colin macdonald's personal blog
Posted By macdonald on Feb 7, 2009 at 8:17AM

UK's MoBank - Optimized for Mobile Delivery

RT

 

MoBank, the UK-based mobile banking and payments said to be launching this month, is creating some buzz on the other side of the Atlantic (stories here, here, and here).  Given the pedigree of its two founders, Steve Townsend and Dominic Keen, who blazed many online banking trails at Egg and First Direct, it should provide a glimpse of the future of mobile finance.

The company is establishing a call center in the Isle of Man, run by Steph Gregg, a veteran of Egg, First Direct and Vodafone. Melanie Hunter is head of marketing. David Rubin is head of mcommerce.

The company was named to Red Herring's top-100 global startup list last month (here) along with FinovateStartup alum ClairMail (demo video here).

It appears at launch the service will support bill payment and certain mcommerce activities, such as purchasing movie tickets. An iPhone app is expected at launch. Users will register their credit/debit card(s) with the service. The company plans to expand into mobile banking and money management activities in the future.

The company has raised more than $1 million according to news reports. The company was founded in 2006 and presented at The Essential Web conference in June 2007
(p. 43, here) and had 4 employees at that time.

Here's how the company described themselves 18 months ago:

MoBank is creating the world's first mobile-led online bank. The company believes that, for some sections of the population, small screen devices will become the channel of choice for most banking and payment services. moBank's business model is based on providing a free-to-use basic banking service with paid-for add-on features. Furthermore, moBank's users are enabled to participate in a range of unique, value-generating m-retail activities.

What's innovative: It sounds like a mobile-based account aggregation and bill-pay service, similar to Mint on the iPhone. But it could also contract directly with one or more banks like SmartyPig has (previous coverage). But as ING Direct proved, optimizing on a new delivery channel can pay off with great word of mouth and positive press.

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Travails of the Great Recession - A Hollywood Ending

Posted By macdonald on Feb 7, 2009 at 8:02AM

It's time once again to take a short TV commercial break from the nightly news of travails of the Great Recession and run to our refrigerators for a snack.

Back in the 1930's, the country was in turmoil as the Great Depression took its toll on most everyone, but, as luck would have it, the 1930's were also the Golden Age of Hollywood, allowing people a couple of hours of respite at the local movie theater. Those good movies would transcend them for the length of the picture into another life and allow them to escape the pressure of countless worries about losing their jobs, their homes and their savings.

They would watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance without a care in the world, William Powell and Myrna Loy snipe playfully at one another as they solved crimes, a frolicsome Clark Gable facing off against Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford and Vivien Leigh, and Lionel Barrymore play out Grandpa, seeing nothing but goodness in life.
Today, in the Great Recession of 2008-2010, people are once again seeking refuge in movies, but now they can enjoy them in the comfort of their living room or bedroom, thanks to the countless movies on VHS, DVD and direct download.

Mainstream fare remains a different story. Multiplex options are a cheap date - the comfort food of the global entertainment business - and in 2008 filmgoers defied worldwide recessionary trends. In the U.S. and Canada, 1.37 billion tickets were sold, down a modest 4 percent from 2007. Overall North American ticket revenue, owing to increased prices, was up 2 percent over 2007. American and Canadian moviegoers spent $9.63 billion in 2008. The question is, what will 2009 ticket sales be?

At this juncture is when I bring up our company MotionWorks digital. Our great recession of 2008-2010 is similar in one major way to the Depression of the `30s. When the stress of today's survival becomes overwhelming, most people will escape the pressure and worries by "disappearing" into a DVD at home, hence the spike of now up to 10 million members to the mail-order DVD firm Netflix by a whopping 45% last quarter. A tinge of "Hollywood Ending'' improbability is pure escapism, which is what movie-goers are seeking for, particularly today. Given that in 2008 Americans alone spent more than $21 billion on video game systems, software and accessories, up from $18 billion in 2007, that's pretty good.  However, in today's plunging economy, people can not afford social activities outside the home and so many will seek their escapism by bringing video content into their living rooms and bedrooms.

Back in the 1930's, and even later, any movie was suitable for anyone, regardless of age or maturity, but today careful selection is necessary. It's too bad. It seems that Hollywood doesn't consider a movie complete unless it carries at least one scene of naked sex. Whatever happened to public imagination? Scriptwriters today seem short on manufacturing good dialogue and compelled to plant the F-word here and there before the job is complete.

MotionWorks digital is the next wave for video subscriptions because of the spiritual, motivational and supportive content MotionWorks will provide to the wireless industry. We all admit secretly that TV is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you would not have invited into your home. As an industry, MotionWorks can not only survive but succeed at expanding its growth potential in these tough times.  It's all about reviewing our global history in order to envision our future as a company and making our own Hollywood Ending....
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