tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76249368948352029342024-02-08T11:54:49.054+01:00The MobiLuck DiaryPatrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-31793180350257168952009-05-29T10:20:00.003+02:002009-05-29T10:36:38.097+02:00MobiLuck exceeds 1 million membersWe've exceeded 1 million members and we're growing at 6 000 new joiners a day! Here's the text of our press release sent out this morning:<br /><br />Paris, France – 29 May, 2009 – <a href="http://www.mobiluck.com">Mobiluck</a>, a privately-held mobile services company that offers a location-based mobile social network, announced today that it has exceeded one million members worldwide since the launch of its service two years ago. MobiLuck allows users to find nearby friends, people and places using simply their mobile. It is one of the largest worldwide location-based mobile social networks in the world and the fastest-growing with 6 000 new members per day. Page views tripled over the last three months to 42 million per month.<br /><br />Mobile social networking is the number one use of the mobile internet worldwide and a billion people will be doing it by 2012 (Pyramid Research). MobiLuck is critically positioned to grab a large share of this growing market. "The service is designed to work on all devices, in all countries, on all carriers, it’s free and it’s a pure mobile web service with no download required," says Olivier Chouraki, founder and CEO of MobiLuck. “So everyone can use it.”<br /><br />MobiLuck’s users are average age 23 and come mainly from the US, Europe, India, Middle East and South Africa. This new generation of users is making the most of their mobile, using it as their primary connection to the internet. They want a full social networking experience on the go so they can be always connected with their friends wherever they are. They constitute an attractive audience for brands and premium ad agencies who are currently seeing 2% click through rates on their ads on MobiLuck. By combining volume with the ability to target users by age, gender and location, Mobiluck expects continued healthy growth in this area of the business.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-77674597311037511062009-01-20T16:09:00.004+01:002009-01-20T16:25:32.480+01:00MobiLuck Awarded Red Herring Top 100 Global Company<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/SXXrB12na5I/AAAAAAAAAhA/KB9a7_dDRiw/s1600-h/red_herring_100_winners.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 319px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/SXXrB12na5I/AAAAAAAAAhA/KB9a7_dDRiw/s320/red_herring_100_winners.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293395353912437650" border="0" /></a><strong>Informal version :D </strong><br />Yeehar we won !<br /><br /><strong>Formal version :| </strong><br />MobiLuck has been awarded as one of the Red Herring Top 100 Global Companies. Red Herring Top 100 Global Companies are chosen from winners and finalists of the previous North America, Europe and Asia Red Herring Top 100 Companies. Winning and finalist companies from the previous three years were eligible for this outstanding award. Out of 1,800 successful and highly eligible companies, the Red Herring editorial team deployed a detailed process to drill-down the best companies first to 200 finalists, then to the top 100 winners of this global award. Evaluations were made on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, innovation, management, global strategy, and ecosystem integration. The announcement of the winners was made at the Red Herring 100 Global taking place in San Diego from January 14-16, 2009. Present among the finalists were elite executives and venture capital leaders from around the world.<br /><br />“We were so pleased to announce MobiLuck as a Red Herring Top 100 Global Company,” commented Red Herring publisher Alex Vieux. “MobiLuck has proven to be a company excelling in their industry and its ripples have turned into waves. It was difficult for us to narrow down, but we are pleased to have included MobiLuck in our list of promising companies. We look forward to the changes it makes to its industry in the future.”Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-34588471095634393502009-01-05T15:11:00.003+01:002009-01-05T15:25:33.503+01:00500 000 membersJust a few minutes ago we signed up our <span style="font-weight:bold;">500 000 th member</span>! A major milestone and one that deserves a big celebration. 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:85%;">Well here we are again at the end of another eventful year.<span style=""> </span>We proud to say that we haven’t felt the financial crisis much:<span style=""> </span>we’re strictly a bloat-free zone and have kept a tight rein on expenses and an eagle eye on our KPIs</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:85%;">. We </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:85%;">now have al</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:85%;">most half a million members, growing at between 2500 and 3000 new joiners a day, a</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:85%;">nd 500 000 unique visitors a month sending over a million messages.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:85%;">We have also recently been selected as a finalist for the Red Herring Global 100, an award </span><span style="font-size:85%;">"recognizin</span><span style="font-size:85%;">g t</span><span style="font-size:85%;">he</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> financial performance, innovation, management, global strategy, and ecosystem integrati</span><span style="font-size:85%;">on of the best tech compan</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ies around the world".</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The 100 winners will be announced at the event in San Diego from January 14-16, 2009.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Finally, check out Jenaé wearing our MobiLuck t-shirt and saying lots of nice things about us below. In her video you can see part of our new MobiLuck flash movie, the full version of which is on our main website <a href="http://www.mobiluck.com/">here</a>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Happy New Year to everyone!</span></p><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7Ez85o26Fhk&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7Ez85o26Fhk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>
