Ground-breaking service to expand into Europe and Asia after successful launch in Russia

Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, 11 February 2008: A unique mobile advertising solution that displays banner adverts whenever a call or text messages is received is to expand into Europe and Asia after its successful début in Russia.

More than 600,000 users have signed-up for Gigafone’s mobile advertising proposition since it launched in Russia in 2005. In return for providing profiling information, users receive highly targeted, relevant advertising and advertiser-funded rewards such as free call minutes, text messages or data bundles. The combination of user profiling and rewards within this permission-based service has contributed to click-through rates of between 40 and 55 per cent for campaigns by leading international brands in Russia.

The service is based on an innovative ad-serving platform that communicates via GPRS with a client embedded on the handset. Working together, the client and server can track the number of exposures to each execution, provide information on the number and profile of people who have reviewed the ad, clicked on it and requested additional information allowing advertisers to track ROI on a campaign basis.

Gigafone is now being offered on a white-label basis to operators in Europe and Asia. Two industry heavyweights have been appointed as non-executive directors to advise and assist Gigafone’s business development effort: Alan Harper was formerly Group Strategy & New Business Director for Vodafone Group plc and a member of the GSM Association Board while Reza Jafari is Chairman and CEO of the Omega Partners and serves on the Telecom Board of the International Telecommunications Union.

“Gigafone addresses the only truly mass-market mobile services that are used ubiquitously by all users: voice and text,” says Reza Jafari. “By placing an advert on the handset’s display when a call or text is being received, Gigafone differs from WAP banner or mobile TV advertising which can only reach the minority of users who are using these services for a minority of the time.”

“Placing the operator at the heart of the mobile advertising chain and delivering tangible value to users through the reward mechanism gives Gigafone unique potential,” says Alan Harper. “The ability to target makes Gigafone mobile advertising very personal to the users, and creates a compelling and highly efficient new medium for advertisers.”

“Gigafone has been designed from the ground up to bring together network operators, brands, innovative delivery, rich content and above all relevance to the consumer,” says Grigory Khaldey, CEO of Gigafone. “Nothing on the market so far has managed to link all these parts together effectively.”