By Business & Finance 
Bitbuzz has announced operating figures revealing continued growth in subscriber numbers and revenue figures for the first six months of the year. Revenue for first half of 2014 increased by 11% year-on-year to €1,102,153.
In terms of operations, Bitbuzz had a total of 2,978,490 registered users by the end of June 2014. The corresponding figure for the first six months to the end of June 2013 was 1,514,540, representing an increase of 49%.
There has been a significant growth in the total number of logins per month for Bitbuzz, which now exceeds 1,519,660, almost treble the 550,000 average monthly logins recorded in 2013. Bitbuzz is now seeing an average of over 50,000 logins every day.
The total number of Bitbuzz Wi-Fi hotspots across Ireland at the end of June 2014 was 522, representing a year-on-year increase of 12%.
To mark the 500th hotspot, Bitbuzz also announced a contract win with the Radisson Blu Sligo on the back of being appointed as an approved supplier to the Radisson Hotel Group in Ireland, highlighting another landmark for the wholly-Irish owned company.
Key highlights – first half 2014
- Revenue: €1,102,154, an increase of 11%
- Registered users: 2,978,490, an increase of 49%
- Hotspots: 522, an increase of 12%
- Logins: 1,519,660 per month, an increase of 276%
- Hotel bedrooms: 12,500, an increase of 9%
Shane Deasy, managing director of Bitbuzz said of the figures: “We are extremely pleased with the growth we are experiencing in 2014 so far. We are starting to see the results of our hard work in the UK, as we now supply the same number of hotels in the United Kingdom as we do in Ireland.
“In Ireland, we are continuing to see the knock on effect of increased appetite for Wi-Fi amongst consumers with a marked increase in business with Costa Coffee, Spar and Applegreen and Insomnia. We attribute the continued growth of daily logins to the simplified login process we introduced early this year, which has proved extremely popular with users, as the number of smartphones and tablet computers in the country continues to grow,” he continued.
Bitbuzz in hotels
According to a survey Bitbuzz conducted in June, 70% of hotel guests are not turning on the TV in their room, instead choosing to stream content through their iPad and laptop. This trend has seen Bitbuzz selling higher bandwidth back end services to hotels throughout the UK and Ireland to cope with the increased demands for streaming video content.
In 2014, Bitbuzz has seen landmark contract wins in the hospitality on both sides of the Irish Sea, such as the Muckross Park Hotel & Spa, Radisson Blu Cavan and Radisson Blu Sligo in Ireland and Holiday Inn Express hotels at Manchester Airport, Doncaster, Folkestone and Tamworth in the UK.
Bitbuzz also announced it is supplying Wi-Fi to a boat for the first time, as the luxury yacht hotel Sunborn London with 132 guest rooms and four suites opened on London’s Docklands at the start of the summer.
On street Wi-Fi
Last month, Bitbuzz launched Bitbuzz Freedom, free on street Wi-Fi, in Tralee where there have been 5,639 logins already. Logins to the existing service in Killarney have topped 5,000 in the last month, with over 10,000 users in Dublin and 8,000 users in Cork connecting to their network when out and about over the same time period.
Deasy says: “We look forward to rolling this out throughout Ireland over the coming months. We hope that this, along with our continued expansion into the hospitality sector and throughout the UK, will help us achieve continued growth.”
