AirG, A Mobile Network Of 10 Million Users

Katie Fehrenbacher | Friday, August 18, 2006 | 8:12 AM PT | 71 comments

AirG, a Vancouver-based mobile social network provider, says it has hit the milestone of 10 million unique users, growing from 7 million users just a few months ago. Unlike social networks like MySpace and Facebook that have mobile services, AirG has no PC-based network, and works exclusively through a mobile phone interface.

This approach has allowed the company to fine tune and build niche social networks around users who don’t spend a lot of time in front of the computer. A popular community is a Spanish-language community called Conexion Latina, which has one million users in North America.


AirG’s service enables chat through text and IM, and the creation and search of photo profiles through mobile Internet access. There are a lot of startups that are pushing mobile social networks, but AirG, which was co-founded by Frederick Ghahramani, Vincent Yen and Bryce Pasechnik in 2000, has been pragmatic and has relied on simple technologies like text messaging. This simple approach (which also increases the lucrative text messaging business) has helped the company get carriers to back its service, and services are commonly branded by each carrier. It has signed up 85 operators including Verizon, Cingular, China Mobile, Vodafone, and Airtel.

Frederick Ghahramani, co-founder of the company, over the course of a lunch earlier this week said AirG had grown to enough users for population-targeted surveys. The company test-ran a survey and polled 30,000 users in 90 minutes. Ghahtamani said it brought in ten times the click through rate of online ads. (Could this be the new model of advertising online?)

Beyond polling the company is looking more into mobile marketing, both targeted ads to its users and enabling brands to create communities for marketing tools. I was thinking that the company might be expanding its business to target media brands and ad-companies because its sick of paying a high revenue cut to the carriers. Though, Ghahramani won’t discuss the financials of the company, he assures us they’re doing well. The company is privately funded.

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71 comments so far

August 24th, 2006
7:56 AM PT
ashley said:

like to find a person to love

September 6th, 2006
11:29 PM PT
Ken Simpson said:

I went to school with Fred and Vincent. I remember them staying in the lab all night working on the early beginnings of Airg back in 1999.

Airg is an amazing success story. Supported by just the tiniest dose of angel backing several years ago, they have been one of the most successful cash flow stories in the mobile space. If you can get a few minutes of their time they can validate almost any idea in the wireless space with great precision and foresight. Watch Airg carefully in the coming years. I would not be suprised at all if they end up being the first mobile content company to reach the magic $1B/year in revenue. And I also won’t be surprised to learn they got there with zero VC funding.

Airg is the Electronic Arts of the mobile space.

Chris said:

When r yall gonna add cricket to your list of phone companys that have airg chat cuz i used to have cingular then i switched to cricket and now i cant read my messages

November 5th, 2006
12:59 PM PT
Anonymous said:

Having an screening interview coming on with AirG, I needed to make sure the financial status of the company due to what has happened to me as a selected candidate in poorly financed company. Well, here I googled it and got this page saying $1bill./yr which sounds just a hopeful. I wanted to see the fact and the server is just too busy!

November 5th, 2006
8:42 PM PT
jeff said:

Is there anyway to get airg on my i930

February 2nd, 2007
8:42 PM PT
francesca f said:

i have t-mobile as my cell phone carrier, and i use your air.g to chat and receive messages. Is there a way to access airg from home computer? If so, how can it be accessed? thank you.

July 4th, 2007
8:46 AM PT
Anonymous said:

Is there a way to access AirG on the Sidekick iD?

July 5th, 2007
9:08 PM PT
Kim J said:

Is there some way that I can go onto AirG on my computer?

July 16th, 2007
11:32 PM PT
isabelle said:

I was able to go on airg thru tmobile but now I have a sidekick 3 I can’t find the link to be able to chat there. People send me the link but I still can’t log in. It was thru tzones but sidekick has a bundle package that doesn’t go thru that. Something about sidekicks don’t have >>wap<<…help please

July 24th, 2007
4:43 AM PT
Takia said:

I used 2 have Boost Mobile and now I have T-Mobile I would always get on AirG but now I can’t is it a way I can login through my T-Mobile Sidekick?