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<br /></span></p> Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-46929164648190152402008-10-06T12:49:00.015+02:002008-10-06T16:40:17.709+02:00MobiLuck growth is taking off<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/SOohrnO6k9I/AAAAAAAAAYM/GZiurVmtZhw/s1600-h/homepage+screenshot.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 237px; height: 311px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/SOohrnO6k9I/AAAAAAAAAYM/GZiurVmtZhw/s320/homepage+screenshot.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254048948430738386" border="0" /></a>As Michael Caine famously said: "Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath." Boy have we been doing that.<br /><br />We now have over 325 000 members growing at 2 000 new joiners a day. For every three new joiners, there are two invitations sent to friends to get them involved too. People are joining us from the US, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, China, India, Kenya, Norway, Mexico, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina and 50 other countries around the world. Well, the service is built to be used by everyone regardless of their country, operator or device.<br /><br />Here are some of the key things we've achieved in the last couple of months:<br /><ul><li>We’ve increased our user base to 325 000 users growing at 2 000 per day.</li><li>We’ve launched our new website at <a href="http://www.mobiluck.com/">www.mobiluck.com</a> that reflects our vision for the MobiLuck product and shifts the focus away from our original Bluetooth messaging product to our mobile web social networking platform that connects people and places.</li><li>We’ve upgraded our infrastructure to dramatically improve service performance, cutting page load times in half and improving the interaction experience for our users.</li><li>We’ve implemented a new feature allowing commercial establishments to create their place on MobiLuck so they can be found locally by our users which drives additional traffic to them.</li><li>We’ve made huge steps in search engine optimisation allowing people and places to be found in mobile web searches.</li><li>We’ve translated the complete service into Russian, Chinese and Arabic with more languages on their way soon. Localised versions of our website will follow.</li><li>Plus hundreds of tweaks and enhancements to make the service simpler and easier to use. </li></ul>Quack quack.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-91602518644840712912008-06-16T09:11:00.003+02:002008-06-16T09:47:21.468+02:00MobiLuck selected for Mobile 2.0 Europe<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://mobile20.eu/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/mobile20EU_logo_220.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 219px; height: 37px;" src="http://mobile20.eu/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/mobile20EU_logo_220.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />MobiLuck has been <a href="http://mobile20.eu/2008/06/15/mobile-20-europe-startups-selected">selected to present</a> at the <a href="http://mobile20.eu/about-2/">Mobile 2.0 Europe</a> Conference, one of the most highly praised events by key players in the mobile industry.<br /><br />This one-day event focuses on the <strong>Mobile Web</strong> and <strong>Disruptive Mobile Innovation</strong> and brings together experts and thought leaders from all areas of the mobile ecosystem, including startups, investors, mobile carriers, device manufacturers, and mobile application developers and web technologists.<br /><br />All Startups have 7 minutes to present in total including a 1 minute video-demo of the product on a mobile phone. During the event, all panel participants and organizers will vote their best Start-up in each category; the winner in each category receives an invitation to present at the <a title="Mobile 2.0 San Francisco" href="http://www.mobile2event.com/" target="_blank">Mobile 2.0 Event in San Francisco</a> on November 3, 2008.<br /><br />Fingers crossed!<em></em>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-4413700302767177482008-04-25T12:31:00.006+02:002008-04-25T12:42:33.258+02:00Still collecting or already in phase 2 ??I discovered this gem last week although it's been around for years. It's the gnomes' take on how to create a successful business. The similarities between this and the typical web2.0 startup are disturbing ... ;-)<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-02859291465277758 visible ontop" href="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:southparkstudios.com:151040:"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-02859291465277758 visible ontop" href="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:southparkstudios.com:151040:"></a><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:southparkstudios.com:151040:" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" allowfullscreen="true" scriptaccess="always" height="360" width="480"></embed><br /><br />(hint: underpants = active users)<br /><br />...Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-14421956177016466352008-03-23T20:47:00.004+01:002008-12-09T18:45:52.073+01:00MobiLuck selected as finalist for the Red Herring Europe 100<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R-a19k0stVI/AAAAAAAAAX4/gbxK2IujJdE/s1600-h/Finalist.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 112px; height: 112px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R-a19k0stVI/AAAAAAAAAX4/gbxK2IujJdE/s320/Finalist.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5181028490797692242" border="0" /></a>MobiLuck has been selected as a finalist for the Red Herring Europe Top 100 Tech Start ups! Red Herring’s editorial team has analyzed hundreds of cutting edge companies and selected those who are positioned to grow at an explosive rate. From 200 finalists, 100 winners will then be selected. There's no official press release on line yet but I'll post it up when it's available.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-56172198431499644292008-03-17T15:12:00.003+01:002008-12-09T18:45:52.223+01:00New Home Page<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R95-DLDyg6I/AAAAAAAAAXw/ABfOMYJdPZo/s1600-h/New+front+page.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R95-DLDyg6I/AAAAAAAAAXw/ABfOMYJdPZo/s400/New+front+page.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5178715214496039842" border="0" /></a>The MobiLuck platform has always offered pretty powerful location based search tools, helping you find people and places nearby based on multiple criteria. But we found that users had trouble discovering and using them. So we've now put the most common actions onto a new home page that brings key elements of the service to within just one click away. This is just the beginning; the home page is the same for everybody now, but soon it will be fully customisable. Watch this space.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-66187694839364622192008-03-05T15:19:00.007+01:002008-03-05T15:53:15.351+01:00Location based mythsI was replying to a comment on a <a href="http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=502">post about MobiLuck</a> and thought it would be worth sharing my thoughts here because it's important to get a few things straight about location based services as they apply to social networking.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Myth 1: </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Location based services need to have GPS accuracy to be of any use for social networking.</span><br />You don't need to localise someone as precisely as GPS does for it to be useful for social networking.<span style=""> </span>Just knowing someone is in the area is already interesting because it's possible to join them in the near future, regardless of knowing exactly where they are.<span style=""> </span>In fact for privacy reasons, some users would prefer to be only approximately located.<span style=""> </span>Cell ID localisation in cities, particularly with such a high density of transmitters, is therefore a perfectly viable localisation method, and cities are where you find the critical mass of users.<span style=""><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Myth 2: </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">You don't need LBS social networking to keep in touch with friends living nearby.</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Friends who live nearby can not be assumed to be near you most of the time unless you all work from home and hardly ever go out.<span style=""> </span>They will be away from home at the times when it is most interesting to know where they are - lunchtimes, weekends, evenings out.<span style=""> </span>In fact it is friends who live in the same city and participate in the vibrant city life who will derive the most benefit from mobile LBS social networking services.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Myth 3: </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Knowing what someone is doing is more useful than knowing where they are.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Ok it's a trick question: there are always situations when one could be more useful to know than the other but it's more powerful when you know both things at the same time. <span style=""></span>What if a friend is watching a sports game at a bar but they're too far away for you to get there before closing time?<span style=""> </span>Twitter lets millions of people say what they're doing now, but imagine adding location information to that too.<span style=""> </span>MobiLuck is aiming complete the other half of the equation by sending SMS alerts whenever a friend is nearby.<span style=""> </span>What your friend is doing is often implied in their place localisation (bar, restaurant, cinema, museum, ...) however they can also tell you what they're doing if they wish.<br /><br />Until the next myth-busting comment response...<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />PS Hang on whilst we iron out the problems some of our users are experiencing with the location selection engine and thanks to Dennis and our users for their continuing positive feedback!