Back with an in-depth look at Singapore-based BuzzCity - a major player in the mobile social network space whose ad-funded myGamma community targets blue-collar workers and the newly-connected middle class across emerging markets - and an exclusive interview with KF Lai, BuzzCity CEO. I caught up KF for a long overdue briefing to connect the dots in his ambitious strategy to - as he puts it - "build the number one mobile portal and Long Tail ad network in emerging markets and possibly the world."
BuzzCity's keen focus on serving the "unwired" in developing countries - people whose only access to the Internet is their mobile phone - made business sense from the start, allowing it to chalk up 3+ million users across 80 countries (as of December 2008). But it's the company's clever approach to mobile advertising that makes it the one to watch. Expect a raft of announcements kicking off at Mobile World Congress (MWC), allowing app and content providers to get more reach (and thus more revenues). This is all I can say under NDA, but think 'social graph meets viral-marketing' and you're definitely on the right track.
January 28, 2009
