MetroPCS launches flirting app

MetroPCS Wireless Inc. is targeting the youth market with a new flirting application that has been pretty successful in the United Kingdom.
“At its core, we’ve taken dating and reinvented it for a younger generation,” said Gary Cohen, VP and general manager of North America. This is Flirtomatic’s first partnership in the United States. Flirtomatic is a free service targeting people from 18 to 30 and will be available on the MetroPCS mobile Web portal. The service allows people to SMS other people who have signed up for the service, and also to send virtual gifts by purchasing FlirtPoints. “The core of the service is free. We charge for what I consider to be fun around the edges,” Cohen said. Flirtomatic counts 1.5 million registered users and is available in the U.K., Germany and Australia. Flirtomatic’s users log in about seven times a day and send about 30 messages a day. The company said it is the second most used mobile Web site by volume in the United Kingdom. Flirtomatic is seeing those U.K.-paying customers spend about $10 in average monthly revenue per unit, buying virtual gifts or to get alerts when a certain subscriber has entered the portal. Developers can add other virtual gifts quickly, Cohen said, noting that during an unusual heat wave in the U.K., the company sold 7,500 virtual ice cubes that melted into a heart shape in a week, at about 30 cents each.
The entertainment service should prove to be a good match for MetroPCS’ flat-rate, no contract customers. Mobile social networking applications are gaining traction worldwide, and have attracted quite a bit of venture capital funding.