From Mobile Monday online magazine, 20 Jan 2008

Timo Poropudas

Viral marketing continues to grow in popularity as new services such as MoConDi's MeYou platform continues to expand its worldwide reach in Europe and the U.S. MeYou allows and encourages content purchases to be shared with friends and social networks for incentives via mobile devices.

Mobile marketing is expected to grow to over USD 24 billion worldwide in 2013, jumping from just USD 1.8 billion in 2007, according to a new report released by ABI Research. Since a portion of this marketing spend is centered around retailing other mobile products and services, there is a clear opportunity for the implementation of one of the web's most cost-effective form of online user acquisition, viral marketing.

Viral marketing capabilities and services continue to expand, as evidenced by Facebook's controversial service "Project Beacon," which allows your network to see items you have purchased through 44 participating retailers, the company press release says.

Unlike Beacon, MoConDi's MeYou platform allows requires users to opt-in. MeYou is now available in Italy, with plans to hit the United States this year.

With MeYou, users are rewarded for purchases and recommendations, which result in a purchase with redeemable credits. Friends receive mobile message recommendations that contain a message from users, a download link for the content and a link to install the MeYouTM application. This further ensures the viral effect of the application.

The application has access to over 5,000 pieces of content via the MoConDi content management and delivery platform. Contracts in-conjunction with Italian operators Tre (H3G) and Vodafone have made MeYou one of their major sales channels for games and other content. According to a 2006 study by Nokia that centered on gaming, up to 79 percent of users would try a game demo if received from a friend.

In total, over 1.6 million users have received a MeYou recommendation from a friend in the past six month.

Read this and other Mobile Industry articles on the Mobile Monday website.