Thumbplay News

by Steve Smith

NOWADAYS I HAVE BECOME THE insufferable marketing maven with just about anyone I know. As I recounted here last week, my daughter is just fed up with Dad "the focus group moderator." And I understand. In her mind, my asking about her media consumption habits is just a version of "Dad, The Interrogator": where did you go, who with, and what illegal activities were involved - do I need to get us a lawyer? But with friends and family, I am just the daft work-obsessive who doesn't know "how to turn it off, already - Steve!" But, but but... It is just that discovery is everything now. In an age of viral media, tastes flowing across social networks and recommendation engines, serendipitous encounters with new content in a media-saturated universe, tracking our tastes to their source is endlessly fascinating. Wired editor Chris Anderson is absolutely right, the tail is made longer by digital technology.

After broaching the long tail theme last week, the off-deck mobile content leader Thumbplay contacted me with some interesting usage statistics. That site, which charges a $9.99 a month fee for access to a package of games, wallpapers, ringtones and video, lets users manage their choices mainly via the Web site. The site gets about four to five million uniques a month, says CEO Are Traasdahl, and even the WAP portal gets up to 20 million page views.

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