Comptel Acquires Advanced Analytics Startup Xtract For EUR 3.1 Million
Finland-based analytics provider Xtract has been acquired by software company Comptel for EUR 3.1 million. Xtract was founded in 2001 and specializes in advanced customer analytics solutions for companies operating in the mobile, retail and finance sectors.
Library House Lists 100 Hottest Mediatech Companies
Library House, a research house on startups and other fast growing ventures, has listed 100 of the hottest mediatech companies in Europe. The 100 companies were selected by analysing companies using Library House proprietary data and an expert advisory panel. Library House also states that these 100 companies are the ones that will most likely change the mediatech world (mediatech meaning media and technology).
To our joy, we can find 3 Nordic companies in the top 10 list; Blyk (Finland), Sulake (Finland) and Stardoll (Sweden). Other companies in the top 10 were Flirtomatic (UK), MOO (UK), Where Are You Now? (UK), Dailymotion (France), King.com (UK), Playfish (UK) and Plastic Logic (UK). It's interesting to see that there is a healthy spread of gaming and entertainment companies in the top 10 as well as to note the absence of any media companies per se.
Other Nordic companies in the list were CCP (Iceland), Spotify (Sweden, Luxembourg), Betware (Iceland) and Xtract (Finland). The fact that most of the companies are from the UK or Central European countries pretty much states the overlooking of the Baltic market in total (I believe they are part of Europe, at least the last time I looked). Then again, this is exactly one of the reasons why I set about with ArcticStartup a little over a year ago - to give more insight to the Baltic and Nordic startup industries. Seems like we still have plenty of work to do.
Blyk And Xtract Promote Advertising
Despite the difficult times, Blyk and Xtract are promoting advertising (at least in a sense) as a revenue model. Blyk's business model is built around advertising as a source of revenue. Blyk confirmed they are going full steam ahead with internationalisation in a recent blog post about entering the Dutch markets in the first quarter of 2009.
In the blog post Blyk refers to an IAB research which states that consumers are sceptical about receiving ads on their mobile but become strongly willing to accept ads on their mobiles when they are incentified. Furthermore the willingness is increased by relevant ads. Something that shouldn't really be all too shocking when you use common sense.
This thinking is confirmed by Xtract in their most recent white paper titled Brands Need People and People Need Brands. Xtract argues that when ads are positioned correctly at the right touch points - they work, and people actually want to see them.
The problem with business models based on advertising usually is that the companies don't understand the difficulties the advertisers face. In SIME Helsinki, organised in September, I had multiple talks with advertisers that all these new innovative startups don't really understand the needs of the advertiser and thus only bringing about banner advertising - is not very appealing. What do you think, are the advertisers up tight or is their discontent acceptable?
Photo by trialsanderrors (CC:BY).
Valimo and Xtract nominated for GSMA Mobile Innovation Global Award
The GSM Association (GSMA) has selected Valimo Wireless and Xtract as finalists for the Mobile Innovation Global Award.
Valimo develops software to secure and perform transactions in both mobile and fixed network environments, offering solutions for digital signing, authentication, and validation.
Xtract promises to optimize marketing and advertising in the web 2.0 and mobile environments with automated software solutions. It had the seventh fastest growth rate in Deloitte Fast 50 Finland 2007.
Via GSMA news.
