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ETO Technology News and Show preview - November 2006 edition
AOE Budapest Show Preview
Telecoms and online business people from all around the world will be converging on the Grand Hotel Royal in Budapest, Hungary on the 9th and 10th of November 2006 for the AOE (Adult Online Europe) Conference and Expo. It'll be one of Europe's biggest and most important events for premium adult mobile and broadband services, and is running alongside the World Telemedia show in the same hotel, over the same days. Although World Telemedia is a non-adult show, many exhibitors and visitors will have a foot in both camps, so it should be well worthwhile visiting both events. Webmasters, content owners, billing firms and service providers will meet to develop existing relationships and make good use of the opportunity to forge new ones. New technologies will be showcased, big name players will be speaking and techniques for maximising revenue potential from mobile data, online, voice and iTV services will be discussed.
The European market leads the world for broadband growth and with over 700 million potential customers, coupled with staggering mobile penetration figures, it represents perhaps the most important arena for adult coms. The AOE Conference and Expo are at the heart of it.
Thursday the 9th of November's Schedule
11.00 - 18.00 Mobile Adult Services Forum - more details below
11.00 - 18.00 Exhibition, hospitality and Casino Games
12.30 - 14.30 5 Star Lunches
16.00 - 18.00 Miss AOE Parade of Angels
16.00 - 18.00 Poker School and Tournament (Round 1)
18.00 - 19.00 Drinks on the show floor
22.00 - 01.00 Opening Gala Events
Friday the 10th of November's Schedule
11.00 - 18.00 Online Adult Services Forum - more details below
11.00 - 18.00 Exhibition, hospitality and Casino Games
12.30 - 14.30 Lunches/5 Star Lunches
16.00 - 18.00 Miss AOE Parade of Angels and Final
16.00 - 18.00 Poker School and Tournament (Round 2)
18.00 - 19.00 TFI Drinks on the show floor
The Mobile adult services forum will feature discussion on how to mobilise your content, dating and chat services, adult mobile TV and video services along with content access controls and age verification. Speakers will include; Netcollex, Pink Adventures AG, MP Media, Moyst Ltd, WAAT Media, CCMedia, 4D Telecom, RespondmobileTV, Mobival, 192.com and Transact Group
Speaking at the Online adult services forum will be Netcollex, Clippz, Activefone, Max Candy, Coulomb, Strictly Broadband, Password by Phone, CommeceGate.com and MediaKey Aps. Topics will cover monetising traffic for webmasters & developing new revenue streams, premium content billing & protection, a panel debate about international markets and a special focus on the gay market.
It's worth noting that access to the AOExpo floor (as opposed to the conference) is free. Just pre-register at aoexpo.com. Here you'll find many of the world's leading adult coms businesses showcasing their latest technology and products, along with a lounge area for networking. AOExpo organiser John Green promises a great show in a fascinating city, and as it says at aoexp.com, visitors will probably have the time of their lives!
There's also an AOE Webmaster's Event on the 11th of November, where networking and entertainment meet on a tour through Budapest, and many of its bars and clubs. It starts at 15.00 at the Grand Hotel Royal and aoe-webmasters.com is the place to learn more.
You made it - you milk it. User-generated content finds a new home at momo
Activefone and Bango have partnered to launch the world's first cross network direct to consumer user-generated content platform; momo.
Aimed at anyone wishing to set up a branded mobile community service and become the central facilitator of consumer generated mobile content transactions, the momo platform allows users to upload pictures and video and make them available to other community members, globally.
Once content has been uploaded to the momo platform a Bango Service package is automatically set up, enabling users to log onto the momo interface to create and manage their own mobile inventory. It also provides complete visibility in to the amount of downloads that have been successfully completed and any payouts that are due to the content creator. Payout levels for completed downloads also far outweigh current operator user generated content levels with 20% of the value of each download being awarded to the content creator. Content is paid for using PayPal, credit card and via mobile phone bill on some mobile networks.
The momo platform can also be executed as a bespoke or white label mobile community service, allowing media companies, publishers and brands that are seeking new ways to harness and monetise the growing consumer appetite for user generated content anywhere in the world.
Typically this will be a niche magazine that can advertise the service directly off-the-page to its readers. For community owners the average payout for successfully completed downloads will be set at 50% after fixed costs.
"User generated content is already huge on the Web and its appeal proven, driven by the likes of MySpace, Flickr, YouTube " said Eden Zoller, Principal Analyst with Ovum's consumer practice. "The foundations for rich forms of user-generated content are now in place in the mobile market, notably MMS enabled camera and videophones. The challenge is how provide an interactive, secure environment that stimulates usage and rewards consumers, but without compromising the integrity of user generated content. This role is up for grabs."
Mark Watts COO of Activefone said: "Voice and text are both types of user generated content. These two mediums have shaped the mobile market since conception and are both examples of user generated content. With this in mind who can doubt the market potential of user generated content regarding mobile multimedia products? The momo solution and its billing integration with Bango will undoubtedly take the mobile content market by storm and provide much higher levels of interactivity to community services."
"User communities have proved very popular on the PC web and are now being replicated on mobile. Enhancements to the Bango Service cater for the needs of these mobile communities which consist of large volumes of users." said Ray Anderson, CEO, Bango. "With the industry predicting that community services are to become the largest revenue generator for mobile entertainment by 2011 user generated content is set to thrive."
