A Blyk exec spoke at an event in London today, and shared a few small stats about its growth thus far, saying it expects to have 12-13,000 users in the UK by the end of the year, and 100,000 by the end of July 2008. David Murphy over at Mobile Marketing Magazine raised the valid point that this didn’t seem like a very big number, particularly when Blyk talks about how it segments and targets ads, and didn’t seem likely to attract the interest of major brands, who we keep being told are looking for volume when it comes to mobile advertising.
Blyk’s head of sales, Jonathan MacDonald, replied that the numbers “stood up well against, say, an online ad campaign reaching 1 million unique users, with a clickthrough rate of 0.2%.”
I don’t understand this comparison at all. First, it’s not clear if the user numbers he’s referring to are the 12,000 or the 100,000 — but that doesn’t really matter. If 0.2% of a million users click through an online ad, that’s a paltry 2000. It’s a pretty arbitrary measurement, as well: you can make any figure “stand up favorably” when you handpick something smaller to compare it to. The other aspect for advertisers, is of course cost, which doesn’t appear to have been mentioned. MacDonald’s stats, as cited, blur the lines between reach and effectiveness, which are two different metrics.
Also, Blyk is apparently only sending out 1 or 2 ads per day to its users — which is great for users, but doesn’t give them much inventory to sell, making the already fuzzy numbers even fuzzier.
There are lots of questions about Blyk’s business model, since it’s never been tried before. Few people expect it to be a roaring success right out of the gate, and some short-term stumbles are to be expected. There’s no need to try and hide user figures behind some great-sounding, but contrived, statistics. All that does is raise the level of skepticism — and raise expectations — even higher.
I’m really interested to see if/when the Blyk model succeeds. Outside of the numbers game you talk about, there are a couple of points that still concern me:
1) The majority of target Blyk customers will want bring their own handsets with them (rather spend ~£200 on a SIM free device from the Blyk shop). The majority of these will be locked to the past carrier network. A quick search on Blyk’s support pages states:-
To unlock your phone please contact the operator you purchased it from. There may be a charge for unlocking the phone. If you have any trouble unlocking the phone, contact Ofcom at 0845 714 5000 or http://www.ofcom.org.uk.
Hmm, not good enough. That’s going to be a barrier to adoption and a call to Ofcom is unlikely to provide any help outside of them telling you your rights to demand an unlock from your carrier. A simple online unlock service / partner would have helped and provided some up-front revenue.
2) If you run out of free credit you can top-up your balance. However the tarrif is not overly competitive (15p/min for voicemail / £1 per mb data / 30p/minute to call support), so what’s to stop me using a cheaper PAYG tarrif from another carrier when my free minutes expire?
3) Blyk is only available to 16-24 year olds. I believe you can continue using the service once you reach your 25th birthday but does Blyk have a targeted service / plan for these customers as they get older? It would be a shame to lose years of brand loyalty.
4) You have to be invited to join by a member friend (or meet Blyk at a launch event). I assume this is to manage subscriber numbers but it’s hugely limiting. Other such ‘invite’ schemes usually burn out…there was a time when facebook was invite only!
5) Advertisers will want assurance that their messages are reaching users … but will they be optimized for the device. Blyk will need to be able to identify the target device and optimize content to ensure it is correctly rendered / scaled. Poorly rendered multimedia advertising will deliver a poor user experience and limit conversion / click through rates.
[...] MobHappy » Blog Archive » Blyk’s Math Still Doesn’t Add Up [...]
This article was updated by Carlo here:
http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2007/11/28/an-update-on-blyk/
ive got a blyk sim card and now use it for my normal number, i dont recieve advertisements that regualy maybe 3 or 4 a week but to be honest the novalty has finally worn off and im going to get a new phone soon, and cant be bothered to pay 10 pound for the unlock so going to stay with the 02 network, but i think its a great idea and people shouldnt diss until they have tried it because it helps to benefit me ( a student) as i dont have to top up and think its a great bargain
Sammy G x
i have a question
im curently on vodafone family which means i get to call 3 of my close friends for free at anytime for up to 60min……
seein as blyk would b convering my old number does that mean my current sim card would stop working ? or would i still be able to use both sim cards at the same time with the same numbers????
pleaseeeee help