GyPSii » mobilegroove

Continuing with Part 2 of my audio interview with Dan Harple, CEO of GeoSentric, the company behind GyPSii, a digital mobile lifestyle application. But look beneath the hood (and listen in to Part 1 of the series) and GyPSii isn't just another company jockeying for position in the location-aware mobile social networking space. It's got its eye on the prize: Using our location, our social graph (because we are members of the GyPSii community), and our judgment to index the world around us. Google may be about organizing the world's information; GyPSii is about organizing the real world. What to do with a people-powered, user-generated index of the world out there? Follow in Google's footsteps and sell advertising on top of it. As I wrote in my last post, GyPSii has cleverly harnessed PlaceMe, a primary function of GyPSii that allows you to create a point of interest (POI), add your content (image, video, audio, text), add your current or last geo-location, categorize/tag/describe the POI, and submit to the server in real time to a personal or publicly designated folder in your MyPlaces (your record of points of interest). To get this to Google scale, GyPSii needs a lot of people out there indexing the world with their mobile phones. It's an ambitious strategy, but not far-fetched. Dan's forecast models tell him that a company with 7 million users, each doing 2 PlaceMes a month would produce an index in the first year that would be "significantly larger than the Google file system in its first year." (Dan expects GyPSii to be on "between 80 and 100 million devices in the coming 12 months.") There are no stats on active users as a percentage of that total. But GyPSii members tend to be hyperactive when it comes to PlaceMe, creating and tagging "15-20 PlaceMes per month." Every time GyPSii members do that, they are adding a new indexed item to what the company calls the Osmotic File System (OFS). Where does mobile advertising come in? It's already work in progress in China. In fact, GyPSii has a lot of progress to report in China - period. As Dan sees it: "To have an ad-based model, you have to have an audience." To reach more members (and encourage them to index the world around them) GyPSii's has this week launched the Java version of its application, with both Chinese and English language support. The expectation, according to the press release, is that the new app will "appeal to the 70 percent of the 650 million phone owners in China who own Java-based phones." By way of background, GyPSii is already locally available in China for the major operators China Mobile and China Unicom, for download on compatible Java phones. GyPSii is also available globally across a wide range of devices, including Samsung, Nokia, LG, Apple iPhone, and BlackBerry smartphones. How does GyPSii plan to make the jump from critical mass to relevant advertising? What is the rev share model for partners (handset makers and carriers) who get on board? And what is the experience for members that use the ExploreMe function to search the world around them (and so trigger the delivery of an ad on their mobile device)? These are just a few of the questions I explored with Dan in this final segment of our podcast interview. (It's a little longer than my usual interviews, but I felt detail was necessary to fully understand the interplay between search and advertising GyPSii-style.

Checking in before I check out to meetings in The Netherlands after a week packed with pre-CTIA briefings and a few discussions under NDA. More about that next week, along with a string of posts including an in-depth look at RingRing Media, complete with a rundown of the stats its seeing (all the more interesting since RingRing is regarded as the largest spending media agency in the U.K.), and why its (not-yet-released) ad-optimization platform will likely have a huge impact on how we conduct mobile advertising campaigns and how much we get back. I'll also have my take on some recent iPhone usage stats from AdMob and Bango, as well as and some other surprises. I'm also pleased to report that the interest in my series of mobile advertising white papers is going strong. While I've just only wrapped up Vol 2, my earlier white paper (Mobile advertising for newbies) will soon be making the rounds as part of a package of audio-visual presentations on mobile advertising produced by Henry Stewart Talks, a company committed to providing access to world class seminars by leading thinkers and authorities from around the globe in one online resource. The company commissioned me to summarize the findings of my first white paper and so educate the market about the pivotal role of mobile analytics in all we do. The more digital we become, the more the data matters... Location is another topic high on my agenda, so I am looking forward to a F2F meeting/podcast with Dan Harple, who is responsible for leadership, strategic and operational growth at GyPSii, a super-cool company leading the race to deliver us mobile experiences that combine information, entertainment, social networks, and location/navigation. A passion for multimedia, real-time interactive communications, collaboration and social media runs through Dan's bio like a leit motiv.

Regular readers will recall that MSG has partnered with bnetTV to cover industry events such as CTIA and, more recently, Mobile World Congress (MWC). The team did an awesome job, producing 200+ interviews. I focused on analysis, and conducted some 20 interviews with senior executives at companies including abphone, BuzzCity, Movius, Gracenote, Mob4Hire, GyPSii, AdMob, BuddyMob, Gigafone, BubbleMotion, Visto, JumpTap, and SurfKitchen (in no particular order). From JumpTap's mobile advertising strategy, to Gracenote's new music search and share features, to SurfKitchen's widget launch, the video interviews are a valuable knowledge resource. Today marks the debut of these new segments on the MSG video jukebox (located in the right-hand sidebar). This week's focus, and feature video in the player, is my interview with Shane Lennon, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Development at GyPSii, a must-watch company leading in the race to deliver connected and cool experiences combining information, entertainment, social networks, and location/navigation. In our interview we connect the dots in the recent string of announcements and discuss the significance for brands and advertisers. Indeed, it's the raft of announcements over the last weeks -- including a partnership to embed GyPSii's app on a range of LG mobile phones; the tie-up with Nokia and RIM (blackberry) to make the app available on a wide variety of their devices; and a wise decision launch an open API (allowing partners to call the shots on how they integrate GyPSii into their mobile strategy and devices) - that speaks volumes about the company's new and stronger focus. My take: GyPSii has both the ideas and the impetus to impact our mobile lifestyles. In addition to the interview and my analysis (below), I also encourage you to read more about GyPSii in my regular column for the bnetTV newsletter, which counts some 10,000 readers. For all my coverage and columns in one place, check out this page on the bnetTV site dedicated to MSG news and views. Thanks again to bnetTV's Michelle and Tony Sklar for promoting MSG to their growing audience of industry executives and professionals, and to Nicole Scott for bringing it all together in some great brainstorming sessions!

Thanks to Andrea Henninge and Stuart Willett, who heads up MSG Media Solutions, this next Mobile World Congress is shaping up to be the best so far! My schedule is packed with briefings, speaking engagements (such as the Qualcomm's Plaza Mobile Internet Forum), and a string of video interviews I'm conducting together with MSG's own in-house film crew. Slots are going fast - so if you would like to learn more please contact Stuart Willett directly - sw@morianamediagroup.com or mobile: +44 7734 315 506. MSG is also proud to partner with bnetTV to conduct studio interviews with an exciting line-up of companies including AdMob, BuddyMob, BuzzCity,Gigafone, Gracenote, GyPSii, JumpTap, MCN, Mob4Hire, Movius, and VISTO. The finished segments will showcase on MSG (in the customized video player in the right-hand corner), so please check back regularly. You can also look for event coverage - as well as my regular columns - on this special Events page bnetTV created exclusively for MSG. Which brings me to this week's column and focus on Motricity, a provider of mobile data solutions and services, ranging from mobile portals and storefronts, to messaging aggregation, to a slew of mobile operators and content providers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Alltel, TracFone Wireless, PlayPhone, CNN, FOX News, A&E, and Condé Nast. The company had a banner year in 2008. But the real news is mobile marketing, a sector Ryan Wuerch, Motricity Chairman and CEO, tells me is poised for impressive growth.