</span>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-27566431745433980532008-03-03T12:37:00.001+01:002008-03-03T12:37:09.037+01:00When virality is just for its own sakeI've long held the view that 'fun' viral applications that don't actually provide a real benefit to users are just a fad, a bubble waiting to burst. Although it's just an early sentiment, and maybe a manufactured one at that according to the <a href="http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/03/03/facebook-so-2007/">article today at Techcrunch</a>, the message in this video that people are getting bored of Facebook strikes a chord with me. These viral applications, and certain aspects of Facebook itself, are playing primarily on novelty and vanity. I expect the novelty will wear off fairly quickly. As for the vanity, well that's here to stay. It's just a question of how long it takes for people to learn to be a little more sophisticated about their online personas.<br /><br /><embed wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ZzP_69ZTFk" height="355" width="425"><p class="citation"><cite cite="http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/03/03/facebook-so-2007/"><a href="http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/03/03/facebook-so-2007/">Embedded Video</a></cite></p>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-10252149307202506992008-02-22T15:28:00.005+01:002008-12-09T18:45:52.542+01:00Over 1000 people joining MobiLuck dailyA quick look at our stats in between the mega-networking of last week at the MWC Barcelona and the repercussions (promises to keep) this week shows our MobiLuck Online user base growing at over 1000 new users a day and some days we've had over 2000 new joiners. We now have 125 000 registered users on the mobile website.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R77g33MqMJI/AAAAAAAAAXo/Jj8DR3etLaU/s1600-h/13022008008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 357px; height: 267px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R77g33MqMJI/AAAAAAAAAXo/Jj8DR3etLaU/s400/13022008008.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169816672582381714" border="0" /></a>Meantime, since there's already plenty enough commentary on this year's Mobile World Congress (and we're too busy making things happen instead) I thought I'd show you a photo of some business types ignoring a whopping great big fountain.<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-39924433011794544892007-12-21T12:49:00.000+01:002008-01-04T23:38:09.921+01:00What should come first, critical mass or a business model?<p class="MsoNormal">Reid Hoffman, chairman and president of products at <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/">LinkedIn</a>, recently said at a conference that web service companies should concentrate on building a critical mass of users before they worry about how to make money <i style=""><span style=""></span><span style="font-size:100%;">(I assume he’s referring to services where the concept of a ‘critical mass of users’ is important – such as those with a strong element of social networking and user generated content for example).</span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are lots of successful companies that did not monetize their users until a long way down the line.<span style=""> </span>Just look at the biggies: Google, YouTube, Facebook, Skype, LinkedIn, MySpace … and what is their primary business model?<span style=""> </span>Advertising and premium services.<span style=""> </span>Yet so many VCs keep telling me that the business model has to be nailed from the start, and by the way "advertising is not a business model."<span style=""> </span>From what I can see, advertising is making lots of people very, very rich indeed.<span style=""> </span>Advertising on the internet and mobile is exploding.<span style=""> </span>Advertising certainly is a business model and a very lucrative one at that.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you have the critical mass of users.<span style=""> </span>Which is starting to sound like bubble1.0 again: then it was about getting as many visitors as possible to your portal, now it’s about getting as many members as possible in your social network.<span style=""> </span>It’s an improvement this time round, though, because users will be more engaged and you know intimate details about them such as the colour of their underpants.<span style=""> </span>And a big company that already knows that this sort of thing works might buy you.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But since you’re not one of the first web2.0 companies that could attract lots of new members at a low cost because it was all so new and cool and there wasn’t much competition, there’s a tough challenge ahead:<span style=""> </span>you need to expend lots of resources in the early stages to build critical mass with precious little return.<span style=""> </span>To have the best chance, you need to develop partnerships that can enhance the service and bring more reach, have the resources to develop your offering faster than someone else can copy it, and make sure you’re in the right place at the right time.<span style=""> </span>It’s a crowded market, and few will survive long enough to reach the tipping point.</p>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-29293088734259280912007-12-11T12:31:00.000+01:002008-12-09T18:45:52.874+01:00The CrunchiesNominate us for the Crunchies awards! Here's the lowdown from Techcrunch:<br /><br />"Together <a href="http://www.gigaom.com/" title="GigaOm">GigaOm</a>, <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/" title="Read/WriteWeb">Read/WriteWeb</a>, <a href="http://www.venturebeat.com/" title="VentureBeat">VentureBeat</a> and <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/" title="TechCrunch">TechCrunch</a> are pleased to announce that nominations for the inaugural 2007 Crunchies Awards are now open. <p>We created twenty award categories to recognize the year’s most innovative technical, creative and business accomplishments of key companies, products and people. We hope you’ll agree that the award categories are good reasons for celebration and fit for a proper ceremony.