Photobucket launches WAP site

Photobucket is moving squarely into the mobile space with a new WAP site optimized for mobile users. The Fox Interactive Media company is launching Photobucket Mobile today and is hoping a large share of its 58 million users will extend their relationship with the site to share and view photos and videos on their mobile devices.
Alex Welch, president of Photobucket, said the company has been monitoring mobile traffic to the site over the past couple years and saw a 300% spike in mobile usage when it launched a limited beta form of the current platform.
“We are looking at really the use of Photobucket on and off the Web,” he said. “We look at how you can take that content and present that in interesting ways.”
FIM surveyed Photobucket users and found that 80% of them have a camera phone, 36% use that camera every day, and 52% of those surveyed said they have access to the Internet from their mobile phone.
“We think this is a very natural progression,” Welch said.
“We’re a big believer that things are moving more and more WAP,” he said. WAP is becoming more broadly accepted and carriers are beginning to open up their walled gardens,” he said.
“I think they’re going to move away from this sort of locked down, exclusive upload path,” Welch said.
Photobucket plans to leverage its position within FIM, particularly its large ad network, as it looks to begin testing the waters with small ad insertions, he said. The company is also in talks with the big carriers to get on-deck promotion.