Type | Public |
---|---|
LSE: INTQ | |
Industry | Mobile marketing and entertainment |
Founded | Athens, Greece (2000) |
Headquarters | |
Key people | Panagiotis Dimitropoulos (CEO) |
Products | MobiDialog Akazoo Minimob Kanzaroo |
Services | Mobile marketing Mobile entertainment Mobile payments |
Revenue | € 132.39 million (2014) [1] |
€ 10.76 million (2014) [2] | |
€ 8.67 million (2014) [3] | |
Total assets | € 138.12 million (2014) [4] |
Total equity | € 95.96 million (2014) [5] |
Number of employees | 150+ (Q1 2014) |
Website | www.internetq.com |
InternetQ is a technology company that develops and markets mobile related services through software platforms. Its main services include a social music streaming service, Akazoo, which sells digital content through mobile payment and a performance-based advertising platform for mobile apps, Minimob. [6]
InternetQ was a publicly traded company listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, under the symbol INTQ from which withdraw. [7] As of October 2016 the company runs 24 offices around the globe.
InternetQ was founded in 2000 by their current chief executive officer Panagiotis Dimitropoulos as a website design and development company. It later began offering mobile marketing services. [8] In 2005 it received investment from NBGI Private Equity, and established InternetQ UK. The company also opened offices in New York in the United States and Warsaw, Poland in 2006. Its expansion continued elsewhere in Europe, including to various CIS countries. [9]
In 2010 the company was listed on the London's AIM stock exchange and further expanded its operations into Latin America, Middle East and Africa.
Akazoo was InternetQ's first social media and social networking product. It was developed in 2007 and launched in 2008. It allowed users to share text, photos and videos, to chat and play games together. [10]
At the Mobile World Congress in February 2012, InternetQ launched the Akazoo social music platform for operators. [11] An expansion on its previous platform, Akazoo 2.0 included functions to allow users to play, download, share, and access local and international music. [12]
Before the Mobile World Congress in 2013, InternetQ launched a new product, called Minimob.com, targeted to developers and publishers of applications. [13]
On December 10, 2010 the company was listed on the London's AIM stock exchange. It was listed with a market cap of £31 million, and ended up raising £6.8 million during its initial offering. [14] The company also further expanded its operations into Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. [15]
InternetQ is a member of the MEF global trade association and has an international Board of Directors. [16] [17]
In 2011 InternetQ announced the acquisition of IPOP Networks PTE, a Singapore-based mobile and media services business that serves mobile network operators, FMCG companies, creative agencies and traditional media companies, expanding InternetQ's footprint in the Southeast Asia region.
In 2012, InternetQ announced an investment in Aventurine SA, a digital game development company, specializing in online multiplayer role-playing games like Darkfall, and casual games for both online and mobile use. [18]
InternetQ started 2013 with the acquisition of Atlas Interactive Deutschland GmbH. This move increased the company's reach with mobile network operators in Eastern, Western, and Central Europe. [19] The company further expanded into Latin American markets at the beginning of 2014, entering an agreement to acquire Interacel Holdings LLC, a mobile service provider in the region [20] and UpMobile a mobile marketing and interactive TV and radio content provider in Mexico. [21] [22]
InternetQ partners with mobile network operators, internet service providers, mobile device manufacturers and app stores and runs campaigns on traditional media, text and voice services, smartphones and tablets. Sony reached a deal with InternetQ in 2013, with the tech giant agreeing to pre-load Akazoo onto new smartphones it sells in Malaysia, and to provide users with three months of free music streaming. [23] This deal came on the heels of a similar agreement with Samsung earlier in 2013, with Samsung agreeing to load Akazoo onto its various smartphones and tablets throughout Greece. [24] In the summer of 2013 Orange reached a bundle agreement and launched its Muzyka Tu i Tam service with Akazoo during the Orange Warsaw Music Festival. [25] [26] [27]
Akazoo is InternetQ's social music streaming platform. It allows for payment via mobile platforms, cutting out the need for a credit card in places where banking infrastructures are less established. [28] Akazoo is sold direct to consumers or can be ‘white labelled’ by mobile operators, brands and device manufacturers.
One of InternetQ's original products was MobiDialog, a mobile marketing platform through which third party advertisers could submit messages to users and track interactions. Advertisements are delivered via SMS and include polling surveys, sweepstakes, coupons, mobile games and mobile music.
In 2013, InternetQ launched MiniMob.com. This platform was developed specially for application developers and publishers, who use it for mobile advertising to promote their apps.
Polish news sources report that InternetQ subsidiary Mobile Dialogue engaged in controversial marketing practices aimed at subscribing users to paid services. This activity took place mostly through Facebook. News items were placed into users feeds. When a user attempted to view these items they were prompted for their cellphone number and a PIN. According to Polish news reports, users were then led into subscribing to the paid services. [29] [30] [31] [32]
In November 2011 InternetQ was sued in Polish courts over an SMS lottery they had been conducting. The plaintiffs argued that they received an SMS claiming that they had won 20,000 PLN (approx 4,700 EUR) and all they had to do was reply with a blank SMS. While they were charged for sending the SMS, they received no payout. The court initially found for the plaintiff and awarded damages of 60,000 PLN (approx 14,000 EUR), but this was overturned on appeal. The case brought discussion about the structure of Polish anti-spam laws, which did not successfully prevent such situations. [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] As of 2011, claims against InternetQ in Poland related to their mobile marketing practices totaled €432,000. [39]
A report published by Quintessential Capital Management firm, an American hedge fund based in New York, on Sunday, April 19, 2020 claimed that InternetQ's Akazoo has been deceiving investors. [40] The firm's stock immediately tumbled in NASDAQ trading and eventually was suspended trading. [41] On October 27, 2021 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it had settled charges against the firm for $38.8 million after the firm allegedly defrauded investors out of tens of millions of dollars. [42]
For the year ended 31 December 2013 InternetQ reported €104.42 million in revenue, a 42% increase over 2012. Profit before tax was €9.01 million and total assets accounted for €111.89 million. [43]
Vodafone Romania S.A. is a Romanian mobile phone network operator. It launched in April 1997 as the first GSM network in Romania.
