VENTURE BEAT -- July 31 -- Jumbuck, a mobile social network, bought rival Plutolife at the beginning of this month for $3.7m. I was interested to hear why. Here's Jumbuck's CEO Adrian Risch on the Plutolife acquisition.
Q: Jumbuck's business has been on-deck. Please explain what Jumbuck hopes to learn with the acquisition.
A: Plutolife generally uses Premium SMS to monetize their services and they are experts in off-deck mobile communities. We were keen to boost our exposure to the 'off-deck' market and Plutolife was a perfect fit.
Q: What's your business model?
A: Our business model revolves around the provision of chatrooms and real-time dating service over mobile and web.
Q: How will you be able to make money out of off-deck mobile social networks?
A: Plutolife already are making money using Premium SMS.
Q: Where do you see the value in an off-deck mobile social network?
A: We are still believers that you need to partner with the mobile operators in order to actually make money on-deck or off-deck. Plutolife really excel because they use a 'freemium' model. The apps are free to use but monetize with Premium SMS features.
Q: What did you like about Plutolife?
A: We really liked the look and feel of their services, plus the apps were already attracting strong usage on a few US mobile operators such as Alltel and T-mobile.
Q: How do you see the take-off of the mobile web?
A: The mobile web has been growing for years but Apple fired a rocket under it with the iPhone launch. I look forward to vastly quicker mobile web browsing across all devices, so we can offer video, larger images, nicer GUIs and more effective advertising in our products without degrading the user's browsing experience.
Q: What's your view on the emergence of Myspace and Facebook in mobile?
A: Myspace and Facebook are more 'friend-management' social networks. Jumbuck is a 'friend-finder' social network, where you can meet new friends for a casual chit-chat, flirt or date. So we have co-existed nicely for years. FULL ARTICLE @ VENTURE BEAT
Mark Brooks: Plutolife built the Lavalife and Date.com dating applications.
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