RealNetworks' CEO touts Unifi, hints at new uses for ringback tones

with Robert Kimball, CEO of RealNetworks

This was definitely a challenging year for digital entertainment services firm RealNetworks and its newly appointed President and CEO Robert Kimball. Kimball, who took the helm in January after the resignation of longtime RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, was tasked with the difficult job of cutting costs and restructuring the company. One of his more notable moves was in February to spinoff the RealNetworks/MTV joint venture, Rhapsody America, into an independent entity. Kimball recently talked with FierceMobileContent's Editor in Chief Sue Marek about RealNetworks' "second chapter" in digital entertainment, and how the company is banking on its new Unifi cloud-based service to re-establish itself in the mobile market.

 FierceMobileContent: You have been CEO of RealNetworks for a year now. What has been the biggest challenge during your tenure?

Kimball: It was a challenging year because we were taking a business that was highly complex--it had 15 years of accumulation of bloat and complexity and international offices and U.S. offices and people everywhere. In many cases these people were working on similar or related projects but without the necessary connection and communication for an organization of our size to be efficient.

Simplifying that and taking out costs and focusing the business was a huge challenge. It has been a tough year but it was fun to do that work. My team was very excited to take the project on. The people that are here believe that RealNetworks' second phase can be great, and they are up for the challenge and excited to have the board's strong support to do that.

But it is always challenging when you have to let people go. That is the toughest part. Any company trying to re-establish itself as a leaner, cleaner, more efficient company is going to have tough riffs in the year--it's certainly toughest for the people that lost their jobs.

On the plus side, we have released a lot of new products that have been well received. We have a new version of RealPlayer out. We have a new cloud product called Unifi. We previewed that last week, and we are getting great feedback from mobile carriers that are interested in running this product on their network.  

We have also launched our new, converged storefront with MetroPCS, and are working hard so we can launch on Sprint as well. We launched a portion of that for Boost Mobile.

When I step back, I'm proud of the fact that the company got all this work done in terms of new customers and new products. At the same time we were essentially changing the engine in an airplane that we were still flying. It was a complex thing to do.

 FierceMobileContent: You mentioned the cloud-based service called Unifi. Cloud services have been getting a lot of buzz recently, and everyone seems to have a different definition of what it means. Why did you think the time was right to launch this? And how will this work with the cloud-based services that mobile operators have talked about launching?

Kimball: We came out with Unifi because we know that we are at a point where the proliferation of different devices and ability to create and consume media on all these devices is creating an opportunity and pain point. Consumers are having trouble organizing and finding and enjoying music and videos and photos they have across their devices.

This product brings that all together and allows them to see and control all that in one place. It plays directly to a couple of RealNetworks' core strengths. First, media in general is the foundation of the company, and second, we are great at building these media experiences across different operating systems. We have to support Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS, Android, Symbian and BlackBerry, etc. It's a very different world than it was five years ago.

Finally, we have two great channels to sell this product to. We have a huge, direct-to-consumer business that we can use as a sales channel. And we have a large base of carrier customers to form a channel. We have over 90 carrier customers in our overall portfolio.

FierceMobileContent: But doesn't this have the potential to be competitive with operators' own cloud-based services?

Kimball: In terms of mobile carriers, we have seen that they like the idea of a mobile product that is solving a problem and that helps them sell high-end phones with big data plans and keep consumers engaged with carriers in the media business.  

The combination of a unified personal media cloud product with a carrier's converged storefront, you can see how it lets that carrier stay tied to the consumer. And that's great for churn.

I see what we are doing is acting as a vendor service provider. The carriers don't want to solve every element of all their issues on their own. We bring deep expertise that will combine well with the operators' heavy-duty network skills. I don't think of it as competitive. We want to help them make those services great.

FierceMobileContent: Tell me about MetroStudio, the platform you developed for MetroPCS.

Kimball: MetroStudio is built on same media entertainment platform, which enables us to deliver any digital content to any device using any business model. With MetroStudio, we provide the storefront for music, video, ringtones and any digital good. We allow consumers to come to that one digital store and buy their content in one place. I think we replaced five different vendors who had different stovepipe solutions. Now you can come to one place and see the song and buy it or if you want it to be your ringtone, you can do that.

It's a simple, one-stop shop for all your digital goods. It's a way to build a version of iTunes for everyone else, and it allows all those handsets that aren't Apple handsets to have a rich and integrated media experience.

FierceMobileContent: Isn't MetroPCS positioning MetroStudio as a driver to get people to upgrade to LTE?

Kimball: I don't think carriers are going to give up on being part of their subscribers' digital lives and providing video and music and other digital entertainment. I think that carriers are going to push hard to make that something consumers do with the carrier. You have to have a converged storefront to make that work.

One thing we looked at when building this media entertainment was the number of clicks it took to find a ringback tone--somewhere between 17-25 clicks. By making that a simpler and more fun experience is making a difference already at MetroPCS.

FierceMobileContent: How is Sprint's implementation going to be different?

Kimball: We are using our same platform, but they have their own flavor of similar converged storefront. We have a different team putting it together for them so they can have their own look and feel. But fundamentally it is the same type of converged storefront where they can sell any digital media using any business model. Out of the gate, our plan is to make that focused on music and ringback tones and ringtones. It will not involve video. 

 FierceMobileContent: When will that launch?

Kimball: We are working hard on it, and hope it will be in the near future. We have not announced any date.

FierceMobileContent: What other things are you working on?

Kimball: One interesting area in the coming IMS world is the ability to use the technology and infrastructure that we have in carrier networks to deliver ringback tones to do compelling two-way communications. We haven't rolled it out yet, but we are working on this area. We are already in the carrier network and it's a place where you can provide services that can't be provided over the top. We believe this is an area where carriers can add value and we are well-positioned to provide services in that area. We have 70 percent of the U.S. ringback tone market.

FierceMobileContent: Can you give me an example of what you mean by two-way communications?

Kimball: As their networks become more advanced and bidirectional there is more you can do with that technology. For example, when I call Alaska Airlines, instead of just hearing an operator, I may get on my smartphone an image of their website and buttons I can push to check my flight status or make a reservation. That would immediately pop up on my phone. That might be in the form of a video ringback tone. Think of services like that where you are immediately getting engagement with the consumer instead of using a voice-controlled menu.