August 11th, 2007
12:26 PM PT
erek said:

Yeah I had boost and loved getting on before it became boost hookt and charged money but now I have a sidekick3 and I wanted to kno if there was a url that I could use to get use airg

September 6th, 2007
11:46 PM PT
xmauix said:

I was wondering how I can get onto airg from my tmobile sidekick 3? Is there a link or something you can send me?

September 19th, 2007
11:30 AM PT
jonh said:

Is there anyway to get to air g on my i930??? i havce the same question

Ancale' said:

Im and another person who is inquiring about AirG on Sidekick3’s! I have a Boost Mobile Cell and i am about 2 get a Sidekick3! On Boost Mobile itz called Boost Hookt! I know itz a different name for T_MObile users and maybe a different Name 4 sidekicks! Is there a AirG in Sidekick3’s where i can log in to the same acount that i have on Boost Hookt? I just want to be cable to talk to the same people on my Bosst Hookt but from my Sidekick3! Any1 w/answers or explanations plz email me @ ancale17@hotmail.com! Thanx to all!

October 1st, 2007
12:52 AM PT
david23 said:

How do I get the same boost hookt from boost mobile onto my sidek!ck?

October 2nd, 2007
4:47 AM PT
rosy said:

Is there anyway to read and reply to airg private msgs on the pc?

October 4th, 2007
7:54 PM PT
brittaney said:

u can get on by goin 2 msnmobile.airg.ca 4 ur side kick.. just go 2 enter url.. thats wat i do on my razr and my switch back

October 5th, 2007
9:34 PM PT
Charles Keeton said:

can you access cool talk from a computer?

October 9th, 2007
9:01 AM PT
Lorena said:

I need to know how I can access airg from my sidekick3… Is this possible? If so, how can I get there?

October 15th, 2007
3:12 AM PT
marc said:

Well I need to know how to get on airg through my t mobile sidekick 3 I was always able to do it on my razr but I don’t know how or where on my sidekick

November 9th, 2007
6:20 PM PT
anthony said:

what if you have the Helio Ocean?? Does anyone know of a way to get there?

November 20th, 2007
1:30 PM PT
jennifer said:

u have been using airg cool chat for 9 months now,and now i cant find it in the applications menu-whats up?i just used it last night and now this morning its not there-help!!!!!!

November 24th, 2007
4:46 PM PT
Animal Instinct said:

As far as Jen is concerned. you must have had cingular or att. cause i had cingular and cingular dropped airg. but see post above solution

November 28th, 2007
2:14 PM PT
Becca said:

The ads on Airg are very annoying to the users. Its hard to chat in a room with crazy ads popping up. Also the ads have curse words in them but the users are not allowed to say curse words or they get banned from a room. Alot of users have switched to other chat sites because of the ads.

December 7th, 2007
5:53 PM PT
amanda said:

to access cool talk from your pc you simply have to download opera from opera.com then in the browser bar type in msnmobile.airg.ca

December 18th, 2007
11:00 AM PT
elsa said:

hey i just want 2 knw if i can access boost hookt on the internet?

December 30th, 2007
12:45 AM PT
Rocio said:

How do I signup for AirG from an 8525?

January 3rd, 2008
5:04 AM PT
loc said:

I had boost hookt and now i need 2 know how to use it from my sidekick 3 ….

January 3rd, 2008
6:27 PM PT
ann said:

I have a sidekick I’d and I have aboost mobile phone and I used to be on boosthook and now I can’t use it on my sidekick can some teel me how to get on my side plz send it to my email address at repnco07@aol.com

January 5th, 2008
11:23 PM PT
Angell said:

Yeah, i really want to be able to get on boost hookt on the internet on my comp too! Hey if any of you wanna talk look me up on cool chat under: x-Angell-x!! K? PEACE!

