Poynting the Way: A Conversation With Multiplied Media

Today I had the chance to talk to Multiplied Media, the company behind the fast moving Poynt mobile search product. In the past year, it has planted its stakes as the most popular mobile local search app for BlackBerries.

Earlier this year it won the BlackBerry developer challenge, which emboldened this position. Now it has 1.2 million unique users, growing at about 1 percent per day. This is a user base the company is interested in, says CEO Andrew Osis, because they are on-the-go professionals who are inclined to use it often and with higher commercial intent.

Reaching Out

The content partners it’s formed (such as V-Enable) reflect this goal: being strong in categories such as restaurants and movies. Going forward the company is big on expanding this usage to include more tightly integrated categories for the everyday searcher, including everything from weather to gas prices.

This goal will also involve extending beyond BlackBerry to other mobile platforms. First on its list, not surprisingly, is the iPhone — an app could be out before the end of the year, says head of Communications Margaret Gover-Campbell. Then it will go down the list to the usual suspects of platforms including Android and Windows Mobile.

But in addition to content categories and devices, the company is also very much interested in growing its functionality. This involves the goal to “beefen rather than broaden” the product, says Campbell. In other words, more ways to engage users beyond “what” and “where” searches. Equally important is “what’s next.”

This could include more features that help users to discover what’s around them and transact. Poynt already includes restaurant booking via OpenTable and movie tickets via MovieTickets.com. Next up is coupons, which will come about via pending acquisition of UnoMobi.

Jumping Ahead

Meanwhile, there are many more goals to beef up this capability. In addition to undisclosed content partners in vertical categories, it’s talking to those that will help it increase its geographic scope. Among others, it currently works with Superpages in the U.S., Yellowpages.ca in Canada and t-info in Germany.

Otherwise, Osis, like everyone else navigating mobile markets is trying to follow quickly evolving user behavior and yet-to-be-defined advertiser proclivities. So far, he’s doing a better job than most. Stay tuned for announcements on all of the above.

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Related: See a video demo of Poynt in action on the BlackBerry Storm.