I’ve been following the rise and rise of Flirtomatic for the 3+ years since they launched and they’ve really pushed the barriers of innovation during that time.
One area that demonstrates this is their introduction and usage of virtual gifting. While advertising is certainly a key part of their revenue model, getting their members to hand over hard cash for bolt-on services is also very important. As such, it’s developed into a classic Freemium model, with members using the basic free service, but sending each other virtual gifts too, ranging from rings to flowers to virtual boob jobs.
This Valentine’s Day though, they’ve again branched out into something new, allowing members to send each other real gifts in the analogue world, currently limited to chocolates and “panty-roses” (knickers packaged to look like a rose, if you were wondering) during the trial.
I really believe that this concept will succeed and is a great example of what I was writing about in my Prediction for this year that mCommerce would start to take off, over and above mobile content. Obviously, not all orders will be via mobile, but some will be and that’s a great start.
Having just spoken to Mark Curtis, CEO and Founder of Flirtomatic, I can confirm that they’re already sold out of their stock, having just launched last weekend. So things look very promising for this type of idea for Flirtomatic and perhaps for mCommerce generally, as I suggested.
[In the interests of full disclosure, Flirtomatic are a key publishing partner of AdMob, which is my day job.]
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