Ad-funded mobile operator reaches 200,000 in UK

LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Blyk, the world's first mobile operator funded solely through advertising, has increased its number of members to 200,000, double the number it had in April, its chief executive and co-founder said on Wednesday.

The Finland-based company launched in Britain last year, offering 16- to 24-year-olds a number of free text messages and call minutes in return for accepting up to six advertising messages per day.

Blyk works with brands such as Coca-Cola (KO.N), L'Oreal (OREP.PA) and Sky (BSY.L) to push advertising messages to young people who have expressed an interest in those brands. Members get 217 SMS text messages and 43 call minutes a month in return.

CEO Pekka Ala-Pietila told analysts and journalists Blyk achieved the highest response rates for the lowest cost of any advertising medium: 25 percent of those who receive ads respond to them, costing advertisers 50 pence ($0.89) per response.

The closely held company plans to launch the service in the Netherlands late this year or early next year and in Germany, Spain and Belgium in 2009, giving it a potential market of 24 million people aged 16 to 24.

"In the context of the hundreds of millions of mobile phone users in Europe, its subscriber base of 200,000 in the UK seems small but it's a highly focused target market," said Ben Wood, research director of research firm CCS Insight.

Blyk's operations are closely watched by traditional mobile carriers struggling to find replacements for dwindling voice call revenues but most are still working out how to devise suitable campaigns and how to split the revenues with partners. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Quentin Bryar)