</p> <p>We invite you to submit your favorite companies and products for consideration. Read the the <a href="http://crunchies.techcrunch.com/rules/" title="rules">official rules</a>. Nominations will be open through midnight pst Wednesday, December 12. Finalist voting will open Thursday, December 13 and run for approximately one month before the awards ceremony on Friday, January 18 in San Francisco."</p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R2Z-WcnVAII/AAAAAAAAAXY/m4_zCSU8x2Y/s1600-h/Crunchies.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R2Z-WcnVAII/AAAAAAAAAXY/m4_zCSU8x2Y/s400/Crunchies.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5144938548420739202" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Note: these buttons have now been disabled as voting has closed</span></span></p>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-19549689888867036062007-11-19T12:16:00.000+01:002008-12-09T18:45:53.028+01:00The Official Press Release :-)<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >MobiLuck launches social network: bump into your friends with radar alerts!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Today MobiLuck launches their new location-based socialising service that lets you share where you are with your friends and alert each other when you’re nearby, all on your mobile phone or computer.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Are you often asked “Where are you?” on the phone? Are you sometimes looking for your friends? Partner? Children? Colleagues? Would you like to know if a friend is in the same restaurant? Bar? Nightclub? Concert? Would you like to bump into friends more often? Would you rather avoid some people? We often need to tell others where we are, to know where someone is, or to see if there are interesting people nearby. MobiLuck answers all these needs. Knowing where people are is our mission!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R0FzEVpahzI/AAAAAAAAAW4/O2eIUTcq5do/s1600-h/Screenshot.PNG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 201px; height: 335px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/R0FzEVpahzI/AAAAAAAAAW4/O2eIUTcq5do/s320/Screenshot.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134511568546596658" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Where are my friends?</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />Say you’ve just arrived at the cinema. You connect to MobiLuck and select the cinema as your location. Your friends and MSN contacts can then see where you are. They also get an alert by SMS if they are in the same area so they can get in touch and maybe join you to watch the film. Meantime you browse the people radar and discover another friend who is already there and send a message or call them in one click.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Make new friends too</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />Your radar also shows another MobiLucker in the same cinema! Nice photo … cool profile! You send him a quick message “Hey there :-)” and a few messages later you meet up. Fancy a meal together after the film? You click on ‘Sushi’. There’s one that’s highly rated 400m away: “Best in town” … and you have the map to get there. You’re going to have a great evening!<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Privacy first</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />MobiLuck lets you protect your privacy, whether it's your location or your personal details. You can reveal what you want, to whom you want, when you want. You can even ‘teleport’ yourself and pretend to be somewhere else!<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Simple and free to use</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />MobiLuck is available now in all countries on all networks on all mobile phones. You don’t need a GPS or smart phone. Your just need access to the mobile internet. And it’s free – outside of the usual operator charges. Try it now by visiting <span style="font-weight: bold;">wap.mobiluck.com</span> on your mobile phone or <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.mobiluck.com/">www.mobiluck.com</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>on your PC!<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Press contact: patrick.lord@mobiluck.com +33 1 44 89 47 10</span>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-31538538876607532262007-10-30T11:18:00.000+01:002008-12-09T18:45:53.134+01:00Will you be my friend?Twitter's tagline used to be "what are you doing now?". But a recent look at their site reveals a change in posture. Now it's "what are your friends doing?". It's a subtle but telling shift. Twitter used to be about broadcasting yourself, becoming an overnight star in the web 2.o microcosm. Micro blogging to massage the ego. The experience was also rather like playing with fireworks; many have regretted that 3am tweet from the bar in a 'lucid' moment read by thousands of their 'followers'. Although you can still play with rockets in the street if you want to, Twitter now seems to be advocating that you hold a more sensible bonfire party in the garden with your mates instead. I wondered if this new tack was because their bulk sms bill had started to arrive on a trolley. Certainly there were too many inane comments addressed to nobody in particular; tweets probably best kept within a circle of friends. But I think the real reason is because friendship is naturally viral and self-sustaining whereas broadcasting to strangers is not. And that's one thing that Jaiku got right - they were a Twitter for friends. The Twitter team may be breathing a sigh of relief right now...