Helio announced that Wonhee Sull, formerly Helio’s President and COO, has been elevated to CEO and founding CEO Sky Dayton has been named non-executive Chairman of Helio’s Board of Directors.
Helio also announced usage statistics for its nearly 200,000 subscribers, which exceed many industry averages. Helio has an average revenue per user (ARPU) over $85, well above the industry average of under $501 and closed 2007, the company’s first full year since launch, with a revenue run rate of over $240M based on December actuals. Helio members are also voracious users of its data services:
- An average of over 550 text messages per member per month, many times the industry average.
- Instant Message penetration 3 times the industry average.
- 95% of Helio brand members access the Web through their mobile device versus an industry average of about 13%.
- Each month, 60% of Helio brand members access MySpace via their Helio and average nearly 500 page views.
- In December, Helio members uploaded photos from their device to the web at a rate 5 times the industry average.
- 57% of Ocean users downloaded Helio’s exclusive YouTube application within two weeks of its launch
“For the past three years, Wonhee and I have worked closely to build Helio, which has seen record growth, introduced over a dozen U.S. industry firsts and established itself in the marketplace as a one-of-a-kind premium mobile service,” said Dayton. “Helio has reached a point in its development where I feel the timing is right for this change. I will step into a new role as chairman and Wonhee will become CEO, utilizing his strong operational, product and service experience to manage Helio’s day-to-day operations. As we have for the past three years, the two of us will continue to define Helio’s direction and future.”
Dayton’s entrepreneurial history includes a successful track record of starting new technology business ventures as founding CEO, establishing them within their marketplace to a stage where they can proceed toward sustained growth, and after about three years moving to a chairman role where he continues to act as an innovative and experienced leader. Dayton followed similar timelines with EarthLink, which he and his management team grew to a Fortune 1000 company, and more recently with Boingo Wireless, which, under his continued involvement as chairman, has grown by over 1300% and become profitable. Now, after three years, Dayton is handing Helio’s day-to-day operational reins over to a proven leader and will remain actively involved in molding its strategy and major initiatives.
“Helio has succeeded where other post-paid MVNOs have not, because of our differentiated message, products and services,” said Sull. “We look forward to continuing our growth through the stream of innovation that has defined our place in the wireless market.”
Sull was Helio’s founding COO, rising to the title of President and COO in April 2006. Sull’s leadership at Helio has already included the areas of strategic planning, business operations, products and services, technology and member care. Prior to joining Helio, Sull served as head of the Platform R&D Center at SK Telecom where he had full responsibility for orchestrating and managing numerous commercial services ranging from multimedia to m-commerce, and was instrumental in the growth of SK Telecom’s wireless data business.
“Helio is an important part of SK Telecom’s global business expansion, and we see great potential for its continued growth,” said Jinwoo So, President, Global Business at SK Telecom. “Today’s announcement allows Helio to continue to take advantage of the tremendous talent of Sky Dayton and Wonhee Sull, and it further cements the working partnership the two have established over the past three years.”