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Blyk is a newly launched mobile service in UK which aims at the age group of 16 to 24 years. The idea is to provide free SIM card along with 217 free text messages and 43 free minutes every month. Now here’s the catch – In exchange for their free service, users will have to receive advertisement on their handsets (upto six branded advertisements per day). Ads will be highly targeted based on the customer profile, which is mandatory upon signup.
If you run out of minutes or messages, you can top up at 10 pence per text and 15 pence per minute. Accessing the internet from your mobile phone will cost you 99 pence per megabyte. The same scheme isn’t open for younger or older people. If any user grows older, he has to start paying for the service. The service will be initially marketed directly to the customer through invite-only process, but Blyk has a network of over 60,000 retail outlets for SIM card top-ups in UK.
Blyk is fully operational in UK, and plans to go pan-European during 2008. I won’t be surprised, if other companies try working on a similar model elsewhere in the world. I’m left with two questions in mind – Will young customers be happy with just 43 minutes and 217 text messages? Will the ad-supported mobile network be able to sustain itself?
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