July's innovative storefronts and Bango's effortless payment system enable mobile content 'stores' to go mass market
March 13, 2006 - Two leaders in the mobile content industry - Bango and July Systems - today announced a partnership that dramatically improves the way content providers sell entertainment items such as games, wallpapers and ringtones from the mobile internet.
By combining July Systems' innovative smart retailing solutions with Bango's browse and buy payment technology, content providers now can create sophisticated mobile 'stores' that they can market and promote directly to mobile users on any mobile network, anywhere in the world.
This end-to-end solution means content providers can rapidly transform the retailing of mobile content and profitably bring content to market.
"This solution lays the groundwork for a mass consumer market because it makes it easier for content providers to enter and play in the mobile internet space with innovative storefronts," said Ray Anderson, Bango CEO. "When combined with Bango's browse and buy technology that is already proven with global brands, content providers have a winning solution that they can deploy world-wide."
July's smart retailing solutions enable the mobile content owner or retailer to create a personalized retail experience for the consumer. Powerful merchandising tools put the retailer in control with freedom to offer promotions, bundles, and flexible pricing such as try-before-you-buy, rentals, subscriptions or pay-per-use with real-time refresh of the display presented to consumers. This brings the 'browse and buy' paradigm to life and results in more users buying a broader range of goods and coming back for more. Advanced merchandising capabilities powered by simple, intuitive interfaces for the non-technical content retail manager result in a new benchmark for mobile content retail with significant revenue uplift in the shortest time to market.
"July's solutions are unique insofar as they allow for effective translation of the high street retail experience to the mobile channel. As such they will attract more content owners to realize the potential of the mobile channel" said July Systems Chairman and CEO Ashok Narasimhan, "Merchandizing and personalization done well gives consumers choices in the way they buy content and enables them to find what they want in the shortest time. This leads to greater retention of the user within a browse and buy context."
Bango enables fast, easy access to the mobile site for users, provides user identification to content providers - the storeowners - and then enables consumers to pay for mobile content using the best available payment method, on any network, anywhere in the world in different currencies. Bango's 'browse and buy' technology allows users to check out what they want to buy, then pay for and download it all in one easy step.
This partnership brings together two leading mobile companies both with extensive track records in delivering direct-to-consumer solutions for content providers of all sizes. July Systems chose Bango's technology because it is a global, market-tested solution that provides a standard payment interface to users on the mobile internet.
About Bango
Bango (AIM: BGO) has developed and deployed an open, global infrastructure platform that enables content providers to market, sell and deliver their products and services directly to mobile phone users on all mobile networks using the mobile Internet. This "direct-to-consumer" approach operates alongside the mobile carrier's decks. Leading mobile operators including Cingular Wireless, Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica and O2 work with Bango to accelerate the growth of their 'direct-to-consumer' business.
The Bango platform has given mobile phone subscribers around the world greater access to third-party content. Leading content brands are now adopting the Bango Service to engage with all of their existing and potential mobile customers directly - irrespective of mobile operator. For further information, go to www.bango.com.
About July Systems
July Systems provides innovative mobile marketplace solutions that enable mobile operators and content retailers to multiply revenues and profits by transforming the retailing of mobile content to reach the mass-market. July's integrated end-to-end mobile marketplace solutions and managed services are currently deployed across multiple operators and other customers across the US and Europe who reach over 220 million mobile consumers. Founded in 2001, July Systems is privately held, and has its headquarters in Santa Clara, CA, Global Product Center in Bangalore, India, and European offices in Germany and UK. For more information: www.julysystems.com
For further information, please contact:
Hazel Thomson
July Systems
+44 (0)7793 414870
hazel@julysystems.com
Sarah Keefe
Bango
+44 (0)7786 932016
sarah@bango.com
Frazer Nash Peter Rennison/Allie Andrews
Frazer Nash Communications Peter Rennison Public Relations
+44 (0)1296 712522 +44 (0)1442 245030
fnc@frazer-nash-communications.co.uk pr@prpr.co.uk