inbabble.com

I had the opportunity to catch up with Ofer Tziperman, President of LocatioNet on Tuesday. Today LocatioNet announced the UK launch of a product which provides free search and navigation (including GPS option) called amAze . I spoke to Ofer on the revenue model and the challenges to growing their subscriber base.

Firstly the amAze product is very cool. Through a single interface you can search for a location, bring up a map with directions, and if you have a GPS enabled phone get directions to the desired location. You can see some screen shots here, and a video below.

What is the amAze business model?

amaZe is offered free to consumers, with the plan to get revenue from advertising sales. The key to this strategy is to have non intrusive advertising within amAze so as not to reduce the user experience. Specifically; as the application initiates a sponsors message can be displayed, a voice message can be included in between navigation prompts, company logos can be discretely included in maps, and during search idle times pop-ups can be displayed.

What is the plan for increasing distribution of amAze?

Distribution is currently via online download and has been given minimal promotion until recently. Sites such as www.getjar.com have received over 130,000 downloads. amAze can be offered as a white label product and re-branded for any company. Currently both Vodafone Romania and Orange Israel distribute amAze with their own branding.

What are the challenges to growing the subscriber base?

Data download pricing and differences in carrier supplied handset configuration are the key challenges. Flat rate data plans are slowly coming in place, and amAze can be run in “arrow mode” to significantly reduce bandwidth requirements, and thus carrier charges. Mobile phone configuration is a little more tricky however. Ofer estimates that up to 30% of downloads can have issues due to operator phone configurations, and indeed I had my own issues downloading with my Vodafone UK phone. Phone configuration issues are hoped to be resolved as the usage of amAze increases and the knowledge base of carrier specific configuration requirements grows.

What are the product future plans?

amAze already has the key information sources integrated for search and navigation. Additional information sources such as traffic congestion, weather conditions can be easily integrated and is really only a function of time in arranging content deals. A target key addition for the future will be the UK yellowpages.

Richard T.