SNW INTERVIEW -- Jan 17 --
OnePIN was the most
interesting company I came across at the Social Networking Conference
in Amsterdam. I interviewed OnePIN’s CEO, Feyzi Celik. - Mark Brooks
What is your background?
I was the CEO
of the North American Division of Koç Group, currently a $35 billion
business. I was meeting a lot of people, getting stacks of business
cards every week and I had a hard time keeping everyone’s contact
information up to date. I was developing a large business network,
however, when I attempted to contact people I often found that their
information was outdated. This drove me to find an alternative process
to connect with people, efficiently storing their information in my
phonebook with the ability to leverage these relationships down the
road. So that’s how OnePIN started.
How did you come to start OnePIN?
The
idea came about in 1998 while I was working at Koç Group. The first
business model was a web-based solution (an idea that was also brought
to market in different ways by Plaxo and LinkedIn). In 2002, our
patents were issued and I invested my own money to get the business off
the ground. We were successful in selling the service to universities
for a number of years.
In 2005, we designed and developed the technology to offer the same simple social networking feature on the mobile phone – the device we all use when meeting people on a daily basis. From this point, we shifted the entire business and focused solely on mobile solutions. We raised venture financing to grow our mobile business globally and have successfully completed two rounds of VC financing. Today, we have deployed our CallerXchange mobile service with mobile operators in various countries around the world.
How does CallerXchange work?
CallerXchange
transforms today’s static mobile phonebooks into dynamic Social Address
Books. It is deployed by mobile operators as part of their normal SIM
card distribution process – every new subscriber is automatically
offered the CallerXchange service. The service is very easy to use, let
me give you the use case. If I were to call you from my mobile phone,
after I hang-up CallerXchange asks me to exchange my contact details
with you. I have the option to send you my business or personal
information (which can include phone numbers, email or even social
networking invites). After the selection, I’m done….it’s that simple.
On your side, your phone beeps and asks you “Add Feyzi to your
phonebook?”, and all my information will be inserted into your
phonebook with one click. You can also return the favor and the
exchange is complete. If I change my contact information in the future,
I can automatically send you an update the next time we chat. One
click, that’s all mobile subscribers need to build and maintain their
mobile social address book of family, friends and business associates.
So how about compatibility? Is it the specific phones that work with CallerXchange or the carriers? Just how open is it?
CallerXchange works on all GSM networks and we built it on the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card. So when you get your new SIM card and insert it into your phone, CallerXchange begins working immediately and is 100% compatible with every standard GSM
device in the marketplace. Subscribers can exchange their contact
details across different networks and countries. In fact, subscribers
in over 180 countries have used CallerXchange to enhance their mobile
phonebook.
Is there any way of sharing the application with somebody who doesn’t have the CallerXchange service?
Let’s say I send you a CX message and you do not have CallerXchange on your SIM
card. You will receive a text message with my contact details and if
you reply, I can add you to my phonebook with one click. Also, each CX
message sent to a subscriber in another network contains an advertising
message that promotes the operator’s brand or services.
You’re working with a number of carriers around the world. Where are you focusing your marketing efforts at this stage?
We’ve
started with Latin America and have multiple deployments within the
America Movil (Claro), Cable and Wireless and Orange groups. This
success has enabled our growth into Africa with the MTN
group and we are now expanding to Europe and Russia. We’re pretty much
everywhere except Asia. We’ve recently signed our first European deal
and have built a significant sales pipeline across each region.
When you sign distribution deals, does CallerXchange ride on all of the GSM phones across the board?
Yes it does. So when the operator signs the contract with us, it goes onto every SIM card that is shipped into the marketplace from that point forward. It’s automatically available to every subscriber with a new SIM
card, regardless of the handset as our service is handset-agnostic. We
are seeing utilization rates of over 40% for subscribers who have
CallerXchange onboard.
How do you make money?
A CX message is billed to subscribers by the operator. OnePIN gets paid by the operator for every CX message.
What does the end user pay?
Depending on the market, a CX message costs between 5 to 20 cents.
How can social networks partner with you? What is their slice of the pie?
Our
model enables us to reach the three billion mobile subscriber market.
We are an enabler that brings social connectivity to the mobile
phonebook after every unique phone call. Therefore, we are able to
convert a phone conversation into an enhanced social networking
relationship (transforming eardrums into eyeballs), driving voice and
data services for mobile operators and increasing traffic and activity
for social networking brands. We are currently in discussions with both
groups on our next generation social networking service offering which
we will be talking publically about later this year.