SK Telecom Co., Ltd., abbreviated as SKT is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 percent share as of 2008. SK Telecom is the largest wireless carrier in South Korea, with 27.019 million subscribers as of Q4 2017.
Mobile marketing is a multi-channel online marketing technique focused at reaching a specific audience on their smartphones, feature phones, tablets, or any other related devices through websites, e-mail, SMS and MMS, social media, or mobile applications. Mobile marketing can provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that promotes goods, services, appointment reminders and ideas. In a more theoretical manner, academic Andreas Kaplan defines mobile marketing as "any marketing activity conducted through a ubiquitous network to which consumers are constantly connected using a personal mobile device".
Mobile banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Unlike the related internet banking it uses software, usually called an app, provided by the financial institution for the purpose. Mobile banking is usually available on a 24-hour basis. Some financial institutions have restrictions on which accounts may be accessed through mobile banking, as well as a limit on the amount that can be transacted. Mobile banking is dependent on the availability of an internet or data connection to the mobile device.
The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology." Many choose to think of Mobile Commerce as meaning "a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket."
Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region. The company offers mobile telephony, mobile money transfer, consumer electronics, ecommerce, cloud computing, data, music streaming, and fibre optic services. It is most renowned as the home of M-PESA, a mobile banking SMS-based service.
Mobile advertising is a form of advertising via mobile (wireless) phones or other mobile devices. It is a subset of mobile marketing, mobile advertising can take place as text ads via SMS, or banner advertisements that appear embedded in a mobile web site.
Moldcell is a Moldovan mobile network operator and is a subsidiary of Nepalese company CG Corp Global. It works in GSM, UMTS and LTE standards.
Chikka, short for Chikka Text Messenger, was an Internet-based instant messaging application that supported free SMS or text messaging between online users and offline mobile subscribers. Chikka was released by Chikka Philippines, Inc. in the early 2000 and eventually established its connection with the country's network operators Smart Communications (2001), Globe Telecom (2002) and Sun Cellular (2004). With up to billions of messages being exchanged between online and mobile communities worldwide through Chikka, it is probably the world's first commercially successful integration of web and mobile utilities.
Agora Spółka Akcyjna is a Polish media company. Agora and Gazeta Wyborcza were created on the eve of the parliamentary elections in 1989. Gazeta Wyborcza became the first independent newspaper in Poland, while Agora grew into one of the largest and most renowned media companies in Poland. Since 1999 Agora's shares have been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Rich Communication Services (RCS) is a communication protocol between mobile telephone carriers and between phone and carrier, aiming at replacing SMS messages with a text-message system that is richer, provides phonebook polling, and can transmit in-call multimedia. It is part of the broader IP Multimedia Subsystem. Google has added support for end-to-end encryption for all chats using RCS in their own app, Google Messages. End-to-end encryption is not a feature of RCS specified by GSMA.
Tuenti Technologies, S.L.U is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that operates with the Tuenti brand owned by Telefónica. It is a Spain-based tech company that focuses on providing a cloud-based services through its own application and its website to their customers.
Cellcast Group is a broadcasting company based in the United Kingdom. They operate channels on the Sky UK, Virgin Media, YouTube, Freesat and Freeview TV platforms in the UK and internationally via paid programming which consist of participatory television programming such as phone-ins, teleshopping and quiz channels. They are also a provider of software development services for the media industry such as second screen application development, production of digital on screen graphics, mobile gaming development, direct carrier billing and internet marketing.
ForgetMeNot Africa was created in 2009, when ForgetMeNot Software joined forces with investment company Lonzim Plc to create ForgetMeNot Africa, a subsidiary that's solely focused on providing unified messaging and financial services in Africa, and began deploying its technology on the continent that same year, in Lesotho. Lonzim Plc owns 51% of ForgetMeNot Africa and ForgetMeNot Software own the remainder of the company.
T-Mobile Polska S.A. is a Polish mobile phone network operator. The company was formerly named Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa and operated under the name Era, until being rebranded as T-Mobile on 5 June 2011. As in other European countries, the company operates a GSM network. Following a decade-long ownership dispute with the French Vivendi corporation, the company has been wholly owned by the German telecommunications provider Deutsche Telekom since 2010.
Line is a freeware app for instant communications on electronic devices operated by LY Corporation. Line users exchange: texts, images, video and audio and conduct free VoIP conversations and video conferences. In addition, Line is a platform providing various services including: digital wallet as Line Pay, news stream as LINE Today, video on demand as Line TV and digital comic distribution as Line Manga and Line Webtoon.
Textlocal is a mobile communications company founded in 2005 with offices based in Malvern and Chester.
TechZone is one of the largest aggregators, publishers and distributors of entertainment content on mobile in India. With Exclusive rights to one of the largest library of music and video titles, Techzone is the largest player in providing Bollywood content on mobile and also captures majority of the Tamil markets. With exclusive content rights for top brands such as Times Music, 9XMedia, UTV, Radio City, MTV, and more. Techzone also dominates the international music market on mobile in India and captures majority of it. It powers more than two-thirds of all Mobile Digital Entertainment content in India and internationally, and run the short code 56060 across all operators in India.
Sinch, formerly CLX Communications, is a telecommunications and cloud communications platform as a service (PaaS) company. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Sinch also has offices in over 60 cities worldwide, including Atlanta, Chicago, London, Madrid, Singapore and Sydney.