Absolutely Free phone calls to North America thanks to ads

Posted on October 2, 2007
Filed Under web 2.0 news |

A new company called Pudding Media has been on everyone’s lips for at least a week.

Pudding Media is a San Jose-based startup building an interesting technology that opens new advertising real estate, enabling brands to display contextually relevant information and offers in real time to consumers based on keywords spoken in their calls. Pudding Mediaâ€™s platform allows any communications provider â€“ mobile carrier, Internet telephony service, even Web publisher â€“ to offer new ad-supported calling plans.

Basically it allows to make phone calls to North America for free. That’s how it works: “When certain keywords are spoken, interesting and timely news, entertainment, and offers are displayed on the screen. For example, a consumer talking about movies may see links to trailers, reviews and show times for nearby theaters. A sports fan talking about a favorite team may see commentary and game statistics on a computer or handset screen”.

I am a bit scared by privacy issue, but it seems that they can guaranteed confidentiality. Nevertheless it will probably take time to convince people to use it.

It would be interesting to find out how much this company could be worth. I am sure many VCs would be intereste in buying shares and extend this project to many countries all over the world.