Bango announced today that it has appointed Cary Stanek as Customer Services Manager for the US. With the US experiencing a rapid growth in mobile web services, Cary joins the company to further strengthen Bango’s relationships with its key US customers.

The US, with over 226 million mobile subscribers, is fast becoming a mobile savvy market due to the popularity of flat-rate data plans. According to m:metrics, 31 million of US subscribers, access news and information on the mobile web, with downloading ringtones and games also being popular past times.

“The US content industry is now realizing the benefits of the mobile web in delivering safe and transparent subscription services to its consumers,” said Elaine Davies, VP Customer Services at Bango. “Cary’s new role is key and will contribute further to support and strengthen Bango’s relationships with our US customers.”

Cary brings over 15 years of experience in the wireless and internet industry, working at Verizon Wireless, AT&T and DotPhoto.com, where he managed their key accounts and successfully developed customer care and marketing programs. At DotPhoto.com he acted as the Carrier liaison and handled all aspects of on-going data wireless carrier support for over 23 wireless carriers throughout the United States and Latin America.

Bango has won the ‘Best Mobile Internet Use’ Award presented by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) on July 1 2008. These prestigious industry awards recognise companies and individuals that have made an outstanding and innovative contribution to the rapidly growing UK mobile data industry. This means Bango has won two awards in two weeks, after picking up a special Gold Award at the Mobile Content Awards last week.

In making their selection, the judges commented: “The Bango Service has been awarded the MDA award for the best use of the mobile internet because of the company’s contribution to getting both big brands and small content providers to take advantage of mobile internet services. The mobile internet market has faced many hurdles in the past but Bango has worked within the constraints and is an early innovator.”

“It is very rewarding to be recognised by the industry for our role as a pioneer of the mobile internet. We’ve helped business of all sizes harness the new opportunities presented by this rapidly expanding market by providing a mobile content monetisation solution for the mass market.” said Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango

“The aim of the MDAs has been to show how much world-beating talent there is in the UK for mobile data applications and technology, and this list of award winners does just that,” explained Vice Chairman, Steve Reynolds. “Our winners have been able to demonstrate innovation and commercial success, which deserves this level of recognition.”

Easy billing enables content providers to target 42 million mobile subscribers with an appetite for western content

Mobile web surfers are riding high as Bango today announced it is processing on-bill payments in South Africa, one of the leading countries in the mobile web. South Africa, which is in the top five countries in Bango’s mobile web surfing chart, has over 42 million mobile subscribers and a mobile penetration rate of between 85-90% of the population.

In South Africa, mobiles are the only way for much of the population to access the internet. This factor, combined with an appetite for western content and mobile savvy users, are key reasons for the country’s high traffic growth. And with South Africa being such a dynamic market, both mobile operators and content providers are keen to reach out to millions of subscribers and capitalize on this great opportunity.

“Just as the UK has done, South Africa is embracing off-portal and understands the importance of having an open model,” said Anil Malhotra, SVP Alliances and Marketing. “We have direct WAP billing with the leading South African operators, MTN and Vodacom, to help grow their off-portal services and make it easier for consumers in this top mobile market to pay for mobile content.”

The new on-bill payment available in South Africa gives consumers a simple mobile web-based payment flow, with payment through a single click to their phone bill to deliver the best conversion, payout rates, security and customer satisfaction. More at www.bango.com/payment

Included in the Bango payment service is the Bango Analytics tool which collects data about mobile web visitors - where traffic is coming from, the network and handset. Using its Bango user ID technology it can also identify unique visitors and reliably distinguish between new and repeat visitors. More at www.bango.com/analytics

Bango received the top industry award for ‘Best Contribution to Mobile Content’ at last week’s Mobile Content Awards (MCAs) 2008 in London. Organised by Visiongain, the awards recognised dynamic and technological achievement in the mobile content and applications arena.

The special Gold Award was presented to Bango in recognition of its achievements and commitment that has helped to drive forward the growth of the mobile content industry. Bango was selected by a team of industry experts and the award was collected by Martin Harris, Bango’s SVP of Sales, at the gala dinner in London.

“Peggy Anne Salz, who presented us with the award, commented: ‘From its start Bango has worked tirelessly and pioneered mobile internet technologies. Today it sits firmly at the centre of the mobile web ecosystem’. It is fantastic to receive this recognition from the industry and such an esteemed judging panel,” said Martin Harris, SVP of Sales of Bango.

Peggy Salz who was chairwoman and MC at the MCAs was impressed by, “the variety of the companies attending and the quality of those that made the shortlists.” In her view, “the attendance at the event represented a microcosm of the mobile industry, encouraging a productive interplay between key players in the mobile industry and enabling valuable networking opportunities.”

The event consisted of a two day conference and awards ceremony and gala dinner and brought together key industry players from mobile games, music, multimedia, messaging, TV and advertising and marketing companies.

Advertisers track behavior of unique visitors

Mobile ad network Admoda, which serves 1 billion ads per month globally, has partnered with Bango to offer its advertisers key metrics to measure the success of their mobile advertising campaigns. Bango Analytics enables Admoda advertisers to accurately identify, track and build a profile of each unique visitor, rather than simply measure the number of visits.

Bango’s unique user ID creates an accurate picture of real visitors from anywhere in world, tracking repeat visits and enabling mobile advertisers to create a clear picture of buying patterns and trends.

“The ability to measure mobile advertising response rates and pinpoint where to effectively invest advertising spend is essential for our advertisers,” said Terry Jackson, CEO, Admoda. “Quality analytics allows advertisers to fine tune their sites and optimise their ad campaigns with a view to maximising ROI. Bango Analytics will provide our clients with a comprehensive picture.”

Admoda focuses on delivering targeted ad campaigns for mobile-ready brands such as 4info, Minick, Movilisto, Shozu, Mobilestreams, Buongiorno, and Gameloft and has a separate solution, Adultmoda, suitable for adult and gambling companies. Adultmoda is the only adult mobile web ad network in the world and serves millions of Adult and Gaming ads each day on a global basis.

Advertisers can run targeted mobile web ad campaigns, on a CPM or CPC basis, using banners or text ads. Publishers can also monetize their mobile traffic by running text ads and banner ads on their pages to maximize the revenue generated.

To support further growth of the mobile advertising industry, the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) has recently released global mobile advertising guidelines designed to encourage the uptake by brands worldwide whilst enhancing and protecting the customer’s experience - www.mmaglobal.com

“Mobile advertising is an important element in driving traffic to mobile sites and creating brand awareness. Companies like Admoda provide a key service to drive mobile web activity and Bango Analytics adds greater insight and clarity to make measuring results simple,” said Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango.

Bango Analytics operates as a hosted service, allowing mobile website owners anywhere in the world to connect their sites to the Analytics service in minutes and start to use it free of charge. Try it at http://www.bango.com/analytics.