January 9th, 2008
9:09 AM PT
tyron said:

my web sucks

January 9th, 2008
12:00 PM PT
Craig said:

Free cell chat webs for all phones and providers trickanomic.ca

January 9th, 2008
12:01 PM PT
Craig said:

You people are all a bunch of idiots and need to get a life. stop chatting on you phone hit the gym and get social. LOSERS

January 30th, 2008
7:40 AM PT
meka said:

How do I get airg on my sidekick lx?

January 30th, 2008
9:30 AM PT
da1nonly said:

How do I get on airg frm my sidekick email me menu4life@tmail.com

February 13th, 2008
11:36 AM PT
care said:

Can u tell me if i can get to airg on ma pc ….. waitn on reply thank you .

February 25th, 2008
9:21 AM PT
monique said:

I have a sidekick lx how do i get on boost hookt on my phone ( trickanomic.ca and msnmobile.airg.ca dont work on my phone) what other sites can i go on

March 3rd, 2008
1:57 PM PT
LUIGI said:

I WANNA KNOW HOW 2 GET AIRG OR HOOKT WITH A SIDEKICK3..I USED 2 LOG N WITH NEXTEL AND BOOST..PLS LET ME KNOW..

March 18th, 2008
8:20 PM PT
Becky Connor said:

I have been trying to see how to hook up Air-g with my son in Manitoba he told about it and he says he talks to people in Canada and Windsor which I live I cannot find where go to find I have Air-g cad.or and also Air-g.com
If anyone can help me it would be of great help.
Becky

March 20th, 2008
2:31 PM PT
Mr_Brightside said:

i have a t-mobile blackberry pearl and i have 2 questions.

1.) how can i get airG on my phone without having to “backdoor” a link from another phone company.

2.) how can i get on airG through my computer?

March 25th, 2008
8:22 PM PT
gina said:

i have a voyager verzion and i would like to know how can i get to the chat airg on my phone or how q i sign in help need ur help? i been search every link of airg but i doesn’t said where should i go to sign in would like to hear from u thank u ;)

March 27th, 2008
9:44 AM PT
JOSEPHINE said:

HOW DO I GET AIR G ON MY SIDEKICK ID? EMAIL ME @ MISZ.FAYMOUS@TMAIL.COM

March 27th, 2008
10:08 AM PT
Phil said:

I just got a new t-mobile phone and I can’t find the link for air-g can someone help me e-mail me at phoenixdown1337@yahoo.com thanks

April 7th, 2008
12:23 PM PT
airgrules said:

use your mobile to access airg.com directly, you should be able to access airg.

April 25th, 2008
12:41 PM PT
tami said:

How can I get on the users lounges from sprint email me angelsweetlesbi@yahoo.com

May 21st, 2008
11:05 AM PT
anthony said:

im looking hahahahahahaha nothing lol

May 23rd, 2008
7:33 PM PT
keyonna said:

I DON’T WOULD LIKE 2 KNO HOW 2 GET 2 BOOST MOBILE HOOKT OM MY SIDE KICK IF YOU FIND OUT EMAIL ME IT PLZ CHRISBROWNZWIFEY1@TMAIL.COM

May 24th, 2008
9:43 AM PT
Tamara said:

I think its messed up that we cant get on airg through the computer!

May 27th, 2008
12:18 PM PT
Chibi said:

Ok I have been to AirG.com looking for the pc version. and it isn’t there! all I can see is the box where you put your country and your mobile number… then agree to terms of service.. and then nothing… all I get is a “use airG on your Mobile” screen… I am so confused… is my pc to old???

June 3rd, 2008
10:45 AM PT
musicalpulltoy said:

what is t-mobiles problem with letting people into user lounges!!! CENSORSHIP!!

June 3rd, 2008
10:55 AM PT
musicalpulltoy said:

opera.com
gets u to airg

June 23rd, 2008
4:07 PM PT
Gismoe said:

Hey ppl I’m try to get the link 4 airg 4 my blackberry ??? Well I know how to get the web link to airg its (link) !!!!!!!

