The Joy of Text

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Friday, Apr. 12, 2002
When mobile phones were first introduced to European consumers, manufacturers and operators initially thought of the devices' short messaging service (SMS) as a neat, little extra?something to appeal mainly to technophiles. As it's turned out, however, the ability to send brief text messages via wireless networks became the tail that wagged the dog. The fast and big growth of Europe's mobile industry was greatly enhanced by the popularity of SMS, particularly among teens and young adults. Now marketers see SMS as a cool new way to reach 15- to 25-year-olds.

So when Parisian entrepreneur Claude Aussage was looking for a new business to break into, he quickly latched on to text messaging. "It was already so popular, and it has so much potential," says Aussage, who initially had success co-founding a company that provided services to Minitel, the French videotext service. The resulting company, Media 41(launched in March 2001), allows clients to quickly and cheaply create their own SMS applications, under the brand, Mobillico. The notion is that even professional developers are now turning to inexpensive, off-the-shelf software that is flexible and can be personalized, rather than designing applications from scratch, which he likens to "reinventing the wheel." These interactive applications include such things as alerts, surveys and votes, and games. And, later this year, will also include premium services, like headlines, stock quotes, sports scores and flight schedules. Clients tend to be professionals, including service companies, portals and Web agencies, who host the finished applications on their own servers.

Mobillico also provides SMS application services to non-tech companies who want to use messaging, but don't want to get involved in technology. Using the same ready-made software, Mobillico designs, builds and hosts the applications for clients. This service has proved popular with French radio stations, including RTL, Fun Radio and Azure FM. Typical applications include voting systems, SMS call centers and games. For instance, stations offer CDs to game winners, or listeners can send in text messages to, say, rate new records, or vote for their favorite pop idol. Radio stations find that SMS applications help them "build a special relationship with their young, target audiences," Aussage explains. Other potential clients for this service include retailers and big-name consumer-product brands, he says. And he also hopes to offer interactive applications to TV companies, most likely in partnership with larger software or infrastructure providers.

So far, Aussage has financed Media 41 himself, with an initial investment of about $176,000. Revenues come not only from client fees, but from revenue-sharing agreements with mobile operators. And the roll out of premium services in a few months will create an additional revenue stream. Aussage, who so far has a staff of eight, anticipates first profits in about a year's time.

Media 41 concentrated on France in its first year of operations, but expects to expand elsewhere into Europe—most likely Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain—later this year. As a mobile services provider, Media 41 knows the benefits of staying on the move.