Meta thinkd2c

Looking back over '06 stats. For the year thinkd2c received 16,700 page views. I didn't bother checking my Adsense account but I am sure '06 yielded 10's of dollars from Adwords.

Almost half of all traffic came from Google. The most popular content items were "lonelygirl15" and "silvercasting." 110 different countries accessed the blog at least once, but the biggest hits came from the US, UK and Canada.

The most disappointing event of the year happened late. One day of feverish blogging, I saw something odd on Rik Riel's blog and logged it so I could check it out later. It was a hoax post and it was pretty funny. The "breathless" editors at Second Life Herald got all worked up about it and I thought - here we go, time to get some major traffic! But no major traffic ensued.

I think '07 is already shaping up to be a big year for things we like at thinkd2c. I hope you stop by often for a survey of interesting d2c tidbits.

think d2c makes the Intel Blogroll

Think d2c made the Intel: Live without Boundries blogroll!

See also:
Versu Wraps up Intel Live without Boundries
Intel: Live without Boundries

Content D2C

Via MocoNews, The Beacon Journal has an article about content creators by passing carries and selling directly to consumers.

From the article:

"As commerce quickly goes mobile, some companies are finding the best way to sell ring tones, games and other entertainment on the move is to market straight to consumers.

Smaller companies are doing an end-run around carriers like Verizon Wireless or Cingular Wireless LLC by turning to bricks-and-mortar stores or off-line promotions, thus avoiding the fees associated with placement on mainstream mobile portal sites.

Nearly $1.4 billion globally, or about one-third of all digital content sales, went off-portal in 2005, according to Qpass Inc., which provides billing services for mobile commerce. And the off-portal share is growing, Qpass said.

"Our first suggestion to customers is to search our site, because it'll work the way you're expecting it to work,'' Cingular Wireless spokesman Ritch Blasi said. "If you go outside and that game doesn't play right on your phone, that's not something I'm going to guarantee.''

Sun's D2C Java Portal

From the press release:

"Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW - News) the creator and leading advocate of Java(TM) technology, today announced the launch of mobile.java.com. Mobile.java.com offers mobile Java technology-based applications for purchase and download, along with information for consumers about Java technology and the Java brand. Subscribers on more than 250 wireless carriers worldwide can access the new site via a web browser on any Java Powered mobile device (cell phone, PDA, etc.).

"With over three billion Java Powered mobile devices in the hands of consumers worldwide, Java technology is the smart choice for developers, carriers and consumers seeking to deliver and run the most exciting mobile content. With the creation of mobile.java.com, Sun plans to provide a trusted site for consumers to discover, purchase and download mobile Java applications and to accelerate global awareness and market growth for the benefit of mobile carriers and developers," said Mark Herring, senior director, Java Brand Programs at Sun."

mBlox and New Vision's D2C

mBlox and New Visions have launched an off portal music download service with a single fee for downloads.

From the press release:

"mBlox, the world's largest mobile transaction network, and New-Visions, a mobile specialist focused on providing marketing solutions to the entertainment industry, are launching the first off-portal music track download services where consumers pay 'one price' to download music with no additional operator data charges.

The operators' data charges for downloading content are often cited as the reason for the slow uptake of rich media services on mobile. Currently consumers are not only paying for the value of the content via premium billing but also for the cost of the data traffic to deliver the content. Consequently, songs that are approximately 1MB in size can cost consumers the GBP 1.50 charge for the song plus an additional GBP 8 in data charges (data charges may vary). These extra charges make the cost of downloading to mobile unacceptably high and can put consumers off downloading music or other media content."

Moviso D2C

MocoNews talked with InfoSpace CEO Jim Voelker about the possibility of bringing back Moviso as a D2C channel.

From the post:

"From the application, the description of the service: “Downloadable ringtones, musical, voice and other audio recordings, graphics, images, wallpaper, video content, messages, and interactive computer game software, all for the internet and wired and wireless devices.”

I asked the INSP PR about this and they had a non-commital answer: “We plan to launch a direct-to-consumer brand in the first half of this year. InfoSpace knows best what the mobile consumer wants and this initiative will illustrate that expertise.”

Fox goes D2C

From the press release:

"The News Corp. subsidiary launched Mobizzo, an Internet storefront featuring content from Fox brands including “Family Guy,” “Napoleon Dynamite” and the upcoming film “Ice Age: The Meltdown.”

