News
MWC news: Gigafone expands into Euro and Asia
Tim Green at MWC Feb 13 2008, 11:54am
Gigafone, the Russian ad specialist that embeds banner ads with a call or text, is heading to Europe and Asia.
More than 600,000 users have signed-up for Gigafone’s proposition since it launched in Russia in 2005. In return for providing profiling information, users receive targeted advertising and advertiser-funded rewards such as free call minutes, text messages or data bundles. It’s yielded click-through rates of between 40 and 55 per cent for campaigns by international brands in Russia.
Gigafone is now being offered on a white-label basis to operators in Europe and Asia. Alan Harper, the former group strategy director for Vodafone Group, and Reza Jafari, CEO of Omega Partners, have joined the company.
“Gigafone addresses the only truly mass-market mobile services that are used ubiquitously by all users: voice and text,” says Reza Jafari. “By placing an advert on the handset’s display when a call or text is being received, Gigafone differs from WAP banner or mobile TV advertising which can only reach the minority of users who are using these services for a minority of the time.”
