Independent.co.uk hopes to make online and mobile revenues in 2010 with a social events planner site, in partnership with Iome.
The site allows users to plan nights out using a Google Maps mashup, communicate plans with friends, book tables and – crucially – take up bar and restaurant special offers, which is how publishing partners like the Indy get a cut of revenue, on top of a share in sponsorship and advertising revenue.
The site is a white label version of Iome's Plotstar site, but the Indy's version will be cross-marketed to its 10 million or so monthly unique users. Plotstar itself is mobile-friendly and an iPhone app is on the way. Social, mobile platforms are in vogue right now: from social life mobile "game" Foursquare to newcomer Rummble, startups are keen to give middle-class smartphone owners ways to constructively consume food and drink – in the hope that businesses and advertisers might start channeling marketing spend in their apps' general direction.
Meanwhile, the Indy's parent company, Independent News & Media, has closed the sale of South African advertising business INM Outdoor for 1.1 billion South African Rand (£90.1 million) to an African PE consortium led by Helios Investment Partners. That takes the proceeds from INM's frantic asset-selling drive past the €150 million (£135 million) mark in 2009. Release.
