Interview (Part 2): Olivia Hilton, CEO Jumbuck Entertainment, on mobile chat

Jumbuck Entertainment has made its name with chat. One of the pioneers of mobile chat in 1999, the company’s flagship product today is still Power Chat. But over their years, their mobile chat services have evolved (some might says mutated). For example, one of the fastest growing products is called Fast Flirting. Jumbuck Blog gives active users of Power Chat the ability to “own an area of our chat service” and post a mobile blog with images and user comments.

We asked Olivia Hilton, CEO of Jumbuck Entertainment, about their chat products, which they provide to more than 80 mobile carriers.

Why do customers use chat anyway? Why don’t they make voice calls?

Hilton: Our services allow users that would not necessarily know one another to come online and connect. They can be totally anonymous if they choose. They can chat with people locally or globally. All of this is not possible using voice. Additionally, our users like the intimate and spontaneous nature of these services.

Do you feel that mobile chat is safe enough?

Hilton: Yes, user safety is paramount to Jumbuck. We have in place controls to protect identify and guard against inappropriate usage, including language filters, pre-moderation of images and user names, moderation of public messages, the ability for users to report others than may be abusing the system, and the ability to block users if they are breaching terms and conditions.

How do you see advertising fitting into the world of mobile communities?

Hilton: We see this as a really exciting aspect of our business. What’s so appealing about advertising on a mobile phone is that it could be an extremely targeted delivery medium. Since we know some key information about our users (age, sex, location, language, interests) we are well positioned to provide an attractive proposition to advertisers. We have started to experiment with various carriers and we are also in discussions with major ad network companies to provide them with highly addressable mobile phone users to whom they can market relevant products and services. We’re treading carefully in this area since we understand that mobile advertising needs to be executed flawlessly to avoid irritating subscribers.

What are some of the reasons that carriers sign on with Jumbuck?

Hilton: Our services are simple and safe. We offer our carrier customers effective moderation services that protect their subscribers. Our services are built on a scalable and proven platform. We support every user agent (handset profile) and deliver the best experience for that user agent. This means that we won’t serve a heavy graphics page to a Nokia 30 series, nor would we serve a basic text template to the iPhone.

Asked about reasons for the company’s success, Hilton ticks off several factors: “integration of carrier communities globally, providing a large active community that maximizes user interaction, 24×7, across many time zones; our deep understanding of users, their interests, and their behavior; ability to personalize online experience with user-generated content; a vibrant user community that is very loyal and continues to regularly use the system.”

Hilton notes that Jumbuck’s products are “technology agnostic – we support WAP, SMS, MMS, J2ME”, and claims their revenue stream is not limited by traffic, since additional revenues are generated by MMS, SMS, and voice. Because “users spread the word,” carriers haven’t needed to make large marketing investments, and they have no set-up costs with Jumbuck.

Michael M.