SINGAPORE mobile content firm Cellcity is planning to go on a global business blitz.
It wants to bring its fledgling service Digital Concierge 2Go - an online and mobile traveller's guide - to over 50 cities by next March, said the two-year- old company's 48-year-old CEO Dannie Francis.
He is also projecting monthly revenue to swell from the current forecast of $180,000 to $3.8 million by June next year.
It is an ambitious plan, but Mr Francis told BizIT in an interview last week that his 26-staff strong company is confident. 'Because we are digital, we are global already,' he said.
Cellcity has so far acquired the 'right' content and could find strong global appeal due to the openness of its platform, which lets merchants and other service providers easily roll out online and mobile services, he said.
'We have now acquired content in 330 cities worldwide, so the only thing that's preventing us from opening up now is having sales partners,' he said. 'Our first business development goal is to establish ourselves in key travellers' cities around the world.'
Digital Concierge 2Go is a Web and mobile phone- based application that provides essential travelling, entertainment and shopping information. Through it, users can find out where to eat, what to do and where to go in cities via their mobile phones.
Examples of content are location-aware maps, shopping directories, street directories, weather forecasts, real time flight schedules, taxi-bookings and currency conversion applications.
To get the service, users need to download a Java- based software that's about 550KB in size - about one-fifth the size of an MP3 song. The business model for Cellcity is simple: Merchants pay it to deliver services and content on Digital Concierge 2Go.
This service began last June as a pilot partly-funded by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
The pilot version, called Digital Concierge, was conceived as a means of creating new ways of doing business for the local tourism, hospitality and retail sectors, as well as being part of the government's Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) masterplan.
Cellcity and local IT service firm Frontline Technologies (now known as BT Frontline) developed the pilot.
With the pilot now complete, the updated commercial service - which has been renamed Digital Concierge 2Go - is expected to be formerly launched this month in Singapore.
Mr Francis has set several bullish business targets. He is targeting about 350,000 registered users for Digital Concierge 2Go in Singapore by June next year (it has about 10,000 users now, he said).
He is also hoping to add 100 new merchants a month to the service in that period - Cellcity has signed up about 100 merchants in total to date.
Another target is to grow the company's staff size to 60 worldwide by next June, as well as open new overseas offices in Europe, Australia, Middle East and the US to cater for growth.
As for plans to land Digital Concierge 2Go in over 50 cities by next year, the target cities include Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Marseille, Dubai, Barcelona, Auckland, Wellington, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.
Singling out US startup Rearden Commerce as Cellcity's only major competitor now, Mr Francis is seeing a 12 to 18 month window of opportunity in which to establish Digital Concierge 2Go as a first mover in the market.
Cellcity has raised about $2.8 million in funds so far and is currently in talks with venture capital firms and could raise a further $700,000 by next month, he said. 'We want to raise $10-15 million in the near term, which will hasten our speed to market.'
And marketing the Digital Concierge 2Go with a strong Singapore flavour overseas will be a key goal.
'This is a home grown product and we want to make sure the 'Made in Singapore' element is recognised as we go to market around the world,' he said.
This article was first published in The Business Times on Jun 2, 2008
