Toluu

PeterEvers.net

I’m The Next Web’s new mobile editor!October 19 2008

A week ago I suddenly realised that this blog is a way for me to show what I can do and what I know. A so-called portfolio blog. I never had the intention to grow a big audience here. I just needed a site to point people to that we’re interested in me or my work. However, after a while I became a bit disappointed about the lack of comments at my blog. Although I was completely aware that I wouldn’t get a big audience without daily blogging and some SEO work, I started to miss an audience to share and discuss my views with. At that moment I decided to contact a close friend, Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in-chief of The Next Web, to ask him if he could use some expertise on mobile on The Next Web. Fortunately his answer was positive.

Nothing will actually change here, everything I’ll write on The Next Web will be found here as well. Even a bit more (like this nice little post). If you have never heard of The Next Web (shame on you) do pay us a visit (and bookmark and/or subscribe to the RSS feed). The Next Web is best de

Oyster Mobile is comingSeptember 4 2008

I actually wanted to introduce a new section at my blog here, it would have been called ‘mobile ideas’. But sometimes your idea is just too simple and you realize you can’t be the only one thinking about it. My idea was Oyster Mobile. For non-Londoners: an Oyster Card is a card used for payments in public transport, used when entering and exiting the tube stations of London. You pay by touching an ‘oyster’, which is shown in the picture, with your card. The technology behind this is called Near Field Communication, which basically means that there are two chips and a wireless signal which is received when the chips are near each other. This technology can also be used for payments with your mobile phone. You can simply provide a phone with an NFC chip and connect it to an application on your phone to make payments. This was my initial idea, a bad one (more…)

How to monetize a mobile service?September 3 2008

The last two weeks of August I was on holiday in my home town Amsterdam. As I can’t sit still for a minute, never mind two weeks, I helped Edial Dekker, a friend, with a business plan for his mobile startup MapTheGap. He is currently participating in a startup competition by Vodafone and just today, he made it to the last six startups in the race to win 100,000 euro of investment money! Hopefully partially thanks to my mobile marketing advice. It inspired me to write this post.

I think one of the most common mistakes startups make is choosing the sell out strategy. They hope to make their service so appealing that a big player has no choice but to acquire them. What if that’s not happening? Well, then you run out of money sooner or later, go bankrupt, and your startup has stayed a startup forever. In these times of economic slowdown it seems a pretty risky strategy. (more…)

London Calling Volume 3: First week at workJuly 16 2008

This is the third episode of London Calling, a series of posts about my experiences in London accompanied with a short soundtrack. Press play and start reading.

Last week I started with my job as a mobile executive at Unanimis. It was a dive into the deep end, as the mobile advertising business is booming. I am forced the learn everything in the quickest possible way. And I think that’s the best way. My colleagues are great too, they are really helpful and patient when it comes to employees from abroad. I also have a fellow colleague from abroad, he’s from France. It’s funny how much things you have in common when you’re both working abroad for the first time. So after seven working days and a company party I really feel in the right place. Although every now and then I still need to get used to some British things. Like having beer during lunch, that would probably get you fired in the Netherlands, but here in the UK it seems a common thing. (more…)

London Calling Vol. 2: DifferencesJuly 5 2008

This is the second episode of London Calling, a series of posts about my experiences in London accompanied with a short soundtrack. Press play and start reading.

“Are you mad, kid?” asked the taxi driver when I told him I moved away from Amsterdam and I was on my way to my new home in London. “You’ll probably want to go back there in two days” he said. (more…)