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RycHm6J2BPI/AAAAAAAAAWo/CXpL6mrk9dw/s1600-h/Twitter+new+tagline.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RycHm6J2BPI/AAAAAAAAAWo/CXpL6mrk9dw/s320/Twitter+new+tagline.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127075065811567858" border="0" /></a>And it's no coincidence that MobiLuck is all about friends too, hence our tagline 'Closer to my friends'. People benefit most from MobiLuck when their friends use it too. Recommendations are usually made to friends, who in turn trust the information. And at the heart of it all is the human desire to be admired and respected by others and their friends in particular. So all these types of services should give users the means to express themselves - and show off!<br /><br />Of course the concept of a 'friend' is being redefined by social networks and by Facebook in particular, where any contact is called a friend. Will we have to start making a distinction between 'real' and 'online' friends? I think it's inevitable.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-2317647434906551382007-10-25T17:02:00.000+02:002008-12-09T18:45:53.337+01:00New shop window<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RyC0OaJ2BNI/AAAAAAAAAWY/xL0wjQGYJ_4/s1600-h/Website.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 285px; height: 224px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RyC0OaJ2BNI/AAAAAAAAAWY/xL0wjQGYJ_4/s320/Website.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125294535579403474" border="0" /></a>Our new homepage is now online!<br /><div style="text-align: left;">You can now sign up and play with the application within the phone window on your PC, send a link to your mobile or to your friends to invite them, and download the mobile application as before.<br /><br /></div>It was time to bring it up to date with the new service. but we couldn't completely redesign it from scratch because we wanted to preserve its power to bring tens of thousands of visitors a day looking for downloads for their shiny new <insert><insert model="" here="">[insert model here]. Our old, web~1.0 website generated 500 new service registrations and 1000 downloads a day for zero effort. An important factor in this is the block of 20-odd phone models on the front page and the fact that behind the home every one of over 200 types of phone has its own page. Multiplied by 8 languages.<br /><br /></insert></insert>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-80178884314603110592007-09-07T11:46:00.000+02:002007-09-07T12:31:05.367+02:00HaE bAy.bWhen it comes to texting, it's clear that some of our users are initiates and some are pros. The initiates send messages and chat to each other like I do: They use T9 on their phones or a basic amount of phonetic txting. The pros are from AnOthr wUld altogether. It's quite difficult to read their messages because of irregular capitalisation and unfamiliar phonetic combinations of letters used. Try some of these out:<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-style: italic;">HeLlO hOwz it?hEhE! HeEhe tz aiiTe n yEW. YeA itz kOoL jSt At hOmE kikN bk iN mA rOoM!wAt bOut U? PweTiiE muj d saMe hea. i waNa n0e m0a bWt cheW ...</span><br /><br />OK that was the easy stuff. Now try this:<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0); font-style: italic;">HeHe awW mwAHr yiiP shuA huNii mwAHrz k0ntAK me weNeva k ...</span><br /><br />We discussed this for a while trying to understand why they use capitals so much. Is it to accentuate parts of the words? Is it to look cool? Are they acidentally tapping the case switch button whilst typing like crazy?<br />We think we've worked it out: It speeds up typing. When you want to type two letters that are on the same phone key, you normally have to wait about a second for the cursor to advance before you can type the second letter. But if you change the case the cursor advances immediately and you can type the second letter without waiting. So in a typical text message a 'pro' user probably does it 5-10 seconds faster than anyone else. It seems that switching on and off the capitals becomes second nature after a while hence the alternate capitalisation of letters throughout the messages rather than just for those letters that share the same key.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-30035025508413466872007-09-05T17:25:00.000+02:002007-09-05T17:50:11.967+02:00There's always oneAfter much searching I discovered <a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/">surveymonkey</a>, a neat online questionnaire service that I'm now using to get user feedback. For a low monthly fee it provides everything I need to create and analyse almost any type of questionnaire I might need. The only problem is that it's only possible to complete the questionnaire on the web. And a large proportion of our users don't have access to the full web, just WAP on their phones. So I'm waiting for the mobile WAP version soon please ...<br /><br />Here's some positive feedback so far:<br /><ul><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"Simple, easy to use, new, useful, a great tool to keep in touch with my friends and socialize with new people in the real world"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"that you can talk to friends anythime you want"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"u can c if ur frends r near"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"I like it because u can chat with people all over the world and realize how many people r interested in alot things that u find interesting too!"