I had a chat with China Saarela, the credit manager of WapOneline, which is exhibiting here at Contenido Movil in Miami. WapOneline is the company which partnered with SpodRadio and plans to launch the mobile radio service in Latin America, a project which received some criticism from a Brazilian content developer. Saarela said that the system works over GPRS (although faster networks obviously provide better quality) and claimed there is an advantage in being a first mover — that’s something that has been widely debated, but there are certainly valid arguments that support the idea.
The radio service (the content) is provided free by SpodRadio, users only pay for the data used. Of course, it uses a lot of data so users need a good data plan to take advantage of it…she said some LatAm telcos offered that. WapOneline and SpodRadio get their revenue by selling downloads — the idea being that when people hear a song they like they’ll buy corresponding content from the companies. If it works it’s a good way to provide mobile radio (and mobile TV for that matter), and she said that it’s likely the radio stations will eventually contain advertising.
Related stories:
–Partnership For Latin American Mobile Music
–The Problem With Free Mobile Content
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