Friday, January 12th, 2007 (01/12/07)


Washington Business Journal: Qmobile signs up sexy stars
to create mobile content

by Ben Hammer Staff Reporter

QMobile plans to distribute TV and radio shows featuring sexy centerfolds to
draw in new customers for the mobile content company's services.

The Reston company produces and sells mobile content such as ring tones,
screen images and games, often in packages featuring models popular in
African-American and Hispanic communities. The company also sells
text-messaging services.


QMobile creates the mobile material and its own magazine, TV, radio and
Internet ads in Reston and New York. The company plans to produce radio and
TV programs featuring its stars to promote QMobile's services. The programs,
which would run from one to 10 minutes, would be distributed nationwide at
no cost to participating stations and most likely run late at night.

CEO Soren Schafft says the programming will help QMobile reach the audiences
it's targeting with the celebrity-based service packages. "Especially in the
markets that we're after, there is a lack of programming and content," he
says. "So we've signed artists to produce content for these specific
groups."

QMobile is testing a radio show called "Pillow Talk" in several markets.
Hip-hop hottie Melyssa Ford hosts the call-in show and dishes advice on
dating and relationships. The company plans to broaden distribution in
coming months over networks with thousands of stations.

Ford signed up with QMobile last July. She's appeared in music videos and on
calendars. Her fans can pay $9.99 per month for unlimited text messaging
with friends, along with occasional messages from Ford, updates about her
activities and photos, ring tones and invitations to special events
featuring her.

The company will unveil deals later this year with former Penthouse pinup
Tera Patrick, Playboy cover girl Vida Guerra and Esther Baxter, who has
appeared in music videos.

QMobile has received $6 million in venture capital since 2003 from Draper
Atlantic Venture Fund of Reston and The Grosvenor Funds of D.C. Schafft says
in the second quarter he will sit down with investors and mull over whether
the company should take on more funds to potentially acquire companies with
content bundles and subscribers, production capabilities or technologies
that ease distribution of mobile content.

New technology could help the company continue its rapid growth. The market
for mobile content is complicated by a lack of common standards across
service providers and differences in the way that each handset model handles
media content.

"It's probably like cancer; it's not going to be solved with one thing, it's
probably going to be solved with a number of little things," says Allyn Hall
with market research firm In-Stat. "Acquiring a partner makes a lot of
sense, it might be the key success factor" for QMobile.

E-mail: BHAMMER@bizjournals.com Phone: 703/258-0831

To schedule an interview with a Qmobile spokesperson contact Hugh Norton (ext. 124) or Megan Erhardt (ext. 136) at (703)-683-5004