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  • Opera Mobile Says Mobile Web Grew By Users And Page Views In July

    Opera, the company that has created the Opera Mini browser for mobile phones, released figures for July showing how the browser was used worldwide. Of course, this is just the view from one mobile browser, but it can give us a sense of how mobile web usage is growing. In July, 15.8 million people used Opera Mini, jumping 9.4 percent over June. Those users viewed more than 3.7 billion pages, representing a 15.9 percent jump over the previous month. On average, that translates to about 236 pages for each person. Data Consumed: In July, Opera Mini users viewed more than 53.8 million megabytes of data worldwide. Compared to the previous month, that represents an increase of 15.2 percent. Because Opera Mini compresses pages by up to 90 percent, viewers actually would have consumed much more data, or about 538 million megabytes. On international markets: The biggest jump in usage was seen in Poland, which jumped to 9th in list of the top 10 countries. Opera also spotlighted mobile web use in Latin America, where 80 percent of the phones are capable of running Opera Mini. Of the Latin American countries it surveyed, Google ( NSDQ: GOOG ) was the top visited site, closely trailed by Microsoft's ( NSDQ: MSFT ) Live Search. Monthly views (click to enlarge): Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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  • Guardian Execs On ContentNext Acquisition: McCall, Brooks Talk Up Expansion

    The acquisition of our parent company , ContentNext Media, is a major change for us, but it also marks a turning point for the UK company to which we now belong. ContentNext is Guardian News & Media 's first acquisition outside the UK and its first of this sort at all; we are also now the company's largest U.S. presence. I spoke separately with Carolyn McCall, chief executive of Guardian Media Group , and Tim Brooks, a former journalist and managing director of Guardian News & Media, the part of the company where we fit in. No details on finances (we'll leave that to Kara ) but this is clearly a significant investment of energy and resources for Guardian as well. Why paidContent and ContentNext? : Brooks: "Absolutely essential to what we do is editorial independence and editorial integrity, and ContentNext absolutely lives by those same very high standards. Rafat always exemplified that way of operating and we wouldn't have looked twice at any business that didn't exemplify those standards of integrity and independence. ... It's a growing business. It's very well regarded by very senior people in the industry it serves, including, incidentally, all the senior people here, and it's in a space—media and technology—that we very firmly believe is central to our development going forward." McCall: "We respect the people at paidContent. We have known Rafat for a long time and really have admired the integrity that paidContent brings to content. It's a very good fit for the Guardian. And so it fits just incredibly well into the strategy of escalating what we do digitally. Working with an organization like yours, where we'll be learning from you—and I hope you'll be learning different skills from us—there are things where we can add a lot of value to paidContent, but there's a lot of value that paidContent can add to the Guardian." Fit with Guardian : Brooks: "Thanks to the web, we have a large...
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  • RealNetworks Sees Growth Of Snack-Sized Mobile Content; No iPhone Plans For Rhapsody

    RealNetworks ( NSDQ: RNWK ), which helps carriers sell ringtones, ringback tones and full-track music, believes the continuing trend in mobile content is to provide a bite-sized or "snackable" content experience, whereas the TV and PC will be the venues for longer, richer, high-definition experiences, according to Analisa Roberts, RealNetwork's senior director of market planning and analysis. That's not a new concept in the industry, however, the thinking has started to get muddled with new entrants, like mobile broadcast TV, which offers full-length shows and movies, and other content providers that see phones with big screens and faster network speeds as away to move everything from TV or online over to mobile without any alterations. To be sure, RealNetworks provides the range when it comes to music, by selling slices of music that are used for ringtones and ringback tones and also full-track music downloads. Here's a snapshot of their thoughts on the matter: On recent developments: About two years ago, RealNetworks acquired South Korean-based WiderThan for $350 million for its mobile music expertise and then more recently it bought Sony NetServices for $9 million to gain a European mobile music foothold. Last month, it gained recognition for launching an exclusive deal for Rhapsody with Verizon Wireless that includes both full-track and subscription music services. Lots more, including thoughts on mobile music, after the jump … Mobile Music by the Numbers: -- Ringback tones: Ringback tones make up the bulk of RealNetwork's business when counting subscribers. As of Q1, they had 16 carrier deployments in 10 countries with 28 million mobile subscribers, which mostly have subscriptions. "Our ringback tone subscriber base continues to grow at a great rate....It's strong in the U.S. and Asia, but Europe is a focus and we are seeing traction there." To give an idea, 10.5 percent of the global subscriber base has a ringback tone subscription...
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  • Mobile Content Bits: The Three C's: Cellpoint; CellSpin and Cellufun

