Hi james from mjelly here with another mobile 2.0 service of the week.   So far we’ve covered two mobile services which are either based in Germany (mjoy.com) or expanding into Germany (Flirtomatic.de).   We are going to continue the theme this week with itsmy.com – Europe’s leading mobile social network which is one of Germany’s biggest mobile 2.0 successes stories.

Europe’s leading mobile social network is based in Germany

Itsmy has been developed by the Germany company GoFresh who are based in München.  The key features are profiles, forums and chat rooms in addition to media sharing (video, photo).    In addition, itsmy.com offers a range of content services such as downloadable video, ringtones and games to provide more of an entertainment focus to the site and is positioning itself as “The MTV of mobile”.

You can *only* access itsmy.com over your mobile – there is no PC version.  The CEO of itsmy.com Vince Stabl told me that this is because they want the service to be seen as unique compared to online social networks – it’s something you can only access on your mobile device.

Itsmy have great traffic and are really gaining a lot of traction – even as the big online social networks like myspace and facebook expand onto mobile.   Itsmy.com have millions of users in major markets including the UK, US, Spain, Italy as well as in Germany:

• 2m registered users
• 4.5m pages created by users
• 10m content items (videos, pictures) uploaded

Itsmy.com is developing new mobile internet business models

There are lots of mobile social networks out there including some big players like Mocospace and Mobamingle.  However, itsmy.com is doing a lot of things that are unique in the market.

Firstly, itsmy.com is developing new forms of mobile advertising.  The site makes very limited use of mobile ad networks – instead they are selling directly to brands such as Ford and Vodafone.  They are offering new kinds of mobile ad formats such as sponsorship, virals and branded content.  In the short-term, this has meant that they have given up a lot of revenue, but they are building something much more valuable in the longer term and creating a unique position in the market.  Very few mobile companies are doing this and itsmy is a great example of a long-term investment strategy from a German company.

Secondly, itsmy.com are developing a virtual goods system to create another revenue stream from user payments.  Users can buy goods to enhance their profile on the site or to send as a gift to other users.  There is also an option to buy a “famebooster” which is a form of advertising to get more people to visit your profile.  Sites like Mobile Game Town in Japan are driving $100s millions in revenue from virtual goods and itsmy is bringing this business model to Europe.

That’s it for now – see you next time for another mobile 2.0 service of the week.

itsmy.com is on mjelly – a directory of thee best mobile sites at m.mjelly.com (mobile) and mjelly.com (PC)