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"EVERYTHING"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"i want mobile myspace type mobiluck but instead of browsing who is online i wanna browse who is in the night club im at or who is close by. would love to start smsing good lookin chicks who have just caught my eye"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"lets me chat to mates on msn"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"I like the concept of knowing who is near my location"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"how easy it is to use"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"its fun and co-roperative"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"its versatil"</span></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">"just unsubscribe me"</span></li></ul>Oy, who wrote that last comment?! Oh well I guess we can't please everyone.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-7794806751772901062007-08-27T11:10:00.000+02:002008-12-09T18:45:53.525+01:00Clara is popular<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RtKZSfGsUlI/AAAAAAAAAHM/su73xoWT_jo/s1600-h/Clara+profile+for+blog.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RtKZSfGsUlI/AAAAAAAAAHM/su73xoWT_jo/s320/Clara+profile+for+blog.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5103309870630457938" border="0" /></a>Clara has been around for a while. She is a purchased copyright-free image, used initially to help us demonstrate in screenshots and press releases that you can use the bluetooth MobiLuck application to find pretty women. It was a natural step to transition her to the online WAP version, give her a profile and even virtually locate her either at our offices at MobiLuck or at a restaurant in Paris. But we didn't plan how we would respond to the hundreds of messages she is receiving in her mailbox asking for her phone number. So now she automatically replies to messages, saying: "Hi, you found me! Now you can have fun finding other people nearby and sending them messages. Just set your current location and see who else is around! You can also find places like bars and restaurants that are nearby too! If you get stuck, click on the ‘?’ tab in the top right of your screen. Good MobiLuck!"<br />Apart from saving me from hours of creative writing, it also helps explain the service to users.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-44065322243365972522007-08-07T20:03:00.000+02:002007-08-07T23:21:32.863+02:00OpaquevertisingIn mobile and internet advertising, if you want to know how well your campaigns are working and be able to fine tune them to perfection, what do you need to measure?<br /><br />You need to take a whole-process view from ad wording to country/channel/device placement to impressions to clicks to visits to registrations to loyal returning users. And to track this you need to put in place measures that link your mobile advertising agents' statistics to your own server-side stats - no mean task, given that the way they break down the information isn't the same as yours.<br /><br />Mobile advertising agents typically provide some basic stats like CTR, CPM and CPC. But they don't provide enough breakdowns to enable you to properly measure the quality of their publisher network. Why should they? Their incentive is to sell you clicks, not customers. The value-added part is left to you sitting in your dark room with your poor server to help work out the rest.<br /><br />The classic measures offered by most mobile advertising agencies are:<br />- How many people see the advertisement and for what price: Impressions / day & CPM (Cost per thousand views = Spend / 000 Impressions)<br />- What is the level of interest in what the advert is promising: CTR (Click-through-rate = clicks / impressions)?<br />- How much does it cost on average to bring a visitor to your site: CPC (Spend / Clicks)<br /><br />Unfortunately these measures are practically useless without an appreciation for the impact on your registered - and more importantly, active - user base. So you need to know:<br />- What is the registration rate for your service? Registrations / Visitors per day<br />- How much does it cost per acquired registration? CPA (Cost per Acquisition)<br />- How much does it cost per returning loyal user? CPLU (Cost per Loyal User)<br /><br />And if you want to know how best to target your advertising you need to measure this whole-process 'funnel' (Impressions/day, CPM, CTR, CPC, Registration Rate, CPA, CPLU) in terms of - ie broken down by - the advert wording, presentation method (banner or text or in-game insert…), timing (Sat, Sun or weekday…), publication channel (portals, communities, search, games, downloads, adult...), target country, target manufacturer / device / platform, visitor demographics, and so on … <br /><br />No mobile advertising agent gives you enough information to work this stuff out. So you need to be clever in how you set up your advertising campaigns with these companies. Try out different combinations of ad wording, country / channel / device targeting and track the results. Find ways to link server visit stats to the agencies’ click stats and give them a hard time when the figures don’t stack up.<br /><br />And really make sure that server-side you’re doing your best to track the source and behaviour of your visitors, registrations and returning users. It will pay off in the long term.