Mobestar is snapping up Mobile Life Consulting in a cash and stock deal valued at nearly $665,000. The acquisition gives Mobestar access to a Mobile Life application that will enable Mobestar to extend access to its mobile video dating services to 3,000 wireless devices and PCs as well as emerging interactive and digital channels across the globe.
In January, Mobestar unveiled a multimedia call switching technology, dubbed FACE, that enables anonymous or nickname-based (rather than telephone number-based) video connectivity between mobile telephones. "This allowed online dating and online social networking businesses, outside of Japan, to meet regulatory requirements and to offer mobile video dating services to their customers," Mobestar says.
The initial service launch was carried out in the United Kingdom. Online dating service QSoft signed on as a customer to provide mobile video dating services to its 1.1million U.K. users.
In Japan, the market for numberless dating has an estimated worth in excess of $400 million annually, according to Mobestar.