[Toronto, CANADA] Teen-targeted portals might be brimming with talk of Brad Pitt and the latest in
Tommy Hilfiger garb, but the companies who run such sites are struggling to stay
alive. Beauty and fashion teen site Kibu closed its doors after less then two
months. San Francisco-based Snowball, which owns teen-girl portal ChickClick,
has whittled its 500-strong staff down to 250 employees. And dELiA Corp.
buried its spin-off iTurf in late November, a move that is expected to generate a
US $100,000 loss for the parent company.
Such struggles, however, haven’t deterred Bolt Inc. and Bell Mobility from
attempting to cash in on the teen market. Bolt, a New York-based online
community for 15- to 20-year-olds and Bell Mobility, a Canadian wireless
company, have teamed up to provide tech-savvy teens access to Bolt’s suite of
propriety tools on MobileBrowser, Bell Mobility’s wireless Internet service.
Bell Mobility users with a MobileBrowser-ready PCS phone can use Bolt tools –
including My Profile, Bolt Notes, Tagbooks and Polls – to search for new friends
and discuss a variety of topics with Bolt’s four million teen members from around
the world directly on their mobile phones.
“Bolt’s tools provide a highly sticky environment that compels our audience to
spend more time on Bolt than on any other Web site for teens. By partnering with
Canada’s leading wireless company, Bolt is able to connect a large and
established global audience ready to communicate with the thousands of teens
who use Bell Mobility’s services,” said Dan Pelson, chairman and CEO of Bolt.
Bell Mobility is Bolt’s first Canadian wireless service provider partner, expanding
Bolt’s alliances which already include U.S. wireless companies AT&T Wireless,
Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless and Arch Communications. More than 30 percent
of Bolt’s four million members come from outside the U.S., with Canadian teens
accounting for more than 250,000 members. As part of the agreement, Bolt will
be featured in sales collateral that will be distributed at retail points-of-sale and
posted on Bell Mobility’s Web site.
