Bluepulse Breathes New Life into Mobile Social Networks

Like a typical tech junkie, Ben Keighran has always wanted more out of his gadgets and gizmos than they were meant to provide. Unlike many, however, Keighran did something about it. In his native Australia, Keighran built his first online bulletin board (BBS) at age 13. Several years later, as a university student with one of the first Ericsson Bluetooth phones, he tried to turn the handset into a wireless modem for his PC. He also managed to hack into the phone and built his first mobile application so that when he walked into his apartment a list of the songs stored on his PC would show up on the phone’s screen and he just had to hit a button to start them playing.

That still wasn’t enough for the man with the engineering background; he wanted to be able to share his music. So Keighran started building a platform on which he could create Internet-style applications for mobile phones, apps that would work regardless of the phone model or network. Now, five years later, that platform is the basis for Bluepulse, a free, ad-based mobile social messenger service that combines aspects of social networking and instant messaging into a single platform.

The beta version of Bluepulse, launched in December 2006 by the company of the same name, was a downloadable Java application. The app was downloaded more than three million times in 10 months by users in more than 150 countries. And, according to Keighran, “it’s already bigger than MySpace and Facebook on mobile in the US – combined.” In late October, the company released a new, mobile Web-based version of Bluepulse that added a host of innovative features, including a “revolutionary” way to send and receive messages.

The new Bluepulse boasts a universal message box for both sending and receiving all types of messages from a single interface. With the universal sending box, users can send a message to multiple friends and groups, with any combination of e-mail addresses, phone numbers and IM screen names, all at once. On the receiving side, all incoming friends’ profile updates, text messages, e-mails, instant messages and the like can be viewed in the same place – a single screen with an IM-like feel. The new platform also introduces the concept of group friending. With other social networking services, to add new friends you browse their profiles. Keighran said Bluepulse didn’t want to incorporate that approach “because it doesn’t fit the mobile model.” Instead, when a user hits “reply all” to a message from a friend, he’s informed if any of the recipients aren’t already on his friends list. If they’re not, he can easily ask them if they’d like to be added.

According to the company, group friending makes it easier for users to expand their network. Other new features include SMS and e-mail alerts to let users know they have a message waiting for them on Bluepulse; address importing that lets users invite their Facebook, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Gtalk, MSN and MySpace friends join them on Bluepulse and public groups built around user interests. Typically, social networks fall into one of three categories, said Keighran, IRC-style chat rooms, anonymous profiles and user-generated content portals. Some are PC-based and built for browsing, while others are mobile versions that “provide a window into the PC service,” he said. Then there’s a new category, the mobile social network, which Bluepulse hopes to help define. Bluepulse is the first mobile-only trusted social network, according to Keighran.

The company, which now calls Silicon Valley home, decided to launch its first version on Java so it would work on around half a billion of the three billion or so mobile phones in use, Keighran said. The new browser-based application doubles the potential user base to a billion. The browser-based version works on any Internet-enabled phone. Bluepulse markets the service directly to consumers, so it doesn’t have partnerships with any carriers or handset manufacturers that might want to put limits on how members can use the service.

Teen Destination Piczo Enters Mobile Realm

In order to literally go where its market is – teenagers with mobile devices – Piczo, the “leading teen destination for self-expression” and mobile social networking company Intercasting are have inked a deal that lets Piczo members create and share content over their mobile phones through Intercasting’s Anthem platform.  With Anthem, users will be able to specifically upload images taken via their camera phones, send and receive messages and post comments over the Piczo network online. 

Intercasting’s client list includes wireless carriers like 3 UK, Boost Mobile, Sprint and Virgin Mobile.

“Piczo is creating a service that taps into the habits of the Piczo generation who want to be in control of their content and communication in a safer environment and at the same time extending self-expression onto the devices that matter most to them in their lives,” said Chris Seth, Piczo’s managing director for Europe.