    Just for fun, this Friday's mobile content bits will feature only companies with "cell" in their name.... -- Cellpoint builds mobile bookstore for SAXO.com: Saxo.com , an online bookstore in Denmark, said that it's using Cellpoint Moble's mPoint technology to build a mobile site. Customers can access the store by texting "saxo" to a Danish short code. The customer will then receive a message that takes them to the mobile store, where they can browse and purchase books. -- CellSpin creates multimedia features for Twitter: San Jose-based Cellspin said that it is supporting audio, video, picture and text messages that can be uploaded to micro-blogging sites Twitter and Pownce. Users who download Cellspin's mobile application, can leave audio Tweets, or send a picture or video, which allows a message to get across very fast and easily. The application is free, and works on more than 300 phones with the Symbian, Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 or Blackberry operating systems. Others are expected to come soon. Multimedia tweets can also be sent from CellSpin's Web site. Release. -- Cellufun and PlayPhone partner for game portal: San Jose-based PlayPhone said its working with Cellufun to gain access to Cellufun's more than 5.5 million monthly unique visitors and a catalog of free mobile games. The two companies said it is a good way to cross-promote their content, and will continue to look for similar partnerships in the future. PlayPhone will make Cellufun's free ad-supported games available through at http://www.playphone.com and a custom WAP site powered by Cellufun. Release. Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go.
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  • Puma Kicks Off Mobile Marketing Campaign For Euro 2008

    Puma, the shoemaker, is also jumping on the Euro 2008 bandwagon by launching an entire mobile marketing program, called "'Together Everywhere" just in time for the big soccer tournament, according to MediaPost Marketing Daily . Earlier this week, Qualcomm's MediaFLO said they were launching a mobile TV channel to feature live coverage of the games. Puma's program sounds pretty aggressive. For instance, once a fan has downloaded a ringtone, which can be a team's song or chant, Puma will automatically trigger the ringtone to play whenever the team scores. Puma will also provide free conference-calling, so that a group of up to 10 friends, can talk about the game together, whether they are in the stadium, in the street, or in front of the TV. The program is provided by BEAM Interactive, Area/code and Phone Valley, TouchWorks, Zed Digital and Zenith Optimedia, and is available in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Austria and Switzerland. Fans can sign up by texting a short code, or by going to pumafootball.com , or through an advertisement that comes with a new pair of shoes, called Tricks, which hit the stores in May. Related Qualcomm's MediaFLO Launches European Soccer Tournament Channel Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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  • Mobile Content Bits: Smaato And Ad Infuse; Ringleader Digital Ads; InnerActive and Buongiorno

    -- Smaato announced at the Mobile Marketing Forum that it's partnering with Ad Infuse to provide advertisers, publishers, and operators advertising within applications. In addition, Ad Infuse's iPhone advertising solution will be integrated with Smaato's in-application advertising platform for developers to use in conjunction with the iPhone SDK. The companies have also expanded to Europe. Release can be found here . -- New York-based Ringleader Digital announced tdoay that HopStop will use Ringleader to serve ads over its mobile Web site. HopStop will now be able to let advertisers target advertisements based on a users location, and without the need for GPS. HopStop.com offers consumers directions using public transit and other forms of transportation, and serves 1.7 million visits by users a month. The ads will be able to to relate to a user's physical address based on information provided, or on the nature of the place the user searches for, such as restaurants or museums. -- innerActive Smart Media and Buongiorno announced a partnership to offer its customers free ad-supported content, such as games, instant messaging and video. HotSMS, part of Buongiorno (BIT: BNG) Marketing Services, will offer free ad-funded entertainment directly to its members. With the help of innerActive, Buongiorno will also be able to offer HotSMS.com subscribers the choice of free content, in return for viewing contextual advertisements and product placements that are embedded in the content. In trials, innerActive's platform 40 percent click-through rates and ten times more downloads than for paid-for games. Also in trials, they said 78 percent of people who played a game had never downloaded a game before. Release. Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download
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  • UK Broadcaster Channel 4 Overhauls Mobile Site