Catchy name...

“The mobile market is exploding and it makes perfect sense for a media company like ours to create a real content destination for the billions of cell phone users around the world,” said News Corp. Chief Executive Officer Peter Chernin. “From Fox television and movie properties to original content produced directly for the mobile audience, we think we can create a unique and compelling mobile entertainment offering and deliver it directly to the consumer.”

At the bottom of every page, in small greyed out letters:

"T-Mobile users cannot download games from Mobizzo yet. Check back soon!"

Artificial Life: D2C

Via MocoNews, from Chron.com:

"The new portal will be launched in March 2006. The new m-commerce portal will offer a great variety of proprietary and popular Artificial Life mobile games and content (such as game related wallpapers, screensaver, ring-tones, true-tones, video mails, etc.). Customers can purchase all content and games directly from the website and download the games and content to their phones independent of their location or mobile operator.

"The launch of our new m-commerce portal is a big step forward for us. It will provide us with a new global sales channel directly to end users and an additional revenue stream. It will also make us more independent of the mobile operators and therefore will further strengthen our position in many of the global mobile markets," said Eberhard Schoeneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, Inc."

Artifical Life makes several products including V-Girl, virtual girlfriend.

Warners Bros goes D2C

Variety has an article up with an interview of Justin Richardson, director of wireless business development for Europe.

From the article:

"Warner Bros. said Thursday that it will start its own mobile Internet site to distribute TV, video and even films to cell phone users -- a move that lessens the company's reliance on cellular carriers.

Warner has been selling through mobile operators, who put bits of content like ringtones and pictures onto their carrier "decks," or portals as they're known in Europe.

The operators typically get about a 50% share of the retail price, which is acceptable to Warner on pure mobile content like ringtones but not good enough for Warner's traditional film and TV fare, Richardson said.

Off-portal, also known as "direct to consumer," was a hot theme at the conference, which ended Thursday and featured a strong mobile-entertainment theme."

The Deffusion Group: IPG Study

The Deffusion Group has some good free research briefs. The one titled "The IPG Goes New Media" has a good set of best practices that apply across the board to D2C media.

IPG = Interactive Program Guide

From the brief:

"Three Golden Rules for the IPG

1. Be Omniscient (Know the Viewer)
2. Be Omnipresent (Be Where the Viewer Is)
3. Eliminate Complexity (Simplify the Viewer's Entertainment Life)
   

Vodaphone D2C Billing for Off Portal Content

From New Media Age: Vodaphone annouces program that allows content producers to pay for data transfer fees instead of end users.

"The model lets media owners and brands cover the data traffic costs to consumers of downloading content. The move could help drive the take-up of mobile content, such as music and video, by removing consumer fears over the final price they will be charged and letting content providers advertise one price for content.

Vodafone is the first operator to launch a commercial offering for third parties to let them absorb the cost of data traffic, making browsing and download of content free for consumers, who will only pay the retail price for actual content."

"Rich media, such as audio and video, will be the next fillip for the mobile content market," said Vodafone head of commercial partnerships Jeremy Flynn. "But a lot of current data tariffs are not 3G-centric. We're introducing an 0800 data model that'll be free to consumers and reverse-charged to content providers."

FeliCa Survey

From the Japan Mobile Marketing Magazine, produced by D2 Communications, a study on users adoption and interest in FeLiCa.

From Wikipedia:

Sony FeliCa is a contactless IC chip smart card system. The technology is used by Singapore's EZ-link system and Suica from JR East railway company as well as the Nagasaki Smart Card system in Nagasaki, Japan. All these however use more updated versions of the technology, compared with the older Octopus cards system in Hong Kong where FeliCa technology first gained widespread acceptance and use.

From the report (back in March 2005):

• 55.2% of users don’t have an i-mode FeliCa phone but would like to try one.
• 79.1% of males want to use i-mode FeliCa to make payments at convenience stores and shops, 68.6% of females want to use them to accumulate loyalty points on membership cards.
• 89.5% are concerned about having trustworthy security when using i-mode FeliCa.

First Post

As of this morning my blog is worth $0.00. Maybe that will change. I look forward to posting some thoughts on Mobile D2C content and other technology trends and interesting tidbits. Thanks for stopping by.