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Kink Kommunity Heads To UK |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Wednesday, 15 March 2006 |
Hutchison Three’s social networking play is uniquely Australian, developed by a Perth-based company, Loop Wireless.
Proving Aussie developers can take on the world Loop Wireless is set to launch Kink on Three’s UK network in just over a month’s time.
The plan to offer Kink to Hutchison’s 4 million 3G users will catapult Loop Wireless onto a world’s stage and give it leverage to tackle other markets and carriers, with Italy, the US and Vodafone already in the company’s sights.
For those not in the Kommuinities 18-24 demographic, Kink is a social networking community which offers subscribers access to personal mixed media blogging from a mobile phone. The system allows subscribers to interact and comment on other postings all in a moderated walled garden.
The service launched on Australia’s Three network in October last year and the take up has impressed senior Three executives in the UK.
Loop Wireless CEO Gavin Bullen, is currently in London putting the final revenue sharing details to bed and helping the company prepare to launch the content/service.
Bullen says Three executives are fully behind the launch and are planning a major advertising blitz to support the launch.
It’s no wonder really; Kink was recently judged Australia’s ‘Best Mobile/Wireless Content’ at the 12th Annual Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) Awards.
But making it in the UK market offers a much larger opportunity to the tiny developer. Hutchison UK’s 4 million subscribers eclipses Australia’s 700,000 representing afar great revenue opportunity for both Three and Loop.
That could just be the start, next stop might well be Three Italy with another 4.3 million subscribers and if the company can get Vodafone on board it could well be seen on mobile phones on a global basis.
In Australia subscribers pay a monthly $3 access charge to use the service which is hosted out of a Loop Wireless data centre back in Australia. The setup will be similar with Three UK, the service will be hosted out of Australia and other than an initial free period offered to entice visitors to test the service, Kink will be offered to pre-paid subscribers for a monthly access fee with Loop Wireless taking a share of the revenue.
Bullen said that having seen the success of Kink in Australia Three UK executives are far less sceptical than their Australian counterparts were last year.
“They will work much harder to get take up. It will be considerably quicker as they are throwing a much heavier marketing spend at it. We should be able to reach critical mass here three or four months ahead of what we did in Australia,” he said.
“Product managers within a carrier are all trying to jostle to get their product marketed to the user base,” explained Bullen. “A new product like this with unrecognised brand has to work hard to get the marketing space.”
The 3G content system there is a little different from the user interface used locally explained Bullen and has only a limited number of icon positions and significantly something else is getting bumped to give Kink a good position on the grid.
Loop Wireless
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