Two-way messaging that provides anonymity for both parties will be a hot commodity in the U.S. mobile market in the very near future, according to companies working in the space.
Xobile, the mobile arm of streaming video purveyor AEBN, plans to release in the fourth quarter a two-way mobile application that will allow adult performers to send images, text messages, and videos directly to fans’ mobile phones. Brandable, billable, and ultimately useful in a variety of ways, the system is destined to be hot in terms of content and revenue generation, according to Harvey Kaplan, Xobile’s director of mobile operations.
Mobile Bridges, based in the Netherlands, has provided mobile chat and dating services for several years in the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and its home country. The company recently migrated its services across the Atlantic and now offers mChat, which enables mobile users to interact instantly with live text-chat operators, to American audiences, as well.
MChat is Web-based, very configurable, brandable, and multilingual. It supports unlimited user accounts and provides administrators with in-depth statistics and user analysis to help them predict trends and understand their markets. The product includes an internal mail system, comprehensive user support, and unlimited premium-rate SMS short codes for billing.
Relatively new in the Mobile Bridges product line is mChat Cam, an application that enables mobile users to chat with online webcam performers. According to Alexander Reus, Mobile Bridges’ managing director and founder, mChat Cam is a phenomenally popular value-added adjunct for websites that already provide live webcam performances. Adding a mobile component to existing webcam operations is “a great opportunity to combine the immense popularity of mobile phones with Net-based cam services to generate additional revenue streams,” he says. Mobile Bridges pays webmasters a fixed fee for each premium SMS message sent via the system.
Reus also says the mChat Cam builds user loyalty by allowing contact between consumers and their favorite cam celebrities even when the consumers are away from their Internet connections. Because of the popularity of the product in Europe, American webmasters can use it to corral a customer base previously out of their reach due to international billing considerations. The system includes an affiliate component that automatically pays resellers and traffic-generating webmasters.