Activefone is currently in discussion with several major brands and will soon be making announcements on these partnerships. For more information please contact the momo team via momo@activefone.com.
Sex.com to get sexed up
Escom LLC, who now own the (in)famous sex.com domain, have announced their plans to redevelop the site to become the premiere online destination for premium broadband services aimed at adults. The Playboy Entertainment Group will be the power behind the site, and will initially be offering Playboy TV Jukebox, Club Jenna, Naughty Amateur Home Videos and Spice VOD.
Jay Janarthanan, Chief Technical Officer for Escom said, "After fielding partnership discussions and strategic opportunities from almost everyone interested, Sex.com is the most sought after and powerful domain name on the Internet. In adult content, it became clear that we wanted to build Sex.com with Playboy, as they are unequivocally the premiere provider of entertainment programming for adults. With their broadband platform and range of offerings, we are excited about this partnership and the opportunity to provide premium content. And given Playboy's commitment to operating their business in a socially responsible manner, we could not think of a more trusted partner."
Senior Vice President of Marketing for the Playboy Entertainment Group, Michael Sprouse, added, "We are committed to offering the best entertainment and lifestyle offerings for adults across all platforms and we are delighted to expand the reach of our broadband offerings by partnering with Sex.com."
Private expand into the Americas and Asia, wirelessly
Spanish Private Media Group Inc. has announced it's entered into an agreement with Mobile Streams Plc. to supply Private Media's wireless adult entertainment content in Latin America, North America and Asia and will continue to develop those territories. Mobile Streams will be responsible for the development and distribution of Private's mobile TV channels, video clips, games, wallpapers and MMS content.
"We are extremely happy to expand our footprint in these markets and believe this agreement further demonstrates Private's ability to attract mainstream content distributors in the wireless arena," said Tim Clausen, director of wireless for Private. "It is estimated that the global mobile adult content market will grow to $3.3 billion by 2011 (according to Juniper Research's September report) and we believe that our ability to attract partners such as Mobile Streams places us in a unique position to benefit from this growth."
Private's wireless content is available to consumers in 28 countries through 59 wireless operators, 33 of which have gone live since September 2005. The company expects 13 new operators to go live by the end of the year.
Beware Malware!
According to 'Internet Nasties' experts McAfee, it's not porn sites that should be blamed for malicious software, even though the industry has often held responsible for Malware infestations in the past. Rather, their study suggests it's actually celebrity and celeb gossip sites in general that are the number one place to pick up something unwanted online. The security software firm go on to say porn sites have fallen to a lowly third place overall, after screen saver sites. Many search engine famous name keyword searches lead straight to malicious sites, it's reported.
While the study's results are based of McAfee's proprietary software -their SiteAdvisor antiphishing browser plugin- they're regarded as being a good indicator of where self-installing programmes which may log keystrokes and sites visited can be found. So stay safe and only visit celeb sites whose names you know and trust. And don't even think about downloading a screen saver!
Virgin unveils
Virgin Mobile launched the UK's first broadcast mobile TV service in October. Initially four channels are available -BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and E4- with Virgin offering the service and a compatible Windows Mobile-based HTC handset free to customers with contracts costing £25 a month or more. Pre-pay customers can buy the phone for £199, with Virgin Mobile TV costing £5 per month after a free three-month period. Channel 4 will initially broadcast 'Channel 4 Short Cuts', its made-for-mobile TV channel, with a full Channel 4 simulcast to follow.
Virgin Mobile's managing director Alan Gow said, "Virgin Mobile finally delivers what others have been promising for so long - real TV broadcast to your mobile, delivering the programmes you want to watch, when you want to watch them, in a simple and easy-to-use experience."
The service is provided by the DAB IP-based BT Movio mobile broadcast platform, which on top of the four channels will also offer 50 digital radio stations, 'red-button' interactivity and a seven-day electronic programme guide (EPG). Emma Lloyd, MD of BT Movio, said, "BT Movio looks forward to working with Virgin Mobile as our first customer. We fully anticipate that their well-known marketing flare will attract many UK consumers to the service."
The Virgin Mobile TV launch will be supported from by a 'multi-million pound' advertising campaign, starring Pamela Anderson. Which may be the first time 'Virgin' and 'Pamela Anderson' have appeared together in the same sentence. There's no word on adult or 'late night' programming, but it's easy to imagine this will follow.
More mobile TV you might actually see on the bus
3UK, Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone have teamed up to trial new broadcast mobile TV technology in the UK. Using IPWireless's TDtv platform and the MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services) standard, the service will allow 3G operators to offer bandwidth-heavy mobile TV/audio and other IP datacasts without impacting core voice and data traffic on the main network. This is actually the fourth broadcast mobile TV technology to be tested in the UK, following the O2/Arqiva trials of DVB-H earlier this year, BSkyB's continuing work with Qualcomm's MediaFLO platform and Virgin Mobile's launch of DAB-IP based services this month.
Director of R&D at Vodafone, Professor Michael Walker, said, "In the case of mobile TV, there are a number of technologies emerging that must be fully explored so that we have a comprehensive understanding of how the technologies work and the experience they will offer. Currently the most interesting technologies are the variants of MBMS and DVB-H."
12 TDtv base stations have been deployed at existing cell sites covering parts of Bristol for the trial, with test content and handset software being provided by MobiTV, which already powers 3G streaming mobile TV services for Orange and 3UK.