Colombocity.mobi launched as Sri Lanka’s first DotMobi site

Sri Lanka launched its first DotMobi site, creating what site owner Infotechs and their marketing partner BatesAsia/141 described as a “City Guide in Your Hand”. Named colombocity.mobi (http://colombocity.mobi), the made-for-mobile website is a city guide that provides listings of places to eat, drink, shop, get entertained or call in an emergency. It is also primarily an advertising medium bringing on-demand information access for consumers on the move, the promoters said in a statement handed out at this week’s launch.

Explaining the movement to on-demand advertising, marketing expert and CEO of BatesAsia Nimal Gunewardena said, “Today’s consumer is mobile and elusive. He is not always sitting in front of the TV for advertisers to beam their ads. Even when he is, he maybe watching one of 19 terrestrial and satellite channel choices or one of many more if he is a cable TV viewer. Radio, with 28 national channels, has the same fragmented audiences. Today he is more apt to seek information about products and services on his own time-line. This site provides the opportunity for various service-providers and retailers in Colombo to be literally on-hand when the consumer decides he is in the mood to buy.”

Susantha Pinto, Chairman of Infotechs, said, “DotMobi is a new development of made-for-mobile Internet sites. Registration of domain names became available from September last year having been developed internationally with the involvement of Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, Hutch, Vodafone, Visa, T-Mobile and others.

DotMobi sites are designed for easier access and downloading on mobile phones than the DotCom sites which were designed for computer access. This is one of several key sites we have registered and will develop to meet various needs from shopping and healthcare to tourism to foreign employment.”

The site lists and categorizes restaurants and shops of various types, hotels, pubs, nightclubs, gyms, salons, spas, taxis, hospitals, pharmacies, airlines, real estate buys as well as emergency services. It promises to provide constant updates giving the latest events and offers from these institutions. Advertisers can use banner ads or page ads with text that updates offers each month.

Users can call through to an institution with one click. In an innovative feature that reflects its essence as a “living” site, the homepage photos change to the time of day.