Free MVNO Blyk brings in 200,000 users in one year

It wasn’t six months ago that Blyk, the free ad-based MVNO, announced that it had signed up 100,000 subscribers in its first six months of existence. They had actually projected that number for their first full year. We’ve about hit that point, and Blyk has announced they’ve signed up 200,000 customers by the beginning of September, effectively doubling their original projections. Ovum sees Blyk as a guinea pig for heavy mobile advertising. They cite that the company planned a launch in Belgium, but were undercut by Mobistar, an MVNO of the Orange network. Even so, there’s something to be said for early adopters. Others might try, and they might even succeed. Blyk, though, can still succeed if they continue evolving. And that’s just what they plan to do.

Blog author Timo Ahopelto, who is head of strategy at Blyk, said: “Blyk and attending analysts yesterday discussed a major question on the industry’s mind ‘when will mobile advertising take off’? “In our view, the industry will need to shift its focue from mobile and technology to media solutions that meet brands’ communications goals while creating real value for the consumer.”

So here’s the question. Would you sign up for a free MVNO like Blyk? They don’t hand out many minutes, but hey, it’s free.]]>