Urban Planet Media & Entertainment, Inc. (Urban Planet Mobile), the leading provider of education and information products created specifically for delivery via mobile phone, has joined the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), Georgia Tech’s award-winning technology incubator.
In 2002, ATDC launched a Savannah initiative that focuses on assisting new ventures arising from Savannah’s diverse technology community and a growing number of startups. Selected companies are fully associated with ATDC but receive the added benefit of local personal assistance and attention.
Urban Planet Mobile was chosen based on the attractiveness of its business model that merges advanced technologies with high-demand content in an innovative way to reach billions of potential subscribers worldwide.
Brian OliverSmith, Urban Planet Mobile CEO, brainstormed the idea of delivering simple audio lessons through text messaging two years ago. His team has since built a library of more than 4,500 lessons in 11 languages. With Urban Planet Mobile’s unique offering, the burgeoning mobile content market is taken one step further through the development of Urban English™ anytime, anywhere learning that can be accessed by more than 90 percent of mobile phones worldwide.
With distribution agreements in place to deliver short audio English lessons to the United Arab Emirates through T.A. Telecom, Urban Planet Mobile is poised for exponential growth. The Urban English business line is also in development for Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Chile and Brazil.
OliverSmith describes Urban Planet Mobile’s innovative product line of short audio English language lessons as “providing the world with a native American English speaker in the palm of its hand.”
By signing up for the Urban English line of English lessons, the subscriber receives mobile daily audio downloads of lessons via Short Message Service (SMS). The lessons are available by clicking on a link to the lesson embedded in the text notification, which requires only a basic data plan. Alternatively, each SMS will provide a local country number routed to Urban Planet Mobile’s servers that play the lesson via interactive voice response technology.
The three- to five-minute lessons, which have been engineered to retain exceptional audio quality, use the same data for delivery as a 30-second ringtone. In this way, the more than 1.4 billion people worldwide actively learning English can affordably access quality audio English lessons anytime, anywhere with Urban Planet Mobile.
“In a world in economic turmoil, Urban Planet Mobile’s business model is of particular interest as the content they offer is in high demand and their delivery allows for unlimited scalability at an incredibly low cost, which in turn enables them to sell affordable subscriptions,” said Orjan Isacon, a venture catalyst with Savannah ATDC.
Member companies of ATDC have attracted more than $1 billion in venture capital since 1999, while more than 70 percent of the 122 firms that have graduated from the incubator are currently operating or have been acquired. Urban Planet Mobile is closing out a second round of investment at the end of August 2009.
ABOUT URBAN PLANET MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT
Urban Planet Mobile is the premiere language learning content developer for mobile delivery. The Urban Planet Mobile management team is extensively experienced in audio content development, production, distribution and marketing. Additionally, a team well-versed in developing learning curriculum is actively involved in all stages of building the entire family of products. The group is rounded out with international mobile content delivery and global business development experts on the sales and marketing side. Urban Planet Mobile is poised for exponential growth in a growth market. For additional information: press@up-me.com, www.UrbanPlanetMobile.com.
ABOUT ATDC
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) is a nationally recognized science and technology incubator that helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies. Headquartered at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, ATDC provides strategic business advice and connects its member companies to the people and resources they need to succeed. More than 120 companies have graduated from the ATDC.
In collaboration with the Georgia Tech Regional Engineering Program, Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Savannah Economic Development Authority, Coastal BETA and other local organizations, ATDC launched its Savannah initiative during spring 2002. The program assists new ventures arising from Savannah’s diverse technology community and a growing community of startups. For additional information: Orjan Isacson, venture catalyst, 912-963-2519, www.atdc.org.
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Writer: Nancy Fullbright