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Blyk starts first free mobile phone service


Nokia's former president is targeting the lucrative teenage mobile market with Blyk, the world's first service to offer "free" texts and calls in exchange for sending advertising directly to users' phones.

The pan-European service, which launched in the UK today, is offering 16-24 year olds 217 texts and 43 minutes of calls every month – and no contract to sign.

Blyk also plans to enter the market in France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

To sign up to the service the teen-to-twenties group – a 4.5m strong-market – need to answer 40 or 50 questions detailing their preferences on a range of topics such as entertainment, sport and music.


Blyk matches the profiles with relevant advertising, and targets customers with up to 6 text messages a day. The group has secured 44 brands to date, including Adidas, Coca-Cola, Boots, NatWest and MasterCard.

The brands will be charged between 2p and 20p for each text message sent to one of Blyk's members.

In the current stampede away from traditional methods of advertising, towards online and mobile phone advertising, advertisers face the conundrum of targeting their content without invading privacy.

Blyk's co-founder Pekka Ala-Pietilä, who ended 20 years at Nokia with 6 years as the group's president, said: "By means of profile questions at sign-up and ongoing SMS polling during membership Blyk Media enables brands to target messages like no other medium."

Mr Ala-Pietilä confirmed that none of Blyk's users would see their privacy invaded by the release of their personal information.

Blyk users will actually make calls and texts on the Orange network which the group has an agreement with.






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