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YouPark.com is one step downstream for mobile software vendors in that they offer an ecommerce sales and distribution network for such applications. So if you have a great mobile application and dont agree with teleco pricing structures, you could let YouPark sell the app from their site and split the revenue with them.
Even though YouPark competes with mature competitors like Handango.com, pocketgear.com and others, being an aggregator in the mobile space is a very very good place to be in - margins will continue to decline on the edges of the value-chain, which would mean the value gets driven to whoever can offer the highest-distribution for applications. Whats more, application vendors have been largely unhappy with Handango’s partnership pricing structures (taking 50% of the revenue or more) so there is always an opportunity for someone offering a better deal for the vendor to earn a limited-term exclusive distribution deal.
Their claim on the ISV partnership page is that YouPark will make “content visible on every possible channel like Mobile Operators, MVNOs, Brands, OEM & OS and our partner’s retail stores” - I am not sure how valid that is (honestly, I dont know how you could distribute content over an MVNO once it is already available over an ecommerce portal, but there might be a way to do that).
Still, my estimate from very flawed Alexa graphs indicate that YouPark.com might be seeing 4-5000 unique visitors / day on their ecommerce portal. Even picking a very average conversion rate of 0.7%, you are looking at about 35 purchases a day, which isnt bad business for them. The challenge will be to continue to give software vendors good returns as the number of options (for those 35 purchases) continue to increase.
When we met and spoke to their founders, they said they got fed up of the terms offered by telecos for software vendors and decided to solve the problem by building up their own distribution network - smart entrepreneurial thinking that.
| Written by Osama A. on 03/20/08 in PakStartup, Telecom |



March 20th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Youpark.com is a great place to monetize if you have a mobile product to sell. A benefit of using Youpark and handango or getjar (if deploying free business model) is that the Acquisition, Activation and Monetization are handled by the platform while the developers can focus on Retention, User Experience, Broad Handset Support and Manageability.
The Download and Activation steps need to bridged and in my opinion an application that allows for browsing, rating and commenting on available products will go a long way in converting all the eye balls into cash.
Adnan Ali
March 26th, 2008 at 12:40 am
I don’t see a value-add or a distinct advantage they offer. Is there anything specific to Pakistan at their site?
March 26th, 2008 at 1:13 am
This is a venture by PK guys but focused towards the international market