Bango is powering three new mobile content portals for properties of publishing giant Hearst Publications.
The U.K.-based provider of direct-to-consumer content launched mobile sites for Cosmopolitan, CosmoGirl and Seventeen, hawking ringtones, wallpapers and horoscopes for the publications. Users can access the catalogs by sending a text message to short codes to receive a link to each site.
While short codes have yet to gain mass-market acceptance among U.S. users, the agreement may prove to be a substantial win for Bango, which has agreements with Cingular Wireless L.L.C., Orange plc, Vodafone Group plc and other carriers to deliver off-deck content. Hearst publishes 19 U.S. titles and 145 international editions.
“The user experience (with wireless portals) is truly mobile because the entire process takes place on the handset-no PC is required,” said Anil Malhotra, Bango’s vice president of alliances. “Bango detects which network the user is on and presents the optimal one-click payment method to make paying for content as easy as possible.”
Hearst is also partnering with carriers to target wireless users. The publisher also unveiled a deal with Volantis, a Seattle-based content delivery company, to hawk ringtones, horoscopes and editorial content though Cingular and Sprint Nextel Corp.
