Mytalk sees mobile going social
By Allan Maurer
BETHESDA, MD—The much touted mobile business revolution may actually be finally on the way, largely because carriers are switching to unlimited data plans that make it really possible. So says Mike Hodge, CEO and founder of Mytalk, which is developing a Web-based mobile application that combines location awareness with social networking.
The company’s free Web-based product will let mobile device users to identify and interact with other registered Mytalk members based on their physical proximity and preferences.
Founded in April 2008, the company’s initial convertible debt offering brought in $150,000, enough for the first phase of its product development and to show potential investors the company has a viable application.
“Users will be able to type in a key word—Green Bay Packers or soccer or anything else—and find other people with similar interests based on their location.” It will not actually reveal the specific location of the people. “It will give you their name, age, and distance from closest to furtherest away,” says Hodge. “We leave it up to the individuals as to whether they want to reveal their actual location.”
The service will work on any Web-enabled mobile device.
Hodge tells TechJournal South the eight-employee company will need about $2 million to launch a scalable product in its first market, the DC metro region. It would need about $8 million for a later national launch starting with the East Coast, he adds.
While Hodge admits the company faces challenges raising money, he says it hopes to launch the product in the DC area in the first quarter of next year with mid-February as a target date.
“We know we face a couple of challenges,” says Hodge, a veteran of Terrastar Networks and SunRocket. “We don’t have any robust intellectual property. We’re a marketing play. And venture capitalists are looking for companies that already have revenue. They do say they think it’s interesting and this market is going to be huge. Then they say come back when you have 50,000 members.”
Hodge says VCs also sometimes lump Mytalk in with somewhat similar “buddy finder” services. “We’re not a buddy finder service, although there is an element of that in our service,” he says. Members will be able to create pages, upload pictures and engage through social networking features online, however.
The company’s goal is to “get big fast,” says Hodge and to launch with a revenue stream. It is already negotiating with Priceline to partner on its revenue model of selling location-based advertising. “There are some other companies already doing that but it’s poorly delivered,” says Hodge.
Mytalk has selected PointAbout’s thin client mobile device applications to power Mytalk’s proximity aware social networking service and opt-in mobile advertising platform.
Rather than offering a user a coupon as they pass a Starbucks—although there will be some of that—the service will offer nearby products or services coupled with “extraordinary pricing,” he says. “A user looking for a hotel will get a list of nearby hotels with extraordinary pricing. We would get a piece of every hotel room booked. We’ll pursue that strategy across every category imaginable, limo service, restaurants, plumbers.”
Mytalk will also pursue a Google-like model of auctioning screen placement priority to customers, so they would bid on being first, second, third, etc.
Mytalk will also offer an opt-in mobile advertising platform and other strategic partner services for businesses to connect and engage with mobile consumers based on the proximity and personal preferences of each Mytalk member.
On the Web: www.mytalk1.com
© 2008, TechJournal South. All rights reserved.
