Evernote, the popular note taking and personal organizer app, today took another step in its strategy to ramp up its international presence, with news that it has inked a strategic partnership with Deutsche Telekom, the German carrier that also owns T-Mobile. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed — we are asking — but for now the first part of the deal will mean that all DT customers in Germany will get one year of Evernote Premium service — a deal that usually costs €40 ($52) annually for additional storage space and other features. With DT claiming 37 million mobile and 22 million fixed line customers, the partnership potentially adds up to 60 million more users to Evernote’s platform.
To mark the new service, Evernote also said it is adding a new feature to the Premium account: now subscribers will be able to make document searches across Microsoft Office, iWork and OpenOffice documents that are attached to Evernote notes, bringing Premium a bit closer to Evernote’s Business product.
“We are excited to launch this new partnership with Deutsche Telekom, one of the most respected telecoms in the world,” said Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, in a statement. “With it, we have the opportunity to enrich the memories of nearly 60 million DT subscribers with the ability to capture and recall everything that is important to them wherever they go.”
Evernote and DT say the offer is open for 18 months, and while it only gives users one year of Premium service, Libin has always been very confident of the trajectory for users of the service: those who use it tend to want to use it more, he has said, and those who like it will pay to use extra features.
Moreover, although Evernote has been pushing its new Business service into new markets, Premium today is the mainstay of its revenues, according to the WSJ, which notes that today 98% of Evernote’s revenues come from Premium customers.
This is not the first carrier partnership signed by Evernote. Others include Taiwan Mobile, France Telecom, Docomo in Japan, and Korea Telecom, all also involving bundling Evernote’s premium product with subscriptions.
Evernote and DT are terming this latest deal a “strategic partnership,” which could mean that there has been some investment made as part of the deal. (Update: An Evernote spokesperson tells us that DT has not taken any investment in Evernote, but DT will be paying for the Premium account offer. “While it is safe to say that Evernote is receiving compensation for the Evernote Premium accounts being offered to DT’s customers, the financial details of the deal are not being disclosed.”)
Longer term, this looks like it will extend to further products and further service bundles for the pair, as they refer to today’s Premium announcement as the “first part” of the partnership. There will also be a hackathon in April co-sponsored by the pair.
The deal could give Evernote a big boost in the German market, crucial as Berlin-based erstwhile competitor Wunderlist continues to grow out its service. Its developer, 6Wunderkinder, recently recruited a new CTO, Chad Fowler, who had previously been at LivingSocial. It’s also important to grow out Evernote’s customer base in light of Google Note, the new note-taking app launched by the search giant last week. Evernote says that today it has 1.33 million users in the country, out of its overall 50 million users.
At the same time Evernote is looking to scale up, DT is looking for ever more features to sell to customers to differentiate itself from other competitors. Another deal announced last year offered Spotify subscriptions to broadband users. While there was a time among carriers when they would have tried to build out services like this themselves, it seems like these days, they are more interested in partnering with recognized brand names to do the trick.
“At Deutsche Telekom, we count on partnerships to pave the way for innovations,” said Heikki Makijarvi, SVP Business Development and Venturing, in a statement. “Our goal is to offer highly innovative and unique services with the easiest access possible. The cooperation with Evernote is an excellent example of two companies combining their strengths for the benefit of our customers.”
Comment