UNDER THE RADAR: Tim Duggan, Mercury Girl Inc: WITH 80 million smartphone users worldwide, the smartphone applications industry is worth about €1 billion a year.
But if you’re an Irish company planning to cash in on that growth, you’ll have to think global – the local market alone will not be enough.
“I would think Ireland’s share of the global market is very low, probably less than 0.1 per cent,” says Tim Duggan, co-founder of Mercury Girl Inc, which develops software and games for industry leaders such as the iPhone, BlackBerry and Google Android.
“So we’ve never focused on the local market; our focus has always been global. Because of our association with Apple, we now sell our applications in 80 countries. And the more Apple rolls out iTunes and the iPhone, the bigger our market becomes.”
Mercury Girl Inc is not the first venture for Duggan (28) and his business partner, John Callaghan.
In 2007, they set up media production house Mercury Boy Inc, which, among other things, produces TheBubble.ie, an online video magazine focusing on the arts.
“Mercury Girl Inc was different: we saw a wave of opportunity with the launch of the iPhone and we immediately jumped into our swimming shorts,” smiles Duggan.
“We were determined to become Ireland’s first software company specialising in smartphone applications – and we succeeded.”
The company has four applications on sale at the online iTunes App Store, another eight in production, and as many as 30 more in the pipeline.
The first application to reach the marketplace was iPub, an invaluable little number which, no matter where you are in the world, can locate the nearest “authentic” Irish pub and tell you how to get there – or how to avoid it, depending on your inclination.
Another is Twecipe, a cookery application developed with award-winning chef Niall Harbison.
“The idea is that you type in three ingredients that you have in your fridge and it will produce a recipe that you can use them to make,” says Duggan.
But more popular than either of those are the Newstalk and Today FM radio applications, both of which are among the top-10 sellers at the iTunes App Store.
“We’ve been giving those away for free, but they’ve been doing around 2,500 downloads a day worldwide, which gives some idea of the size of the Irish diaspora,” says Duggan.
“We’ve had downloads in Vietnam, in South America and even in Greenland.”
The downloads may be free, but the applications themselves have given rise to valuable business opportunities.
“We created a template radio player which takes a radio station’s feed and supplies it to smartphones,” explains Duggan.
“Since then we’ve been approached by an Australian radio group which wants to license that template from us, or commission us to build radio players across their network of 16 stations. And, of course, we own the code for that template.”
According to Duggan, the company is also in talks with the owners of Newstalk and Today FM about developing those applications into “something much larger”.
“That could include, for example, radio podcasts,” he says. “So that would be significant and, again, would help our profile.”
The tough process of becoming fully accredited Apple developers has clearly been a key element in the success of Mercury Girl Inc.
However, selling smartphone applications in this way is a business model whose success depends largely on a high-volume, low-margin turnover.
“Twecipe, for instance, costs just 79c to download and after that it’s free to use,” says Duggan.
“Apple takes 30c off the top, which leaves 49c to cover the costs. So yes, it’s completely a numbers game.”
But Duggan believes that, in the long term, the best way forward is to “develop company assets like the radio player, assets that can be reskinned and reused in other applications or localised and sold into other markets. That’s how we’ll build real value in the company.”
petercluskey@yahoo.fr
ON THE RECORD
Name: Tim Duggan
Company: Mercury Girl Inc www.mercurygirlinc.com
Job: Co-founder and director
Age: 28
Background:Did a City Guilds course in sound engineering and studio recording after leaving Wesley College in 1999, followed by an assistant producer's certificate from BBC Production and a diploma in film studies and directing from the New York Film Academy.
Began work at Screen Scene in 2000, moving to Windmill Lane the following year, and becoming head of production and development at Mount Wilson in 2004.
Set up Mercury Boy Inc with John Callaghan in 2007 and Mercury Girl Inc last February.
Challenges: "Getting funding for all the applications we have in the pipeline. There are more than 30 at the moment – many of them very exciting."
Inspired by: "There's nobody I try to emulate or follow. Instead, I'd say I gather inspiration from people who tell me I can't . . . or who tell me that something is going to be very tough."
Most important thing learned so far: "Get the best out of the latest technology. It's amazing what you can do with just a laptop and available software, much of it free. It's all about creativity."
