Here are 4 questions to Andrew J Scott CEO Rumble

Can you tell us more about your service ?
Rummble (RBS Business Awards Finalist 2008  Runner Up GSMA Global Mobile Innovation Awards 2008) makes it easier to find people and places nearby that you will like. It works anywhere – you can use it at home or on the move via your mobile (http://m.rummble.com). It is one of a new generation of content discovery services being designed for use on mobile phones. We have a comprehensive online and mobile platform which combines location and profiling of the user with patent pending algorithms which are used to analyse a users social network. The content is then analysed using subjective logic to deliver to the user a personalised list of content, not only relevant to the location but also to that users preferences. Unlike search engines which can be unwieldy to use on a cell phone (who wants to wade through pages of results on a small screen?) we give the user immediate, timely and relevant results. We compliment this core service with a comprehensive set of functionality which is relevant and useful to someone using their phone for location based services.

What is your business model ?
The business model is free to consumer with advertising revenue from a differentiated ad-unit sold across online and mobile ; the ad platform we are developing integrates location, time and behavioural profiling alongside traditional demographic data.

What are the projects, additional features you’re preparing ?
We’ve already launched some of our social software apps which plug into existing services, such as Facebook and Bebo. We also already plug in to Flickr, YouTube, WordPress and Blogger; adding location based functionality to these services and we’ll be further integrating with other social software. Mobile development continues with our mobile Java app which is currently in closed Beta. Its a challenge as a start-up to support the divergence of handsets and platforms in the mobile marketplace and alongside the lack of ubiquitous bundled data plans across all tariffs, it is the thing currently holding back what will eventually be a huge growth in mobile internet services and usages, once the mobile network operators evolve further. Imagine if access to the internet in 1996 had been controlled by CompuServe, AOL and 40 other companies like them. We wouldn’t be where we are today. That’s the metaphor for what is holding back the mobile internet. Blame lies entirely with the mobile network operators who are moving too slowly, too cautiously and continue to stifle innovation and prevent the growth in data access. It may well be that huge take up of data services would cripple they’re backhaul infrastructure – but whether for technical capacity or protectionist reasons, the result is that the mobile internet growth curve hasn’t even really started yet; not compared to how it will once these barriers fall. The iphone is being very disruptive in the U.S.A, which is a very good thing. We’ll be supporting a native iPhone version of the service in the coming month or two.

What are the current users’ feedback, your learnings on the service’s usage ?
Its fascinating to watch how the service is used in different territories. We have users in nearly every country in the world – and some of those countries only have SMS services on their handsets (which we support). We’ve learnt that you cant always predict how users will interface with a service. We use fuzzy logic and other techniques to understand SMS commands from people but we were not, for example, expecting users to use a full stop "." instead of a space between each word. Others users are in our Java application beta program which supports GPS handsets, at the other end of the spectrum. Despite these users being pretty mobile savvy we’re still finding they sometimes struggle to download apps, or when they do download them the icon gets put somewhere stupid in the menu system. This is equivalent to someone installing a Windows application but then having to use Windows File manager to browse down through the folders and into Program Files and into the Rummble folder to find the icon to run it. It’s an inexcusable UI design flaw. We’ve also learnt that users have higher expectations and are even more impatient than they are online. Advertising needs to be highly personalised; services need to work the first time or they give up, you are vying for their attention with sending text messages to friends or listening to their iPods. People producing mobile services really do need to reimagine their applications for use via a mobile, if they are extending an online service to mobile. And if you’re planning on a mobile service only? In my opinion, don’t. Our feeling at Rummble is that users expect you to be perform well and be available on whichever channel they choose to interface with your service by. Delivering competently and comprehensively online and on mobile is a challenge, but it is one we believe we’re slowly but surely winning!