The Brand That Wasn't There

David Bluhm is not a game guy. He's never stayed up all night on a Mountain Dew-fueled “Quake”-fest, let alone held lifelong aspirations of a career in the gaming world.

In fact, almost no one at Mforma, the mobile data solutions provider Bluhm co-founded in 2001, fits the gamer profile. And with good reason: Mforma never had any intention of becoming a gaming company.

“Very few of us are gamers,” said Bluhm, Mforma president for the Americas and executive vice president of corporate development. “It's not the core of our company.”

So how does a group of non-Game Boys (and Girls) find itself atop the high-scorer list in a wireless gaming market that is expected to reach $41 billion by 2007, with $16 billion in games-purchased revenue and $25 billion in network traffic revenue? And how is it that Mforma has generated relatively little attention in comparison to its chief rival, mobile game developer Jamdat, even though Mforma boasts more than 10 times as many distribution partners?

To understand how the Kirkland, Wash.-based company turned into a surprise leader, it helps to understand Mforma's origins. In gaming terms, the 2001 formation of Mforma suggests something of a “Tomb Raider”-type quest, in which various elements and weapons are cobbled together with no particular endgame in mind, other than to go on to the next adventure. Following the classic rollup model that became de rigeur as start-ups began failing, Bluhm and fellow co-founder Dan Kranzler (now Mforma's CEO) brought together floundering wireless data service providers like Indiqu, Cosant and HandsOn Network, intending simply to build a platform enabling applications developers to create new data-intensive wireless services.

“When we started the company, there was a lot of bravado about what carriers could become,” said Bluhm, a Motorola veteran who most recently served as CEO of location-based services developer NearMe, another early Mforma acquisition. “The success of DoCoMo only fueled that flame. So we went to them and said, ‘What is it that we can do for you?’”

The answer had nothing to do with cruising the Web on a handset or launching a killer app for enterprise users — and everything to do with fun and games.

Barely two years later, Mforma has quietly become the largest game aggregator in the world, with more than 40 wireless carriers acting as distribution channels. But even though it supplies games to far fewer carriers, Jamdat may be better known, in part because carrier partners like Verizon Wireless started promoting Jamdat's name in its marketing. (Neither Mforma nor Jamdat is publicly traded or reports revenues.)

All of which is just fine with Bluhm. In fact, one of the biggest differences he will point out is that Mforma isn't really a developer at all. “We have not developed a game in a long time,” Bluhm said. “All our games are developed by outside parties. If it comes through our brand, it just means we purchased it.”

That's just fine with mobile carriers that are eager to put their own stamp on a fast-growing market and extend their brands. A mainstay on wireless phones in one rudimentary form or another for years, games have of late become much more than just a pleasant diversion for bored users. According to a July report from The Research Room, there will be 105.7 million wireless gamers in the world by the end of this year, up from 68.6 million last year. And The Research Room predicts that by 2007, 307 million wireless subscribers will be walking around with games in their pockets. In revenue terms, the numbers are equally striking. According to the same report, wireless gaming revenue will hit $3.1 billion this year and jump to $9.4 billion next year, including both software and services.

Sprint PCS, which uses both Mforma and Jamdat games to populate its library, has recorded more than 2 million game downloads from the time it launched its first set of games in 2000, according to James Ford, general manager of games for Sprint PCS.

“We put in place about 40 games on five different handsets initially,” Ford said. “We've grown to about 180 games and 17 partnerships. At last count, gaming was second to messaging in terms of the minutes it was driving.”

Almost as important is the impact gaming has on strengthening the particular carrier brand, Bluhm said. “It leads to other things, because you teach consumers how to use a data service.”

Mforma is now developing what it calls “E-Packs,” which will include thematically linked games, wallpaper, ringtones and other services. Discerning exactly which games customers want, however, is something that can't be compared to any service that wireless carriers are accustomed to selling — for example, the average user keeps a game for only 17 days, according to Bluhm.

To hook subscribers, Mforma uses a “five-minute satisfaction rule,” meaning a typical user must be able to learn a game and become relatively proficient in less than five minutes. “No carrier will tell you that someone will switch service because of one game,” Bluhm said. “But I think what you'll see is carriers' corporate marketing groups attaching themselves to certain properties.”

To some extent, it's already happening. Cingular Wireless, for instance, is a major sponsor of both NCAA basketball (think “Cingular at the Half”) and NASCAR, and is probably best positioned to capture the youth market with games built around both sports, Bluhm said. That could change, however, with Nextel Communications on the racing circuit with naming rights to NASCAR's erstwhile Winston Cup championship series for the next 10 years.

It's all about branding, Bluhm said. “What's going to sell better, ‘Tiger Woods Golf’ or ‘Jamdat Golf?’” he asked. “‘Tiger Woods’ is going to kill it, even if it's not the better game.”

The same holds true outside of sports, and extends to all properties carriers license — Cingular had one of its more successful launches with a “Charlie's Angels” game tied to the movie. Absent a brand, it comes down to the game. In fact, games can even outlive the original brand. “‘Snowball Fight’ did great on Verizon,” Bluhm said. “That is not a game that rivals THQ or Sega would flaunt up and say, ‘This is our game for wireless.’ ‘Top Gun’ also does really well on Verizon, even though it's a 20-year-old brand. It has nothing to do with Tom Cruise or the movie. It's just a great game.”

Understanding the gamer demographic is also important. But because the idea of wireless gaming really just started to filter down to the mass market this year, defining the typical customer is still difficult. “We pride ourselves on being mass-market,” Ford said. “Obviously, there's a core demographic of the male in his 20s or 30s. But we have games from Disney, and we have games like crossword puzzles.”

Wireless games are also growing more advanced. In addition to better graphics, game developers are starting to create multiplayer games that allow users to battle each other. The addition of a third-party clearinghouse would give competition junkies a way to compare scores and participate in contests tied to the games. However, according to Bluhm, the business model for such a service is still unclear, with carriers looking at both subscription-based and pay-per-play models as likely options.

Either way, Mforma will be playing somewhere behind the scenes. And if being a name that consumers likely will never see — even if it is significantly larger than the competition — bothers Bluhm, he isn't letting on. “We don't push an Mforma brand at any level,” he said. “And we never will.”