MobilePosition.com is a Swedish company looking to combine lifestyle-focused vertical Internet content with location position technology and mapping functions.
Calling itself a microportal, the company is marketing its platform to specialized Internet portals looking to add location-based mobile relevance to their sites. MobilePosition is targeting outdoor-lifestyle content providers that have an established community of users loyal to sites with information on such subjects as yachting, skiing, biking and so on.
MobilePosition aims to provide highly-targeted content-such as access to goods and services specific to each sport, as well as the ability to search for and interact with other members of the targeted community. For instance, skiers looking for a ski buddy for the weekend may send out a query that would reach other skiers also on that site who have provisioned the service.
The site is focused on lifestyle, not business use. The idea came about when several sailing partners were in the British Virgin Islands and found their sailing time was drastically reduced by the realities of searching for spare parts, looking for fuel, and so on.
“You don’t get to spend enough time enjoying your activity because you’re always looking for services,” said Hagge Rilegard, president and chairman of MobilePosition.com.
So they created a location-specific database that could direct enthusiasts of specific sports to the nearest support establishments of their particular passion. For instance, Yachtposition.com allows a boater to identify, locate and communicate with restaurants, parts shops and gas stations from their boat. The service has 20,000 users across Europe.
The firm hopes to extend into the U.S. this year, and is in the process of establishing offices here by September.
In moving to the U.S., Rilegard notes that European networks are more sophisticated in wireless Internet areas, with Wireless Application Protocol networks and devices in commercial use and location-specific services available in the networks, but the U.S. is the Holy Grail of Internet content. And as Internet content provider is the firm’s primary focus, the move to the U.S. is a necessary one, he said.
Already the company is in discussions with a real estate content site for location-specific housing information. Partnerships with carriers are necessary for members of the same portal to interact with other users subscribing to different carriers. Otherwise, only portal members subscribing to the same service provider will be able to interact with each other.
MobilePosition.com charges Web portals a licensing fee for the platform, as well as installation and maintenance fees. Any operator incorporating the platform also pays a fixed fee per subscriber.
The service is a featured amenity offered by Swedish carrier Telia. Nokia Corp. and L.M. Ericsson are both additional partners.
On June 22, the company is releasing version 2.0 of the MobilePosition platform, featuring an improved user interface and templates for Internet content developers. It can handle 1.5 million users in all, and up to 100,000 at one time. The company hopes to have 1 million customers provisioned on the platform by end of the year.
