In step with the rise of direct-to-consumer services via mobile, Bango has announced its inaugural Golden Gongs for mobile internet portals. A timely move, given that the majority of 18-34 year olds now use the mobile internet...

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Thirteen months ago Bango predicted that mobile content and services would evolve towards direct-to-consumer mobile internet portals. This was been born out during 2005 with the launch of mobile internet portals from content providers big and small.

To recognize the achievements of these content brands, Bango, on 7 December, announced its inauguraral "Golden Gongs", a series of awards to focus on and highlight the best in mobile content.

Bango is pleased to announce that the winners of the Golden Gongs 2005 are:

1. Category: Most promising entrant
Winner: Channel 4
This broadcaster has its own mobile portal featuring entertainment news and reviews, plus topical content from its cult programmes in a superb site developed by Volantis. The range of content has grown dramatically since the site's launch in June which coincided with the start of the Big Brother 6 series.

2. Category: Best user experience
Winner: Oasis official mobile site
This official mobile site from Big Brother Recordings & Sony BMG of the rock band Oasis, was developed by creative digital agency Graphico New Media. The site is easy to navigate, pages download fast as image sizes are adjusted for different handsets and a 'My Downloads' section lets people re-download past purchases if there was a problem with the network or when they change to a new phone.

3. Category: Best use of mobile marketing
Winner: The Sun Mobile
When London won the 2012 Olympic bid back in July 2005, The Sun newspaper celebrated with the Bull Dog ringtone, of a dog barking in time with the Rule Britannia tune from The Sun Mobile WAP site. We take our hats off to the Sun for a typically topical response to major news, and the ability to rapidly deploy a mobile service promoted through its own editorial.

4. Category: Most innovative service
Winner: GameOn from Image Semantics
This ground-breaking service provides multimedia, in-game coverage direct from the sports ground of every Premiership League football game. The photographic and text content is delivered in near real-time providing the consumer with a compelling match-day experience covering all the events and plays in the game. This service sets a new level for rich interactive media on mobile that will be hard to beat.

5. Category: Most useful mobile service
Winner: Yahoo! Instant Messenger
From the mobile Yahoo! service, wap.yahoo.com, you can send messages via instant messenger straight to someone's PC. We thought this was particularly useful if you need to get an urgent message through to someone and they are already on the phone. Instant Messenger plus multimedia attachments places an interesting future challenge to multimedia messaging.

Amongst these soaring eagles of 2005, it was inevitable that there would be at least one lame duck. To recognize the occasional navel-gazing to which all industries succumb, Bango awards a Wooden Gong this year to the .MOBI initiative.

Wooden Gong: .MOBI domain name
.MOBI is at best superfluous and at worst obstructive to the growth of the mobile internet. There is no real value to users who access most sites without knowledge of the URL in any case. To the content provider, this poses an unnecessary additional complication in launching a mobile service. Device detection is simple and widespread with internet sites, so the content provider can automatically render the most appropriate site to their users. Does the mobile industry still think of itself as a niche? With close to 720 million internet enabled mobile devices, content providers are launching services designed for mobile, for which their .com domain works just as well.

Commenting on these awards, Ray Anderson, CEO at Bango said: "There are around 720 million mobile phone users who can access the internet on their phone, so it is not surprising that the big brands are recognising the revenue opportunities this presents. We're seeing major brands launching their own mobile sites including Universal Music, Manchester United Football Club, The Sun and Channel 4 and selling content direct-to-consumer."

During 2005, Bango has experienced rapid growth in the number of people using the Bango Service from different corners of the world. Content was purchased through the Bango Service from 102 different countries as far afield as South Africa or Taiwan using over 250 different operator networks.

About Bango:
Bango (AIM: BGO) has developed and deployed an open, global infrastructure platform that enables content providers to market, sell and deliver their products and services directly to mobile phone users on all mobile networks using the mobile Internet. This "direct-to-consumer" approach operates alongside the mobile operator's mobile content portals. Leading mobile operators including Cingular Wireless, Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica and O2 work with Bango to accelerate the growth of their "direct-to-consumer" business. The Bango platform has given mobile phone subscribers around the world greater access to third-party content. Leading content brands are now adopting the Bango Service to engage with all of their existing and potential mobile customers directly - irrespective of mobile operator. www.bango.com