Volantis aims to monetize the mobile web

Volantis, which provides content adaptation and delivery for mobile networks, today launched Site Builder targeted at service providers looking to offer customers a tool set for building their own personal mobile Websites. Based on Volantis’ Ubik.com publishing platform, the operator-branded service is designed to drive data service usage, mobile advertising and merchandising.

The service is designed for both consumer and small-business wireless customers – those who don’t have large IT teams or developers to dedicate to mobile – wanting immediate entry to the mobile Web. Using Volantis’s mobile content framework, sites can be optimized and rendered across more than 5,700 mobile devices, connected to social networks and include real-time content such as blogs, news and information from RSS feeds.

“A lot of operators are building their own mobile portals, aggregating content and acting as the storefront on behalf of content providers,” said Dave Roberts, Volantis channel manager. “With the growth in social networking and user-generated content, they wanted to leverage that so anyone can create mobile sites. What seems to be happening in the operator market – whereas a year or two ago, they were all building their own content stores – they now seem to be taking more of an open approach.”

This open approach means enabling a site-building functionality and letting others create and sell content from it – then taking a cut of the profit, Roberts said. The wireless carrier can rebrand and operate the platform and make it open to essentially anyone wanting to create a mobile Website for anything from advertising local sports clubs to taxis services. The service is aimed at increasing data-service traffic through letting operators integrate promotions advertising, and marketing, as well as up-sell mobile merchandise including wallpapers, ringtones and full tracks. Photos can be uploaded to the site as well as user-generated content and feedback.

As mobile voice reaches saturation, wireless operators are increasingly looking to milk data revenues that extend beyond messaging and email. In November, mobile analytics company Bango found that popular PC sites aren’t adapting well to mobile. With 5% of Website visitors coming from mobile, a 1% increase over last year, it is becoming more important to have a user-friendly site created for mobile and not just ported from the fixed PC. Bango also found that WAP billing is becoming the preferred way to sell content to customers acquired through mobile marketing.