Boltblue
Boltblue is an online social media and mobile content provider headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Registered users can access services through the web and their mobile telephones, allowing them to consume music, messaging, video games, and microblogging services across multiple devices.[1]
The Company has more than 14 million unique users of its service in more than 60 countries. Boltblue's primary markets are the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The company maintains offices in London and Sydney. The Company was started in January 2000 and boltblue.com rapidly thereafter became a leading website in the UK.[2] The company raised €12 million from VC and angel investors.[3]
The company has received numerous awards, including the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 awarded for being the UK's 13th fastest growing technology company[4] and the 40th most influential new media company according to the Media Momentum awards.[5]
History[edit]
The Company was founded by Michael Brown when he saw the market potential for SMS while working for Nortel Networks and left in January 2000 to found Boltblue with Michelle Tsang, a former CSFB banker.[6] Brown's vision was formulated on the premise that SMS messaging would change the way that people interact with each other and be a critical enabler for delivery of new person-to-person communication and application-to-person information services that were location-aware.
The company became well known,[7] attracting more than 9 million customers by 2005, coming the UK's second most popular telecom site behind BT Group's bt.com.[2] By 2009, boltblue reach 13 million users.
Initial marketing efforts involved getting the message out that mobile telephones could be used for obtain information and entertainment services while people where not sitting in front of a computer. The company sent a hundred unemployed actors into public areas like Liverpool Street Station in London to demonstrate how its services worked.
Founding vision[edit]
In the UK during 1999, short message service (SMS) became available for the first time across mobile network providers allowing mobile phone users to message each other.[8] This is a key enabler for Boltblue's vision of an inteconnected world of services, people and applications.
The company undertook a number of activities such as conducting the first mobile voting poll, which involved messages more than 1 million British mobile phone users for the UK's general election in 2001. The company's efforts were supported by, amongst other prominent leaders, Charles Kennedy, the leader of the Liberal Democrats.[9]
Push for Regulatory Change[edit]
Research and Development[edit]
In 2005, 2006, and 2011, Boltblue ranked in the top UK companies investing in research and development.[10][11][12]
Boltblue's technology and knowhow disclosed in a patent filing for "Address defined session management over stateless communications channels"[13] has been utilised and built upon by others, including: RIM, Nortel Networks, IBM, Yahoo! and others.
Internet Service Provider[edit]
In 2001, Boltblue provided a home to 90,000 residential and business ISP customers orphaned by NTL, after NTL's acquisition of them from Cable & Wireless Communications in 2001.[14] NTL was unable or unwilling to provide services to these customers because they were not serviced by NTL's cabled infrastructure.[15]
Boltblue grew its broadband ISP business by competing on speed and service quality and was frequently in the Top 10 UK broadband providers ranked by speed and customer service.[16]
The company divested the bulk of the ISP business in 2007.
International Expansion[edit]
In early 2003, Boltblue's rapid growth was causing technology problems with its website. During the summer of 2003, the company rewrote its entire technology platform and incorporated support for internationalisation. Boltblue began expanding internationally. The first such new territory was the United States.[17] With its new platform providing to be robust, the company expanded further by launching in Australia in 2004, and Ireland in 2005, and Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands in 2006.
In 2010, 68% of revenues were from outside the UK.
Products and Services[edit]
Boltblue offerings its services directly to customers' mobile telephone and through dedicated portals for consumer and business.
Consumer Services[edit]
Consumer services include MP3, ringtones, phone logos, colour wallpaper, picture messaging, greeting cards, gaming, phone alerts, videos, messaging, micro-bloggin, online dating, and news and sports coverage. Boltblue offers a catalogue of more than 50,000 items available for download.
Business Services[edit]
Boltblue offers three business product lines. Business offering includes:
- Advertising;
- Messaging Services; and
- Third-party Content Platform Services.
The company provides mobile messages services through its corporate messaging platform for business and governmental services like the NHS.[18] Other high-profile customers of the Boltblue Business Services includes Global Crossing and various police forces within England and Wales.
Past Advertising Partners include: O2, Vodafone, Three, McDonalds, United International Pictures, Levi's, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Tommy Hilfiger, Royal Mail, 20th Century Fox, and Procter & Gamble.
Awards and Recognition[edit]
- The company was named UK's 13th fastest growing technology company in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 in 2004.[4]
- Named the 40th most influential new media company according to the Media Momentum 50 awards.[5]
- Chartered Institute of Marketing's Marketing Excellence award for Effectiveness, jointly with Apple iMac and EasyJet.[19]
- UK's Top 3 Entertainment Websites; Hitwise Top UK Sites.[7]
- Boltblue named Top 50 Advertising media sites in the UK.[20]
- Hitwise names Boltblue Top 10 UK Telecom site by monthly visits.[21]
External links[edit]
- Boltblue website
- Spice Up your Text Life[22]
- U.K. company to test voting by phone.[9]
- Boltblue recognised as 2nd most popular telecom website.[2]
- Boltblue launches Movie Tix film booking service for London.[23]
- Background on Text Messaging and its Impact.[8]
- [13]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Boltblue website". Retrieved 30 September 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Pastore, Michael (18 January 2001). "11 Million Home Internet Users in UK". IncisiveMedia LLC. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
- ↑ "Tornado Insider - Radar company - Boltblue". Retrieved 30 September 2013.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Sunday Times Tech Track". Fast Track. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Media Momentum awards
- ↑ "Boltblue in Tech Track 100". Sunday Times. 1 November 2013.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Hitwise announces top UK sites for the last 12 months". brandrepublic.com. Haymarket Brand Media. 15 July 2003. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 O'Mahony, Jennifer (3 December 2012). "Text messaging at 20: how SMS changed the world". www.telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ledbetter, James (1 June 2001). "UK company to test voting by phone". CNN News. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
- ↑ The 2005 Research and Development Scoreboard -- The top 750 UK and 1000 Global companies by R&D investment (PDF) (Report). UK Department of Trade and Industry. 14 October 2005. p. 100. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
- ↑ 2006 The Top 800 UK & 1250 Global Companies by R&D investment (PDF) (Report). UK Department of Trade and Industry. 16 October 2006. p. 122,135. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
- ↑ 2011 The Top 1000 UK & 1000 Global Companies by R&D investment (Report). UK Department of Trade and Industry. 19 October 2011. p. 122,135. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 US application 20020080822, Michael Kenneth Brown & Joshua cooper, "Address defined session management over stateless communications channels", published 2000-12-22
- ↑ Richardson, Tim (22 November 2001). "Boltblue adopts NTL orphans". theregister.co.uk. Situation Publishing Ltd. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
- ↑ Woffenden, Claire (19 September 2000). "NTL unmetered misery for ex-CWC users". v3.co.uk. Incisive Media. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
- ↑ "Nildram stays fastest ADSL ISP in the UK". Telecom Paper B.V. 4 February 2003. Archived from the original on October 30, 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
- ↑ "Boltblue expands mobile portal operations". Telecom Paper B.V. 15 April 2003. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
- ↑ "Give us UR blood". BBC News. 7 April 2001. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
- ↑ http://www.cimawards.co.uk/
- ↑ "Top 50: Adveritsing by Numbers". MarketingMagazine.co.uk. Haymarket Brand Media. 19 December 2001. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
- ↑ "Top 10 UK Telecom Sites by Monthly Visits - April 2005". Hitwise UK.
- ↑ "SPICE UP YOUR TEXT LIFE!". Source Wire. 13 July 2000.
- ↑ Williamson, Dan (9 August 2000). "Boltblue launches film text service for London". Haymarket Media Group. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
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