Yellix Turns Facebook into Caller ID

MobilePeople Alum Claudia Poepperl, has started a new company called adaffix. The company’s first product is Yellix. It essentially turns Facebook into “caller ID 2.0” for smartphones (except the iPhone). Here’s how Yellix describes what it does:

YELLIX is a free application for your mobile phone. Once installed, it will automatically display a pop-up showing you the up-to-date status, photo and other relevant content of your Facebook friends when they call you on your mobile.

Friends must install the Yellix Facebook app and then the Yellix app on their phones:

It works on phones that run the following OSs: Android, RIM BlackBerry, Symbian S60 or Windows Mobile. The website says the following about the iPhone:

We would love to provide YELLIX for iPhone. Unfortunately Apple does not support our advanced technology.

What this means is that Yellix requires apps running in the background. There are apparently also some challenges with BlackBerry, but there’s a workaround:

BlackBerry does not fully support YELLIX Caller ID. This is due to the fact that BlackBerry does not support pop-ups while the phone is ringing and also due to the fact that most BlackBerrys (expept for e.g. Bold) do not support 3G. Despite these limitations you can still use YELLIX:  When you receive a call let the phone ring approx. 3 times. After pressing the answer button take a quick look at the screen and you will see information about the caller.

Without having installed and used it, I can imagine that this will become quite popular because it’s a unique product and can be quickly understood. Here’s an explanatory video:

So, how are they going to make any money with this you ask?

There’s apparently a local directory partnership distribution model tied to some related features of Yellix. In other words, Yellix will help distribute listings from existing (yellow pages) publishers through some alternative features on the app. According to an email exchange I had with Poepperl that is now operating in Austria.

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Update: Here’s more on Yellix’s directory monetization strategy, now live in Austria. According to Poepperl:

“If the call is not successful we do a reverse search on the called number. if it is a business we identify 3 alternatives of the same category in the same area.”

Those listings come from directory partners and presumably one or all of them is a local advertiser.