 58888 is Mocolife, the service is finally live after being in a closed beta since March, 08. Mocolife is a mostly paid umbrella service under which 58888 aims to push content bundles featuring free SMS services, subscription alerts and ringtones. They are using a credit system with each credit costing an average Rs 0.25 per credit (Rs 500 for 2000 credits valid for 180 days) in the large package and Rs 0.30 per credit in the small package. (Rs 150 for 500 credits valid for 90 days). The free (read ad supported) SMS service (30 free SMS per month, max 5 per day), appears to be the low hanging fruit being offered to drive registrations, in the hope that some might convert and use the paid services like ringtone downloads. It seems hard to like the service, especially since almost any valuable content is behind a paid wall. Do note that most of this content is already available via Indiatimes WAP portal and via their on-deck deals with operators, this seems to be their attempt to go directly to the consumer. As an aside, I noted in the About Us section TIL claiming it has already launched its mobile application, iMobizo as well as it plans to launch a voice portal in the near future.

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Cerius Shah Sep 1, 2008 2:04 PM ET

Posted In: Mobile, Companies, Times Group (BCCL), Indiatimes

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Rajeev

I think stating about any company's plan or launch like this is unethical unless the company has not disclosed it on its own. Right to publish by no means allows an editor to spy into a company's plan and sell it for the sake of website traffic.

No more is the soul of writers now driven by morality. "You are reading it here first" gleams nothing but arrogance of the contributing writer. Is this what the User Generated Content has come to?

The publisher should give it a conscious thought if the contributing writers are incompetent to understand their moral responsibilities apart from social responsibilities.

Hope Content Sutra thinks about it in future

Dhirender

A MEF report estimates the Ad-funded mobile entertainment space in India to generate something like US$ 120.4 million in 2008 and US$ 440.5 million in 2013, with the biggest drivers being CRBTs and ad-funded mobile games. Now to see how well its executed.

vicky

thats not good news for hungama mobile in the middle of fund raising.. When are they launching their ad platform for vodafone with amobee?

Christina Patterson

This had been highlighted in the Mobile Advertising and Ad-Funded report which Wireless Federation released earlier this year as a key driver of revenue for Mobile operators going forward. The report highlights a huge number of such initiatives that can work for operators. There are several case studies in the report which show best practices, so that operators dont repeat mistakes made by their peers elsewhere in the world.

Bharti Airtel was one of the companies that acquired this report from us in India. It is encouraging to see that this has been put to action and is being trialled.

Harish

It is Such a good and innovative move as it will help all from advertisers till the caller as advertisements can be useful most of the times and the caller will have no choice either except to wait for the user to pick the phone and enjoy the ad by that time. Revenue share will be a catch for all the users willing to enjoy the free talk time or something which comes on there way without investing something. Better than all the broadcasting channels whether it's radio, TV or interactive mediums like internet, kiosks or anything else.

deepak purchanda

I wish Airtel doesn't end up making mistakes the way Blyk did. This is Airtel's first venture in a media space I think they should take help from their strategic web partner "Google" in launching any ad supported business model.

Coz only Google knows how to launch and expand ad supported business models.

Rajan Arya

This is just the begining of brands/ advertising getting onto the mobile bandwagon. This should have happened long back, considering the size of the mobile ecosystem which is easily more than 3 times the size of C&S;households.
Add to it the fact that provided, the telco is willing to share demographics besides the MSISDN, the advertising brand is literally sitting on a potential gold-mine of information on his TG. makes focussed brandbuilding a distinct possibility and eliminates some wastage from the marketing communication chain. There has to be an opt-in mechansim to take care of consumer courts too and we a have a win-win situation.
Agreed there are a a lot of pros and cons too but we have accepted TV long back and this should be no different. In your face to in your ear, we have come a long way baby.