Would you mind if you can make a FREE call for directory assistance but in return you need to listen to an short audio advertisement before that? Most of us won’t as human has the perception of wanting everything free. If you call for pizza for example, you might get a 10-second sales pitch about Domino’s Pizza Inc or 1-800-Flowers.com Inc if you make a request for a flower shop nearby during Valentine.
You can now do so with
1-800-FREE411 which was inspired by the business model of none other than, Google Inc (Nasdaq: GOOG, stock). Just like Google which make billions of revenue from online advertisement, Free411 survives through audio advertisement.George Garrick, the president and chief executive of Jingle Networks Inc., which runs the 1-800-FREE411 service says callers aren’t turned off by the 10 to 12 seconds long ads as people have just come to accept that advertising is a way of getting free stuff. In the U.S. directory-assistance market which had revenue of $6.5 billion in 2006, caller from mobile phone is charged an average of $1.50 per 411 call while fixed-line phones costs an average of $1.15 per call.
Jingle, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., announced it has raised $26 million recently from investors including IDG Ventures, Liberty Associated Partners and Comcast Interactive Capital, the venture-capital arm of cable giant Comcast Corp. This month, Jingle Networks Receives 2006 Award for Growth Strategy Leadership in the Rapidly Evolving North American Directory Assistance Market.
Other free 411-service-provider includes 1-800-411-SAVE and 1-800-411-METRO but you need to try all these out to see which one is more efficient. Google might have the plan to acquire one of these 411-providers since they share the same business model. Furthermore Google bought over dMarc back in january-2006 for $102 million in cash – signal that Google recognise the revenue potential from audio-advertisement. dMarc is a company that works with radio advertisers in the sales, scheduling, delivery and reporting of radio ads.
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January 19th, 2007 by financetwitter
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