Look At Me! – O2 takes user-generated content into the mainstream (trade release)

As ‘housemates’ battle it out and ‘newlyweds’ fall apart, O2 and Yospace are today giving budding stars throughout the UK the chance to earn cash for their antics through the launch of ‘Look At Me!’.   The ‘Look at Me!’ service enables O2 subscribers throughout the UK to submit video clips on any subject to an online gallery, which can be viewed by other users on their mobile handset through the entertainment portal O2 Active. Each time a clip is downloaded, the original content contributor receives a payment of 3p.   Customers can text their submissions direct to 32323 and all clips submitted will undergo a rigorous human moderation process, which ensures that the clips hosted on the site are of excellent quality in terms of visual appearance as well as content. Contributors can also view the status of their account via their handset to see how many times their footage has been viewed   Part video blog and part mobile reality TV, ‘Look at Me!’ is initially launching as a public, category-based gallery offering a quirky selection of topics for browsing, including ‘Dead Impressive’, ‘Open Mic Comedy’, and ‘So Bad it’s Good’.  Users of O2 Active are able to select a clip of their choice to download for the cost of 35p   Grahame Riddell, Head of Content Marketing at O2 UK, comments, “The ‘Look at Me!’ service is a fun and interesting way for our customers to interact, whether they’re telling a joke, giving opinions on world events or even showing others how to knit! It really is up to our customers what the content will be. It’s a great service to build an interactive mobile community, which is the key to the future of mobile content. “User-generated content is the new mobile business model”, said David Springall, CTO and Co-Founder of Yospace. “There’s a world of compelling content out there and we’re enabling people to make money of it, quickly and easily. The incentive of earning cash from content, combined with the editorial control, ensures that the service will only contain the best clips.” 

The ‘Look at Me!’ service follows the recent launch from O2 of ‘Get Close To…’, the reality TV show created by Endemol and featuring the Sugababes, which was the first show to ever be filmed exclusively for and broadcast on mobile handsets.