NBCU Pulls All Its Content from Apple’s iTunes

– Had Accounted for 40% of iTunes Video Sales
– NBCU Was Getting $15m a Year from iTunes
– Apple Blames NBCU for Trying to Jack up the Price

NBC Universal has pulled all its content from iTunes, just as it had promised it would if it could not get Apple to allow it to try variable pricing. NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker blamed it on Apple, saying Apple insisted on selling TV shows only at $1.99 per episode. NBCU asked for more pricing flexibility, even just to test variable pricing, Zucker said.

“All we asked was for an opportunity to be able to set a different variable price structure – even with one program, even to just test it one time,” Zucker said at a meeting with investors. “And Apple didn’t want to do that. We did not feel it was the game-changer for us … certainly that it is for Apple.”

The situation might be likened to Apple’s somewhat controversial price reduction on the iPhone. Suppose AT&T had refused to allow Apple to reduce iPhone’s price, assuming AT&T had the contractual right to do that, which it didn’t. Apple was too smart to let AT&T get the power to dictate iPhone pricing. The studios and TV networks, seeing how unhappy at least three of the four major music companies are with Apple, did not want to let Apple get in a position where it could dictate terms and conditions, Hence the short contracts the networks gave Apple.

Universal Music, for example, the world’s largest record company, was so dissatisfied with Apple’s inflexibility that it has not yet given, and may never give, Apple the rights to sell its DRM-free tracks that also are of higher quality than the copy-protected tracks currently available on iTunes. EMI appears to be Apple’s mainstay in the music industry, having been the first and so far only label to give Apple DRM-free, higher-quality tracks.

NBCU was getting only what would have been about $15 million annually from selling its content on iTunes, according to Zucker.

Zucker said content from the company’s NBC TV network and its USA and Bravo pay-TV outlets accounted for about 40% of iTunes’ video business.

“There’s no place that I can think of where the retailer also gets to set the wholesale price,” he said.

NBCU will continue to make TV episodes available for free at its ad-supported NBC.com and other company Web sites, as well as the Hulu.com venture it has with News Corp. The company offers ad-free episodes through Amazon Unbox for $1.99 each and is testing a free, ad-supported download service called NBC Direct.

Apple was contrite, but blamed NBCU for trying to jack up prices. “We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s VP of iTunes. “We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.”

Zucker admitted that all of NBCU’s Internet outlets would not bring in $15 million in the next 12 months. He said Hulu.com has about 60,000 users and seven advertisers. The official launch is expected early next year. Zucker said he hoped Apple and NBCU can eventually come to an agreement.

Apple’s strength’s are:

– The gazillions of iPhones and iPods that are now and will be in use. All of its users are at least somewhat affluent and ready to buy content. They love their Apple “iDevices” in ways that users of other portable media players don’t seem to. One recent survey showed that the biggest single group of iPod buyers were people that already owned one but wanted to get a newer model.

– The ease-of-use and integration of Apple’s hardware and the various iTunes – the iTunes music player, the iTunes media manager and the iTunes online store. NBCU and the other TV networks have no easy way to access the iPhone/iPod market.

– Apple has a solution for playing videos on TV sets. Apple TV makes it easy to wirelessly send video from iTunes to a TV set. Offsetting that, Apple is losing 40% of the video that iTunes was selling. The question is whether it can assemble a library of “must see” content without NBCU that is sufficient to get consumers to buy Apple TV’s.

When the negotiations between the two companies began to falter this summer, Apple said it was because it did not want to pay “more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99.”

Zucker said, “Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content, and made a lot of money. They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing.”

There are loopholes in NBCU’s arguments – piracy, for one. Despite numerous attempts by the networks, studios and record labels, a lot of Web sites still exist that make content available without the copyright owner’s approval. Also, what if Hulu.com flops? Then where does NBCU find an outlet that can produce potentially billions of dollars in revenue a year.

Or, are the networks doomed to follow in the tracks of the labels with online revenues increasing but not enough to replace plummeting broadcast revenues? The three-way UK venture by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will provide a good indication of where things are headed for Internet video. The three, which operate the dominant UK TV networks, have committed to making their current and archived content available over the Net in both a free and ad-based manner. There’s no iTunes in their plans.