cases directly to the consumer. NewBay focuses 100 percent on providing a highly scalable technology platform to our operator- and device manufacturer-customers. We allow them to offer a wide range of standalone or bundled digital lifestyle services to their subscribers.
X: Who are your major competitors, and how do you differ from them?
TB: There are a variety of service providers that either provide point solutions to operators and OEMs or directly to consumers, but the LifeCache platform differs in its ability to provide services and capabilities across the spectrum of digital lifestyle services. This broad group includes Google, Apple, Mozy, Dropbox, Seven, Real Networks, Motricity and OnMobile.
X: NewBay already has offices in California—why did the company decide to make Seattle its U.S. headquarters?
TB: NewBay originally established its U.S. presence in Bellevue, Washington, in 2005 to provide local support for T-Mobile USA, while identifying new business opportunities to grow market share. Seattle is the ‘mobile Silicon Valley,’ which made it the perfect location for our new Americas headquarters. As we continue to grow our customer base, we will focus on recruiting new talent across multiple disciplines in Seattle including business development, marketing, finance, engineering, operations and professional services.
X: Does the new U.S. headquarters coincide with a grander international expansion plan?
TB: NewBay already has a large customer presence in Europe and earlier this year we announced our first Asia-Pacific customer, with Telstra’s Tribe service supported by our Social Network Gateway (SNG).
Seattle is the HQ for the Americas, and NewBay is planning a more aggressive push into the CALA [Caribbean and the Latin American] region in 2011.
Our OEM (connected devices) business is also supported out of the Seattle office. Earlier this year we announced our first OEM customer—LG, which uses our social network service for many of their phones.
X: You have said NewBay has aggressive hiring plans for Seattle this year and in 2011. How many do you expect to hire in the Seattle office, and for what positions?
TB: We plan to hire an additional 100 employees over the next 12 months. We will be hiring across multiple disciplines, including: business development, marketing, finance, engineering, operations and professional services. Also, we plan to hire local support in the CALA region in 2011. Most recently, we appointed our new vice president of global marketing in Seattle, Steve French.
X: How does NewBay fit within the community of cloud-based software/digital media companies, both globally and in the Seattle area?
TB: We are the global leader in providing user-content ecosystems to service providers. Today this might still be considered to be a niche, but moving forward local companies like Real and Motricity as well as major global corporations will try to compete with us in this space.
