| Service: |
Interactive dating and chat service |
| Launch: |
December 2002 |
| Agency: |
Northern Interactive |
| Commercial model: |
“Pay as you go” via the telephony tariff |
| Result: |
Attracted over 130,000 Sky users |
| Result: |
Received 12 million messages since launch |
© Northern Interactive Ltd. All rights reserved.
Koopid is an interactive dating and chat service available on Sky Active. The Koopid interactive TV service runs in parallel with the koopid.com internet service. The two services feed a common database enabling Sky Active and internet users to interact.
Northern Interactive approached BSkyB with a proposal to produce the first dating application for the Sky platform based on the web-based application, koopid.com.
Traditionally, web-based dating applications use a subscription model with payment via credit card. For the Sky Active service, the team chose to offer a “pay as you go” service using the telephony tariff to generate the revenue stream. Users could send messages to Koopid via the alpha-numeric keypad on their remote control.
Testing took the form of “performance” or “stress” testing of the server infrastructure and “functional” testing of the software application. Prior to handing the service over to Sky, Northern Interactive was required to carry out testing in-house and demonstrate results via formatted scripts.
Koopid has attracted over 130,000 Sky users, who have sent more than 12 million messages since the service launched. Traffic on the iDTV service has now outstripped that seen on the web. And since launch, more than 7,000 Sky viewers claim to have met a new partner on Koopid. (Figures correct at December 2004.)