An Austrian mobile internet firm is claiming that it has made
the sector’s first profit. Sms.at an Austrian mobile portal,
announced that it has made an operating profit of £235,889 for the
first nine months of this year.
These results contrast with those of larger firms in the same
sector. Vizzavi, the portal joint adventure between Vodafone and
Vivendi, has yet to prove its path to profitability. Figures from
Genie, which is part of MMO2, the mobile services company offering
consumer and corporate communications solutions in the UK, Germany,
the Netherlands and Ireland, showed that it had made a six month
loss of £65m on revenues of only £39m.
Sms.at is owned by German wireless company UCP. Its chief
executive, Chriatian Lutz, said that the portal’s good fortune has
been the result of the introduction of paid services, including one
that allows users to process and send photographs on-line and over
mobiles.
