Virgin Mobile has launched its Bites service, an entertainment portal that will replace its existing Virgin Xtras offering.

Bites offers "bite-sized boredom busters" and according to Virgin, it acts as a cross between a celebrity gossip magazine and an infotainment service on the phone. It offers customers "amusing little time wasters" and has been created with content originated and published by Virgin, targeted towards its young customer base.

The service's content will be divided into celebrity, laughs, music, news and views.

"Bitesreflects the fact that mobile phones are now an indispensable part of people's lives - something to reach for when bored or in need of stimulation," said Nick White, head of value added services at Virgin Mobile.

Bites will compete with services of rival operators such as Vodafone Live!, but has been designed as a two-way offering, where customers will be encouraged to interact with the brand by posting their own content, rather than be fed information from Virgin.

The launch is being supported by a monthly Virgin Mobile Bites customer entertainment magazine, marking the first time that the company has offered customers a branded publication. The magazine will be distributed in Virgin Mobile shops within Virgin Megastore and Megastore Xpress, at the V Festival and Barfly venues.

A spokeswoman for Virgin Mobile said the company has no plans to promote Bites through above-the-line activity, but that this may change over coming months.

The name, look and feel of Bites was created by Virgin Mobile's brand agency Start Creative.

As part of its work for the brand, Start created the website for Bites, which forms the service's key information portal with content updated on a daily basis. The site is designed to help position Bites as an antidote to boredom and features pictures showing people using the services in places where you would expect to see people amusing themselves with their phones, such as at bus stops.

Last week, Virgin Mobile hailed the success of its "cost effective" marketing activity, as it announced a strong rise in revenues and customer figures during the second quarter of 2004. During the period, the mobile network's customer base grew by 7.2 per cent compared to the previous quarter to over 4.2 million, while revenue increased by 23.9 per cent year-on-year to £123.6 million.