June 25th, 2008
5:50 AM PT
suzanne said:

I was on hookt everyday when I had boost I just switched to t-mobile. How do I get it on my sidekick lx?

June 27th, 2008
1:10 AM PT
Alejandro said:

How go I get this program on a sidekick LX

July 12th, 2008
6:34 PM PT
Quin said:

I Have Been Trying To Get On Airg For Three Days Now With An Error Message I Think My Carrier Wants Me To Use Their Chat But Airg Is Great And Plz Tell Me How To Get On Its Much Easier On Airg

July 13th, 2008
3:49 PM PT
S said:

Ok for the past three days I’ve been trying to get on as well and every time I log in to the system I choose one of the options say chat of email and suddenly find myself in someone else’s page able to access all their things. I tried writing airg yesterday but no response so far. Probably wouldn’t have been that upset at the (hopefully) temporary inconvenience but someone is using my name and saying some nasty stuff. Thankfully most of the people I talk to have my cell but still. Anyone else having these issues?

July 13th, 2008
4:00 PM PT
S said:

Ok whomever wrote the idea to use opera to get on to airg THANK YOU!!!! I was finally able to go on and change my profile to tell people someone else has been using my account. Now that I know about this way of getting onto the system Im not as worried about how long it takes airg to fix the errors

July 14th, 2008
1:42 PM PT
Jas said:

How, if possible, can i access airg (c lounge) from my computer?

July 15th, 2008
9:20 AM PT
thor said:

i’ve been trying to get back in on (link) my username is cuetmex213 and it is not letting me please help my number is 3252329585

July 15th, 2008
7:31 PM PT
GiiSmOe said:

Hey what’s up ppl I’m trying to find out how I and download airg or cooltalk to my blackberry curve if anyone knows email me Mr_Gismoe007@att.blackberry.net thank u ppl

July 18th, 2008
12:42 AM PT
QandA said:

At this moment, user can not access airg chatting sites from their PC without intalling some add-on headers to their browser pretending the pc as a mobile phone. To do this, you may need some technical background.

If you don’t use your airg account for a few months, your user account will be ereased from the server.

Every phone should be able to access (link) if it has wap service. There is no www in front of airg.com, you are not access a www site when you visiting the chat rooms.

Hope this infomation helps:)

Happy chatting!

August 3rd, 2008
3:20 PM PT
tyty said:

i have been using airg since 2003. its an awesome site. i love it. i met my husband on there. and we have been married for 4 years now and expecting our first child =]

August 7th, 2008
4:55 PM PT
Malaysia Valese said:

well honestly they should just qet airg for a sidekick. blackberry’sz etc.. mii ex has been bugging mi for that last 3 daysz about gettinq on to airg but i cant do to the fact i HAVE A SIDE KICK and i refuse to buy another boost so.. if anyone find a way to get around that.. um yea email mii plz

August 14th, 2008
2:11 PM PT
shawn said:

how can i acess airg from my home computer

August 21st, 2008
1:12 PM PT
amanda said:

how can i acess airg from my home computer

September 10th, 2008
11:11 AM PT
rose said:

Ok I just got my sidekick 2008 and I was tryin to log onto airg n I cnt find it anywhere does sidekick not do the airg thing ? Can sum1 plz tell how to get bak onto airg my sidekick plz email me at leogurl1801@yahoo.com

david said:

i was gettin on airg from my verizon phone an it just stopped workin it says i gotta subscribe try going 2 friends.com

blaze said:

How do u get 2 airg on da sidekick 2008?

October 2nd, 2008
2:10 PM PT
kathy said:

i went to airg.com the y send me a link but still i cant go in and see and i try google on my phone to and still the same i have tmobile tm506

November 20th, 2008
5:24 AM PT
david said:

my screen name is puertorico i need to access air g from my nextel i930 or home computer can someone help…

November 20th, 2008
3:21 PM PT
Donny said:

How can I get air g on a tmobile g1 phone….help is most needed asap thanks……

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