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-81477467437738379782007-07-25T10:52:00.000+02:002007-07-25T11:04:21.098+02:00Backpacker dynamite<a href="http://www.tntmagazine.com/">TNT magazine</a> is an excellent way to find last minute inexpensive labour in London. We put two free adverts in the 'general work' category yesterday and we've had lots of replies today. TNT is well known and read by primarily Australian, New Zealand and South African backpackers visiting London: just the people who have the time, flexibility and need for money to pay their living costs, extend their stay or get their last ticket home.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-31057202418497794012007-07-21T16:06:00.000+02:002008-12-09T18:45:53.716+01:00Madvertising<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RqIT3N4EpLI/AAAAAAAAAGc/Yit9igrcdhc/s1600-h/Click+graph+for+blog.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 293px; height: 209px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RqIT3N4EpLI/AAAAAAAAAGc/Yit9igrcdhc/s320/Click+graph+for+blog.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5089652368220660914" border="0" /></a>Our first mobile ad campaign generated over 1000 fraudulent clicks and flushed our daily budget down the pan in under 2 hours. Good job it was just a test run on a 1 cent CPC for a max 10 dollars spending limit. <span style="font-style: italic;">[update: it turns out that only about 100 of the clicks were fraudulent; the agency we were using had an unexpectedly high publisher inventory in india which even at the lowest possible CPC rate gave thirty thousand impressions in 2 hours. We were not actually charged for fraud clicks. They were registered by our server but were not counted in the agency's spending reports] </span>The prime suspects? India blatantly in first place followed in a distant second by an unabashed South Africa. All the other english speaking countries were either asleep in their GMT +/-8 time zones or weren't paying hundreds of workers to speed-click on adverts for a dollar a day. It clearly pays to be cautious when starting out with this high risk advertising medium. We now need to do more extensive tests. With global advertising everyone is in different time zones so we need to run each campaign for at least 48 hours to be able to start making comparisons. That way each country will have 'experienced' the adverts for a full 24 hours during the same day of the week.Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-31166766665860381882007-07-17T11:15:00.000+02:002008-12-09T18:45:53.940+01:00Tour de Paris II<span style="" lang="CY">The Cell ID collection in Paris begins today.<span style=""> </span>We have a willing candidate ready to walk over 100km round the heart of Paris covering 20 square kilometres from Bastille to the Arc de Triomph and from Opera to Montparnasse.<span style=""> </span>He’ll be carrying three mobiles, one with GPS, and each connected to a different operator network.<span style=""> </span>The GPS phone has to be held out to continually receive a signal, the other two will be in his pocket, capturing time-synced data to re-synthesize back at base with the GPS coordinates.<span style=""> </span>It’s a somewhat risky affair, because they’re nice phones and could be attractive to thieves ... but at least he won't be stopping on every corner to decide where to go next: the whole itinerary has been worked out to ensure that we get maximum coverage for minimum distance walked based on an earlier test we carried out at Bastille.<span style=""> </span>The results will come through each half day and by this time next week we’ll have a complete database of tower cells in the main areas of Paris.<span style=""> </span>Then it’s on to London to do it all over again – but this time it will be 200km on foot because London is enormous!<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RpyJ3js_cTI/AAAAAAAAAGU/EVe0wCWWQas/s1600-h/test+walk.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 252px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RpyJ3js_cTI/AAAAAAAAAGU/EVe0wCWWQas/s320/test+walk.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088093266591576370" border="0" /></a><span style="" lang="CY"></span>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7624936894835202934.post-83806053085399005772007-07-10T17:59:00.000+02:002008-12-09T18:45:54.152+01:00Multi launcher<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RpyGgzs_cRI/AAAAAAAAAGE/KvyI7QRsM20/s1600-h/Launch+joke.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 170px; height: 140px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HToVFRvZc_o/RpyGgzs_cRI/AAAAAAAAAGE/KvyI7QRsM20/s320/Launch+joke.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088089577214669074" border="0" /></a><span style="" lang="CY"><span style="font-size:100%;">We started by launching a closed beta followed by an open one. Then a quiet launch in june, a soft launch today and next up: the 'go-live' launch. And that won't be the end of it.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Each of these milestones is not really a launch. More like part of a string of marketing activities to bring in various segments of the target market to the beta service when it's ready for them.<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">It’s like starting out with a rowing boat on a stream then adding an outboard motor as it becomes a river, a cabin and a steel hull as the river widens and picks up momentum and propellers and lifeboats as it joins the sea. </span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Good luck to anyone who launches their rowing boat straight into the ocean amongst the sealiners.</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">[This is not an official launch communication. We're working on the lifeboats.]</span></span><o:p></o:p></span>Patrick Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05103630012950833871noreply@blogger.com0