Having struggled to gain sufficient subscribers to its advertising-based MVNO service, Blyk has received a fresh injection of funding from an investment consortium headed up by Nexit Ventures.
The company said that it would use the new money to develop its European operations, but would adopt a different aproach than it previous attempt which was based upon the ad-funded MVNO approach that accompanied its launch back in 2007.
Of note, the company said that it was also planning to launch the service in India having opened an office in the country a few months ago.
The company said that it would retain its consumer-facing brand name, but would now run its service in close partnership with selected operators. It pointed to the example of its partner, Vodafone Netherlands, which offers users free texts and calls in return for receiving targeted SMS and MMS ads.
Orange UK licenses Blyk's advertising platform for use with its Orange Shots service, and is now considering deploying the Blyk technology across a wider customer base after initially confining it to those on the Orange Monkey tariff.
However, doubts have been expressed whether its sister brand T-Mobile UK, with which it merged earlier in the year to form Everything Everywhere, would offer the Blyk service.
For more on this story:
- read NMA
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