By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
Public Wi-Fi services are still around – but what do such projects do when they run out of funds? GoZone WiFi may have launched at least a partial solution to that problem this week. GoZone’s new Ads4WiFi Media Network connects public and guest Wi-Fi service providers with thousands of hotspots to advertisers and promises “to revolutionize public Wi-Fi and digital out-of-home advertising,” GoZone WiFi says.
The need for connectivity is practically endless but funding to build and operate public Wi-Fi networks is of course limited. The idea of using advertising income to monetize and fund Wi-Fi networks has been around at least a decade but the difficulty has always been attracting the right mass of users for the proposition to be interesting to advertisers. It has also been a challenge to to come up with the right delivery mechanism. GoZone WiFi says they’ve now resolved both issues.
“There are lots of municipal Wi-Fi networks out there or similar projects aimed at connecting the unconnected for example in rural areas. They often run out of funds and need to shut down or even be dismantled. Our aim is to empower them to keep operating and we may even help them generate a net profit with advertising. We believe we now have the right platform to do this for any owner of hotspots,” says CEO of GoZone WiFi and founder of Ads4WiFi Media Network, Todd Myers.
Ads4WiFi Media Network invites owners and operators of any public or guest Wi-Fi network across the globe to join the platform for access to advertising revenue. This will build up a critical mass of eyeballs, which in turn will attract advertisers interested in a captive audience. “Hotspot or venue owners can be municipalities or anyone with a live Wi-Fi network, even for example temporary events like outdoor concerts and events, where Wi-Fi typically works a lot better than cellular and is always in high demand,” Todd Myers says.
Advertisers can then access a master list of hotspot locations while hotspot owners receive assistance for the initial onboarding of ads and campaigns. Todd Myers says neither Wi-Fi hardware nor the particulars of the captive portal used stand in the way of the hotspot owner’s opportunity to benefit from ad revenues via the new platform. “The technical solution we’ve chosen means we’re ready to support anyone with a live Wi-Fi service with ad revenue,” he says.
“There is so much fragmentation in the Wi-Fi guest venue space that there has been no easy way for advertisers to shop for audiences at a macro level. This gives them that tool at scale so Wi-Fi advertising becomes a more attractive channel. We believe our platform will drive not just new revenue streams but also make public Wi-Fi a much more attractive proposition. Ads may not pay for entire projects but revenues could in many cases be enough to keep public Wi-Fi services operating to the benefit of a lot of people,” Todd Myers says.
For more don’t miss GoZone WiFi at Wi-Fi World Congress USA in Sarasota, Florida on April 22-24. Go here for more information & tickets.
/Claus.
