Kisses Add Up To Big Bucks

The Sacramento Bee:

People “just love to kiss.”

That’s the conclusion of Sacramento entrepreneur Mark Otero, who’s finding success with a new tool that allows people to search popular Web sites, like Facebook, MySpace or Hi5, and plant virtual wet ones on people they like.

His online venture, called KlickNation Corp., had some modest early successes with other applications involving photos of cute pets, sexy fashion models and travel destinations. Then came Kiss, a “flirting” application that allows people to view images of people in any geographic area and send electronic smooches to the ones they find attractive. They can also initiate online conversations with those they’ve “kissed.”

Since it was launched in April, about 3 million users have tried the Kiss, Otero said. But the financial breakthrough came last month when Otero and his partner, Ken Walton, turned it into a subscription model with members paying a $7.99 monthly fee – about one-third of which goes to KlickNation. So far, he’s signed up about 15,000 subscribers who are billed via their cell phone companies.

Those revenues, combined with modest advertising income from about 70 other KlickNation applications, should bring in $140,000 this month, Otero said.

Based on “very conservative” projections, he figures that his Web-based empire will bring in $1 million over the next 12 months.

Photo by Scyza.

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