Best of Barcelona-Mobile Startups to Watch:Codilink

BARCELONA -I'm starting a new initiative this week, where I'll be highlighting local mobile/web companies based in Barcelona and track their achievements and future plans.

First off the starting block, is barcode scanning experts Codilink, set up by Ben Chesser and 2 other partners 4 years ago and now operating in Spain, UK and Mexico.Their main line of business are M-coupons, M-loyalty schemes and M-ticketing through the use of 2-D barcodes and count among their clients Audi, L'Oreal and Heineken. The company can now lay claim to having rolled out over 34 million barcodes worldwide.

Barcodes come in 3 formats, QRs (mainly used in Japan), Datamatrix and Bidis (the common name used in Spain). Bidis differentiate themselves by having been specifically designed so as to be scanned from a mobile phone screen, so are seen by some as being the more sophisticated solution.

Codilink prizes itself on its technology that allows its scanners to read any format of barcode, thus reducing investment costs for marketing campaigns.It also believes that developments in the Mobile Wallet concept (see earlier post) will accelerate the demand for barcode-based ticketing and vouchers. Already, Codilink established an agreement in Mexico with large scale cinema operator Cinepolis to replace paper tickets completely with an on-screen mobile barcode.

The future? Codilink is looking to expand rapidly in new markets and is eyeing India with particular interest (it has already conducted market tests there) and at the same time is attracting interest from OEMs looking to buy into barcode technology. Rumour has it that an offer from Motorola was rejected but that new deals could be in the pipeline...

Fugumobile -One to Watch #5

SHANGHAI -Mobile Gaming experienced substantial growth a few years ago, with many companies entering the fray and was followed by the inevitable wave of consolidation. Today, Mobile Gaming is hot again. The global mobile entertainment market is expected to increase from $20bn in 2007 to $64 by 2012, according to Juniper Research.Mobile games will rank second in terms of end-user generated revenues, boosted by rapid growth in mass market casual gaming. Revenues are expected to rise from just under $5bn in 2007 to nearly $16bn in 2012.

With higher bandwidth available for 3G, China is expected to fuel a substantial proportion of this growth, so it is worth taking a look at some of the companies active in the market there. One of the 'happening' companies of the moment is Fugumobile, which focusses both on the consumer game market (examples include 'Urban Combat') and in delivering customised gaming solutions for mobile advertising campaigns.

Fugumobile recently won the accolade of the Red Herring 100 Asia Award, in recognition of its cutting-edge mobile solutions. CEO Ranjit Singh also delivered a keynote at the recent Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, taking a seat with the top regional heavyweight in the mobile entertainment industry.

An important additional advantage of Fugumobile is that they have one foot in India as well as one in China, given its founders' Ravi Shankar Bose and Ranjit Singh Indian origins (they decamped to China 7 years ago to establish Fugumobile) -so could stand to benefit from both markets' future dynamism.

It's India, Stupid!

MUMBAI-It is hardly news-India is the fastest-growing market in the world for mobile telephony, with over 240 million mobile subscribers as at Autumn 2007. According to The Economist, the average owner of a mobile phone there spends 471 minutes (8 hours approx.) on the phone each month and sends 39 text messages. India is also a mobile market marked by savage competition (during my visit to Delhi last autumn, it was hard not to notice the proflagation of billboards advertising various operators on each street corner) as well as a country blessed with an army of bright, young engineers.

Mobiance, was founded in 2004 by three such engineers in IIT's Mumbai's SINE incubator, and is a provider of Location Based Services (LBS) that don't use GPS -instead it uses triangulation from cell towers to detect the location of the mobile user (those of you into spy movies may be familiar with this method used on screen to track the bad guy's location).

Mobiance got their first break soon after being founded, by piloting their technology to track the fleet of a company that serviced gasoline pumps at various stations in the country. Having signed an agreement with one of India's leading mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, they now have the capability to track the location of any of their subscribers who gives them permission to do so (either for consumer or business applications).

Mobiance CEO, Deepak Srinivasan, recently gave a talk expressing how India offers unique challenges for LBS, including poor quality mapping. As anyone who has visited India's capital will know, getting around the city (or its suburbs) ain't easy, so Mobiance's value to its customer is clear to see.