SNW INTERVIEW -- Oct 4 -- "Concilio Networks" Community Connect Solution extends Internet
communities, social networks and Internet voice and chat services to
any existing mobile handset.” Cool. Lets see what the CEO has to say. - Mark Brooks
What does Concilio Networks do?
We
bring social communities and internet messaging into mobile handsets.
We have a solution that allows users of normal existing handsets to
import their internet contacts from social networks. We then allow
these users to see their internet contacts’ present status and contact
them using their cell phone with services such as Google Talk,
Microsoft Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. We are currently
in beta testing with a solution for Google Talk and we’ll have Facebook
and Microsoft Windows Live Messenger support in Q4. MySpace and Bebo
are next on the list. Obviously we’re looking at Open Social as well
because that’s a great way to catch several flies with one flap.
What separates Concilio Network’s solution from other competitor’s solutions?
Competitive
solutions are usually based either upon browsing which, with the
exception of I-Phone, do not work all that well; or they use
downloadable client applications which tend to have their own set of
problems. One of the issues is that you need to develop a specific
client app for different handset models. There are always compatibility
issues. Then the user is required to download and install a client app
which may not be easy for the general population.
What really leverages us is that we don’t have any client applications. We leverage the contact application of the mobile handset and that’s the one application on the mobile handset that everyone is familiar with.
Who are your customers?
We
provide solutions to service providers, the most obvious of which are
the mobile network operator or the carrier. It’s a server solution and
the service provider need only assign a telephone number range and have
our gear or our software installed; and they are up and running.
Where are you currently operating?
We
mainly operate in Europe, where we have a pilot running with Telefónica
Móviles in Spain and a couple of other pilots just about to start, but
nothing confirmed yet in the US. We are currently talking with a number
of US companies and have already opened an office in Santa Clara,
California mainly to work with the US based community service
providers. In Europe, it’s a similar sized market as the US, but Europe
has in excess of 100 carriers, as opposed to the US where there are
just a few very large carriers. We need to get some footholds here
first before we have the credibility to get in discussion with the
major US carriers.
Tell me your founding story.
The
company was founded in 2002, but the real work started in 2004. I got
engaged with the company in late 2006. The company was founded by Nokia
engineers. We have a combined 100 years of telecom experience from
Nokia in just the management team. The idea of doing something where
you interconnect between the internet world and the mobile networks is
something that has been living for quite some time in the head of our
founder and CTO, Markku Rautiola, who is an ex-VP from Nokia.
He founded the company based upon the idea that he could connect internet services with mobile handsets. We believe that the mobile networks are an excellent way to enter the services into the internet. Everybody has them in their pockets. We believe there is a way to create the win-win situation between the consumers and the existing service providers, while leveraging existing infrastructure and billing mechanisms.
In
social networking, the big challenge right now is figuring out how to
make money. How does Mobile Social Networking fit into the revenue
model?
If you want to communicate with people on a PC it
might seem like it’s free of charge. Well it’s not. You still have to
pay for the DSL line or the Wi-Fi connection
at Starbucks. Thus, people get a free service by paying an access
charge. Mobile is no different than that. If you want to use Google
Talk for placing a call to your friend in a different country using
your mobile phone, you are going to be willing to pay for the access.
Now think about Facebook with 150 million users. Let’s say in the US, they would make a rev share deal with a US carrier, where the carrier would provide access to applications on their mobile handsets that people use to communicate with their Facebook friends and interact with their friends profiles. And let’s say these people pay 10 cents a minute on their mobile handsets and Facebook were to get 1 cent of that. Thus, every time someone updates their profile or writes a message on a friend’s wall, Facebook gets one cent from the carrier. And what if only 5% of Facebook members used the app and they average 100 times messages a month. That equates to $7.5 million dollars a month or almost $100 million a year. What is Facebook’s revenue right now? $100 million additional revenue for Facebook would be a big thing I would say.
