Win - Look at the growth rate

How does WIN fare with 3G services such as TV/Video streaming?
(I'm still unable to text!)



FEATURE: The publishers
November 2005
By Real Business

Sexy phones and ringtones and TV clips steal the limelight. But some of the biggest business is going on behind the scenes.

As well as the obvious and fairly wellestablished infrastructure of the network operators, a complex ecosystem of new companies is emerging to ensure delivery of all the new content that’s on tap.

The biggest players here are the so-called “aggregators”, who operate rather like a traditional broadcasting company. They offer a suite of services – SMS, picture messaging, TV/video, location-based, internet, games, music etc – for big business clients, and either take a cut of the billings, or charge a fee up front; and they also create content of their own to sell to clients.

The largest is Opera Telecom, a Birmingham-based company that racked up sales of £99m in 2004 (and profits of ?6m), thanks to international expansion to the US, Australia, Europe, South Africa and the Far East and clients that include GMTV, Endemol, Emap and Northern & Shell. Its revenues derive from music, games and gambling, but under the direction of dynamic CEO Gary Corbett (a former director of Tiscali) it is also getting into TV/video streaming, and broadcast Britain’s first interactive soap opera.

It’s not yet clear how big TV is likely to be, with 3G technology proving slow to take off, but one of the most advanced aggregators in this area is MX Telecom. They’ve teamed up with the likes of the BBC and the leading production company, Endemol, and one claim to fame was streaming Big Brother live to 3G mobile phones for 75p a minute. Led by Mark Fitzgerald, MX has seen sales catapault from £2.3m in 2002 to £24.6m in 2004.

A lot of these aggregators are going public. Among the first was 2Ergo, a Lancashirebased company formerly known as Lammtara. Co-founders Barry Sharples and Neale Graham floated the company on AIM in March 2004, and the company recently recorded its fifth consecutive year of tripledigit growth. The key to its success is its ability to offer services – notably ringtones, screen savers and games – across all the networks, and it’s ahead of market forecasts. Another aggregator on AIM (since October 2004) is Wireless Information Network plc. Founded by Marc Charlton and Peter Norman, its work with the AA reduced the incidence of “recalls” to the Breakdown Call Centre – to find out the whereabouts of patrols – by 80 per cent. Turnover to 30 June 2005 was up 56 per cent, to £20.6m, and the recent acquisition of Imako will add iMode and multimedia expertise.

AIM-listed Bango saw sales almost double this year to £3.7m. Bango’s cross-operator “technology platform” is being used by 10m punters globally to access internet content from an estimated 2,500 content providers – including Ann Summers, Manchester United and The Sun – a figure growing by 10 per cent per month.

Similar to Bango, though privatelyowned, is weComm. It’s particularly strong at the moment on the security and gambling side, offering mobile betting services for William Hill and Skybet, billing services for eBay and financial results for Reuters, Dow Jones and The Press Association. And the London-based company has just won the electronic TV programme guide for Sky. Volantis, a heavily VC-backed Guildfordbased firm, is stronger in the device management space. A lot of the content it delivers is free or promotional, using Java, and its design expertise extends to user interfaces and iMode development, but it also adapts web content from the likes of eBay, lastminute.com and FT.com using its awardwinning technology platform. With $30m in backing, it’s well set to expand.

And finally, check out Dialogue. This Sheffield company was started in 1994 but has had a new lease of life. Since 2002, sales have leapt from ?1.3m to a projected £12m and MD Paul Griffiths is targeting £19.7m and £33.1m for 2006 and 2007, respectively. Ticketing, voting, PC to text messaging, ringtones, images, games, video clips and location-based services are all offered.