Vodafone
has secured deals with three of the web's highest-profile brands to enable
Vodafone Live customers to access mobile versions of
MySpace,
YouTube
and eBay.
Applications can be downloaded to existing handsets, and future phones will
have the software embedded.
The MySpace deal represents the company's first move into the European mobile
sector. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
Colin Digiaro, senior vice president of sales at MySpace, said in a
statement: "Millions of people use MySpace as their primary means of
communicating with family and friends, so it is vital that we make this
available on the move."
The eBay deal is also exclusive to Vodafone in most of Europe, although not
in the UK where the internet auction platform is already available to customers
of O2's
i-Mode
service.
Vodafone Live customers in the UK, and later in key European markets, will
also be able to access a version of YouTube.
Google-owned
YouTube will provide a daily selection of new videos, and customers can search
for content, forward links to contacts and upload video from their mobile
phones.
YouTube co-founder Steve Chen said: "People want to view and share favourite
YouTube videos wherever and whenever they want. Partnering with Vodafone will
accelerate those efforts."
Frank Rovekamp, chief marketing officer at Vodafone, said this week that the
three partnerships are vital to the company's consumer appeal.
"Through attracting the most popular internet brands onto Vodafone mobile
devices, we will continue to ensure that our customers can access and share the
best entertainment anytime and anywhere," he said.
Vodafone already has agreements with
MSN's
Windows
Live Messenger as well as with Google.
None of the three new services is yet available, and industry analysts
Ovum warned that
Vodafone will need to come through on its promises sooner rather than later.
"Although Vodafone is moving ahead with its internet brand partnerships, we
do not always get the impression that it is very cheerful about it," said Ovum
in a statement.
"The Google partnership was announced a year ago, but no subscriber service
has reached the market yet. We will be pleasantly surprised if the [MySpace and
eBay services] happen very quickly."
YouTube was acquired by Google last October for $1.65bn. MySpace is owned by
News Corporation, which bought the site for $580m (£333m) in July 2005.
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