Mobile greetings specialist re-brands ahead of fresh D2C drive.
Sharpcards has been around for over a decade, eight in mobile, and its primary business has been powering the mobile greetings services on operator decks.
During this time its acquired the rights to licences from brands such as Disney, Purple Ronnie and Cartoon Network.
Now, with the advent of the app, the firm is set to push harder into the D2C space – and it's re-named and re-branded the company to maximise the impact.
The firm will launch its own app on iPhone and other platforms in the coming weeks, offering a free download for a basic service with the option to upgrade to tiered premium versions (for up to a year) to access premium greetings card content.
The app drills into the user's contacts and social media databases so that m-cards can be sent via Twitter, Facebook and so on.
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Meanwhile, Jeego will continue to work with handset firms and operators on a white label basis. Its customers have included Vodafone, T-Mobile, AT&T, Orange, 3, Sony Ericsson, Verizon, O2 and Samsung.
It's an interesting development. In the early days of this 'enhanced messaging' business, the emphasis was on the messaging – it was felt that all the money would be in charging extra for branded MMS messages.
Now, with the advent of social media, the money is moving out of the messaging and into the content itself, which is monetised via app subscriptions.
