Discontinues development of its consumer apps.
Mobile content recommendations firm Sidebar has ditched its strategy of releasing apps direct to consumers, in favour of a B2B focus.
The company launched an Android app in November last year, followed by a BlackBerry app in February. Both recommended apps, videos, games and other content to users based on their preferences.
However, Sidebar has now changed strategy, and is offering its recommendations engine to operators and app store owners instead.
"Frankly, we saw the costs of acquiring a lot of content into a consumer service and marketing it as luxuries for a startup of limited funds," CEO Patrick Kennedy tells Mobile Entertainment.
"We had a number of enquiries from potential business partners wanting to use our technology. So we’ve shifted to focusing on using that predictive engine to create intelligent content merchandising for retailers and app stores."
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The company already has one B2B deal with Indiagames, and plans to announce more in the coming weeks.
As that first deal shows, Sidebar is as focused on emerging markets as it is on the US and other Western countries.
"We want to cut our teeth somewhere and have proven statistics for when we go to the Verizons and Sprints of the world later," explains Kennedy.
"Second, we are looking to lock up real-estate in markets where there is relatively less competition now, but which will continue to grow in terms of [mobile] population and ARPU."
For the full Patrick Kennedy interview, click here.
