MobilizingUSA Targets 23 Million SMBs in Effort to Jumpstart U.S. Mobile Economy
NEW YORK, June 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — New York City startup bMobilized, whose technology converts any website into an advanced, HTML5 mobile site, today launched a national initiative to mobilize every small and medium-sized business in America. MobilizingUSA has spent six months building a database of millions of mobile websites, and today will make it available to all U.S. SMBs — at no cost.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130610/PH29125-a)
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130610/PH29125-b)
The startup hopes to pave the way for some 23 million U.S. SMBs, 98% of which are not optimized for mobile[*], to jump on the mobile bandwagon. In doing so, the company hopes to accelerate the U.S. mobile economy. The new, free mobile sites mirror the original websites' graphical look and work perfectly on any mobile device, OS and browser.
"We are proud to finally launch MobilizingUSA," said Bjorn Holte, founder of bMobilized, the New York City startup whose do-it-yourself conversion technology powers the program. "Our new platform will hopefully solve a huge problem for business owners who simply can't afford to hire expensive vendors that charge thousands of dollars to build even a basic mobile website, let alone a native mobile app."
MobilizingUSA uses proprietary technology from bMobilized. The company's Automatic Content Identification (ACI) system uses 300+ algorithms to capture, convert and organize all of a website's editorial and graphical elements, in under 30 seconds, to create an industry standard HTML5 mobile site optimized to any mobile device, operating system and browser. In addition, the new free mobile site auto-syncs any changes to the host website eliminating the need to maintain two separate sites.
The mandate for SMBs to mobilize is clear: in 2012, nearly 28 percent of web traffic came from mobile devices, and by 2016, shopping on smartphones and tablets will account for 25 percent of retail ecommerce**. Furthermore, a just-published study from Pew finds that 56% of American adults are smartphone users.***
MobilizingUSA acts like a portal wherein any American company can find a mobile version of their existing website. It has a unique URL for each mobile site, which is the site name followed by MobilizingUSA.com, i.e., yoursite.mobilizingusa.com. Every mobile site has a link back to the original site, and social sharing already is in place.
MobilizingUSA also serves as a hub for all third-party mobile services. Currently we have connected bMobilized to allow companies to easily and inexpensively customize them with Google AdSense, Analytics, YouTube, Ordr.in, click-to-call, maps, social-sharing, ecommerce and more to enhance engagement with their visitors or customers. Customization is offered at just $9 a month with a free trial at sign-up.
Business owners interested in having a free HTML5 mobile site should visit www.MobilizingUSA.com and type in the URL of their desktop website. bMobilized's conversion engine will take it from there.
Video Tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPIeI-_TtZQ
Interview with Bjorn Holte:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcS9yuFOvgk
About MobilizingUSA & bMobilized Inc.
MobilizingUSA (www.MobilizingUSA.com), a subsidiary of bMobilized Inc., is a portal that provides free browser-based mobile websites to all U.S.-based businesses. Using bMobilized technology, MobilizingUSA has been crunching websites for the last six months and now, at its launch, has several million mobile websites ready for U.S. businesses to deploy. It seeks to mobilize several million small and medium-sized U.S. businesses.
bMobilized Inc.
Headquartered at 670 Broadway in New York City, bMobilized (http://bMobilized.com) pioneered DIY website-to-mobile conversion that offers small and medium businesses advanced, easy-to-use and cost-effective mobile site creation tools. The cloud-based technology let companies automatically convert their existing website to an industry standard HTML 5 mobile experience that is supported on all devices, browsers and OS's.
The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oslo, Norway-based bMenu, relocated to New York City in 2010 where it currently has 15 full-time employees. In May 2012, the company accepted $1.5 million in Series A funding from several established European venture capital firms – Alliance Venture, Investinor and Alden AS – and in December, an additional $2.5 million.
Contact:
Bjorn Holte, founder & president
bMobilized Inc
bjorn [at] bMobilized.com
Cell 718 964 8228
Peter Himler
Flatiron Communications LLC (for bMobilized)
phimler [at] flatironcomm.com
Twitter: @peterhimler
Google Voice: 516-308-1120
[*] vSplash SMB Digital Landscape (Sept. 2012)
[**] eMarketer.com (Jan. 2013)
[***] Pew Internet (June 2013)