NEW YORK-ThumbPlay Inc. launched a mobile entertainment Web site designed to offer ringtones, images, games and other content directly to mobile users.
The company unveiled an Internet storefront offering more than 6,000 pieces of content available in both pay-per-piece and subscription models. With the site, ThumbPlay becomes the latest U.S. content provider looking to draw users to a Web site to buy mobile offerings as opposed to marketing through a carrier’s content deck.
Such “off-portal” transactions are gaining steam in the United States, where some carriers are warming to the idea of consumers buying content outside the walled garden. While carrier decks are becoming increasingly crowded and cumbersome, some content providers are using big-budget marketing campaigns to get users to buy content over the Internet.
“The carrier portal is a good distribution channel,” said Are Traasdahl, ThumbPlay.com’s chief executive officer, “but if the carrier can also get product out through alternative distribution channels, that’s good for content.”