    British broadcaster Channel 4 is overhauling its mobile web site in time for the launch of latest series of the reality TV show Big Brother. NMA.co.uk reports that Channel 4 is hoping that video clips from the show will drive traffic to the off-portal, ad-funded site, which will allow users to make comments and leave ratings. The site will also include content from the Big Brother Big Ears online radio show. Channel 4 has not made any deals with carriers so far to distribute the video clips on their portals, nor have they found an an agency to handle the ad sales. Media companies are increasingly keen to go off portal and to take control of their content and their ad sales. Channel 4's off portal move follows CondeNet's recent decision to drop its carrier deals and go straight to the mobile web, which they said would allow them to control ad sales, and cut out the middle man. Related CondeNet UK Takes Mobile Content Off-Portal To Sell Ads Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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  • Mobile Content Bits: Brew Gets Flash; Juicecaster Adds Location; Nokia Goes Live; Guitar Hero Rocks

    -- Qualcomm ( NSDQ: QCOM ) and Adobe Systems ( NSDQ: ADBE ) announced today at the Brew conference in San Diego that they have upgraded the Brew mobile platform to support Adobe Flash technology, which will allow developers to use video and other Flash content when creating applications in the Brew environment. Of course, this is a big deal because Apple's ( NSDQ: AAPL ) iPhone has declined to support Flash to date. Release. -- JuiceCaster , the mobile social-networking service, said today that it is supporting location-based geotagging for for Qualcomm's Brew solution. Now JuiceCaster users can send pictures and videos that automatically include their location to social-networking platforms, like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. It also immediately notifies users when someone updates their status in a nearby area. The announcement was made today at the Brew conference, but JuiceCaster intends on supporting other platforms too. -- Microsoft ( NSDQ: MSFT ) and Nokia ( NYSE: NOK ) announced today that Windows Live for mobile will be available for Nokia S60 devices for the first time in the U.S. and in six more countries, including Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Poland and Romania, which brings the grand total to 33. Windows Live for Nokia includes access to Hotmail, Messenger, Live Contacts and Spaces. Once downloaded, and a user signs-in, the application enables customers to move between contacts, e-mail, messenger, phone calls, text messaging, camera, gallery and browsing. -- Hands-On Mobile, the mobile game publisher that developed Guitar Hero III Mobile , said today that the game was the hottest selling title on Verizon Wireless ( NYSE: VZ ) phones in the first three months of the year. So far, the game has been downloaded nearly 1 million times across all operators and more than 250,000 songs are played daily. The most popular songs are "Slow Ride", "Mississippi Queen" and "Black Magic Woman."
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  • ITV Fined $11.14 Million For Phone-In Scandal

