Buzzd, a location-based city guide and social network, has announced a deal with MetroPCS to bring the Buzzd mobile site to the carrier’s web deck. The version that will be deployed is a new development by Buzzd, a cross-carrier-compatible platform that works on basic mobile devices.
It’s a great deal for Buzzd. MetroPCS offers low-cost, prepaid data plans that attract the young, urban demographic–buzzd’s target audience. In fact, as consumers scramble to save pennies in an economic recession, MetroPCS’ 2008 3rd quarter subscriber base increased by 520, 000 bringing its total to 5.4 million. That’s a lot of eyeballs for the New York-based Buzzd, extremely important considering the company monetizes by displaying targeted banner ads.
If you’re not familiar with Buzzd, the application detects your location by GPS or cell tower triangulation and then assembles a list of places and events nearby. It has a simple user interface that organizes everything under Eat, Play, and Meet. Rather than pull together its own database of information, Buzzd aggregates listings from sites like Citysearch, Time Out, Flavorpill, myopenbar.com, and more. You can also post messages on event listings–kind of a hot or not feature–and text message friends.
Buzzd chief executive Nihal Mehta told Bits that a customized version will be available for the iPhone near the end of February and a Blackberry version will be available in March when its application store launches. You can still access Buzzd on those phones currently using your mobile browser. Mehta also said that film and movie listings would be available in the second quarter of 2009 and later in the year the service would expand to the United Kingdom and continental Europe.
Last year Buzzd signed deals with Virgin Mobile and Helio, and raised $3.2 million from the Blackberry Partners Fund.
