Handango CEO Bill Stone says he's even more optimistic about the smartphone content space now than when he joined the company a few months ago.
For one thing, the smartphone category overall is driving growth, he says. Smartphone shipments hit 118 million in 2007, up 53% compared with the previous year, according to Canalys.
Historically, the only ways to distribute content were through a carrier or direct to consumer, but with Android and Apple, more people are joining the value chain. Handset OEMs are taking a more active role, and they're starting to preload content on the device or SD cards, offer it on CDs in the box or selling it through their own Web stores. Often, they're looking to Handango for assistance.
Handango just raised an additional $9.5 million in its Series C financing round, and all of its Series B investors came back. Part of the funds will be used to support Handango's global expansion. In fact, Handango's opportunities are bigger outside the United States, Stone says.
Handango focuses on smartphones and while the space is growing fast, Stone doesn't rule out the possibility of one day targeting feature phones.
Handango this week also released its 2007 Year-end Yardstick, which found that, for the first time, entertainment content was the leading sales category for smartphones, moving up from third place in 2006.