    A week ago was the rumor that British broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV) could be fined a record $7.8 million (4 million pounds) for its part in the premium phone line scandal which rocked Britain last year. It turns out that was conservative—regulator Ofcom has fined it 5.7 million pounds (US$11.4 million), almost triple the previous highest fine, 2 million pounds given to producer GMTV last year reports C21 Media . The high fine is due to the seriousness and the repeated nature of the faults, and takes into account the 7.8 million pounds ITV has already pledged to return to viewers and charity—so what was the original amount? Philip Graf, chairman of Ofcom's content sanctions committee, said: "ITV programme makers totally disregarded their own published terms and conditions and Ofcom codes. Further, there was a completely inadequate compliance system in place. The result was that millions of paying entrants were misled into believing they could fairly interact with some of ITV's most popular programmes." The fine was split amongst a range of ITVs subsidiaries. ITV executive chairman Michael Grade accepted Ofcom's fine today, saying it was "an appropriate moment to restate ITV's unreserved apology to the public for breaches that took place between 2003 and January 2007." Ofcom is still investigating issues… Related PhonepayPlus Probes UK Premium Rate Industry UK Broadcasting Regulator Takes Charge Of Call-TV Oversight Worldwide Broadcasters Tighten Call TV Rules In Wake Of U.K. Scandal
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  • Mobile Content Bits: 3 UK Adds Fun Text; AOL And Time.com on iPhone; Egyptian Ads; RollingStone.com

    -- 3UK/Fun Text: 3 UK is adding Fun Text - a cutesy picture messaging service - to its Planet 3 mobile web portal. Cambridge-based Fun Text - which routes basic graphics and videos from a "premium" catalogue over MMS, has had the portal carry its WAP-based service since December, but 3 UK is the first carrier to link to its new client app, which supports Nokia ( NYSE: NOK ) N95, N73, E65 and 6120 handsets. -- AOL ( NYSE: TWX ) iPhone search: AOL said today it has just launched a version of AOL Mobile Search specifically for the iPhone. Both iPhone and iPod Touch users can access the beta version of the search site by going to http://search.aol.com on their device. Of course, people with other phones will be able to access the same URL, but it will render differently for them. iPhone users will be able to touch the screen to click on a map or to call a business listing. Other users will have to scroll down and click. -- Time.com For iPhones: Time.com said it has also launched a special version of its site for iPhone and iPod touch users. With the help of Crisp Wireless, Time will offer iPhone users access to exclusive content, such as the 24/7 political tipsheet "The Page," weekly newsmaker interview feature 10 Questions, Quotes of the Day and interactive photo essays. -- Ads Come to Egypt: Italian mobile content company Buongiorno (BIT: BNG) said today it has signed a deal with Vodafone ( NYSE: VOD ) Egypt to help launch its first mobile advertising program. Some of the first advertisers are BMW, P&G, Pepsi and Hyundai. The program will include several types of ads, including MMS, WAP Banner, SMS and Interactive Voice Response. -- RealNetworks ( NSDQ: RNWK ) and RollingStone.com: Real launched a mobile-optimized site for RollingStone.com, which is operated by Rhapsody America, a joint venture between Real and MTV. To build it, Real tapped into the RSS feeds on RollingStone.com to create the mobile site. The site is published up to 12 times a day...
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  • Daily Mirror Scraps Mobile Site, New One Six Months Away

    UK newspaper Daily Mirror has scrapped its mobile site in preparation for a new mobile service it is working on, reports NMA . Parent company Trinity Mirror ( LSE: TNI ) has been working on the new services for a while , but apparently the new services are to be launched "within six months", so if the Daily Mirror doesn't think it's worth keeping the site going until the new version it must be in pretty dire straits. New head of interactive and mobile for Trinity Mirror Rick Gleave said: "We brought down the old site because it was lacking any thought. It wasn't promoted online or in the paper"...the unspoken comment is that he didn't think the site was worth promoting either. He is now hunting for a platform provider and advertising partner. He said the new site will give readers the "Mirror experience" and will "draw on our strengths in sports and entertainment, as well as the star writers and wealth of regional news we have". Related Round Up: Trinity Mirror; New 3 Portal; Kylie On Mobile 1st
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  • Swedish Newspapers Launches Branded Mobile Phone For Easy Acces To Its Site

    Seems like a rather roundabout way of trying people to read their news: Sweden's Dagens Nyheter newspaper has launched a mobile phone offering the daily's subscribers direct and free access to its website. DN subscribers can purchase the Nokia ( NYSE: NOK ) 6120 phone on the paper's website, and by signing up for a 199-kronor ($31) monthly call plan can freely surf the daily's website by simply hitting a special "DN" button, reports AFP .
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