DataLink Systems Corp.-a company providing real-time turnkey information services-introduced two new information services this week, expanding its portfolio of personalized Web-based content.
Sports2Go, offered in conjunction with ESPN, delivers sports scores at intervals of the customers choosing-at a pre-selected time, every hour, by inning/period/quarter, after each score of a certain game or after the game.
MessageX is a wireless messaging service available free of charge that allows customers to send e-mail to any pager or short message service-enabled digital phone from DataLink’s Web site. The only caveat is that the receiver must be a registered DataLink customer.
The company’s other information services include financial stock quotes, commodities updates, news, entertainment, horoscopes and weather. According to Chief Executive Officer Anthony LaPine, DataLink provides the most customizable information filtered and personalized by the customer.
DataLink’s services operate on a provider-neutral platform. The product delivery platform rests on a unique “three-legged” model called the “Internet to Wireless Portal.”
“It’s the next generation of the Internet,” LaPine said. “If you can get to the Internet, you can get to us.”
The three legs consist of the Internet, the wireless network and the content provided. The Internet is the user interface to the system. By accessing DataLink’s Web site, users can choose exactly what service they want and filter it by location, time or other parameters.
For instance, a user can choose to be alerted only when a specific stock reaches a certain price. Another may choose to be alerted of a different set of stocks every hour. Or a Sports2Go customer can customize the service so that he receives only Denver Broncos sports scores, sent to his pager immediately following each scoring event, while another might choose scores from the entire league, sent to the pager following every quarter of every game.
The second leg of the model is the wireless network. The information requests entered from the Internet are delivered via each customer’s pager, phone or personal digital assistant. DataLink sends content to wireless providers’ networks via a number of means, each depending on the set-up of that particular provider’s infrastructure.
Finally there is the content. DataLink monitors several different satellite feeds to get its sports, news and financial information as quickly as possible. LaPine said this allows the company to deliver information more quickly than those providers that rely on the Internet only, which has about a 15-minute delay.
“People are only going to pay for what’s time-sensitive and user-specific,” he said.
LaPine said the paging industry is now selling lead, or a commodity. The industry needs to turn that lead into needles, products that have specific value.
“They know how to sell lead, but they don’t know how to sell the needles,” LaPine explained. “DataLink is the alchemist’s secret to turning lead into needles.”
That the paging industry needs to increase the value of a product that has become a commodity is no secret. Information services have been touted as a possible tool carriers can use to increase their average revenue per unit. Digital phone carriers can use the service to increase minutes of use, while all carriers could benefit from something to reduce churn.
But several analysts have stated that if information services are going to significantly increase ARPU, they must be customizable and contain real value, not just random news headlines.
LaPine said he believes DataLink’s offerings fit the bill.
“They’re asking how they can raise prices 25 cents,” he said. “We believe the opportunity is much bigger than that.”
The Sports2Go service alone is priced at $15 a month.
DataLink counts end users themselves as its customers, not carriers. The company has a marketing agreement with SkyTel Communications Inc., which advertises the product to its customers, who are then billed by DataLink.
DataLink generates its own customers as well, some of whom do not have paging service. To solve that problem, the company is also a reseller of Paging Network Inc.
What sets DataLink apart, LaPine says, is that it provides a turnkey information services solution. A carrier can just market the service to the customer and collect is portion of the revenue split from DataLink. DataLink handles customer support, billing and everything else, although carriers could choose to buy service from DataLink wholesale and then provide it to their customers with a markup.
“The critical factor here is that we have a new paradigm, a whole new way of looking at information flow to a wireless device,” LaPine said. “We can deliver the third leg-content.
