Shazam has reached a milestone, with fans around the world using its mobile application to identify songs and experience TV shows and ads more than five billion times.

Initially, the company started off as a music discovery service, but has since moved up the ladder and expanded to television as well. According to Shazam, Pink?s ?Blow Me One Last Kiss? marked the five billionth tag.

?It took 10 years since Shazam?s launch in 2002 to reach its first billion tags, then only 10 months to reach its second billion,? said David Jones, executive vice president of marketing at Shazam. ?Now, in a year, we?ve gone from two billion to five billion. 

?One of the reasons why Shazam has been experiencing this kind of amazing growth is, of course, because of the increasing numbers of smartphone users,? he said. ?However, the other key reason is because we offer so many opportunities for people to use the Shazam app to engage with the media that interests them ? whether it?s to find out the name of a song that they hear when they?re out and about or a TV program, or whether they?re home watching the Olympics and want to find out more about the athlete or see the medal count. 

?Our goal is to delight our fans and become an indispensible part of their everyday lives.?

Shazam is a media engagement company with more than 225 million people in 200 countries and adding another two million new users each week.

Mobile enhancements
According to Shazam, the company is seeing more than two million users download its mobile app each week and use it ten million times every day.

Last year, the company rolled out its Shazam for TV service.

Via the service, Shazam has worked with Pepsi, Procter and Gamble, Sony and Fox to bring its telvesion commercials to life and engage consumers on a deeper level, as well as offer them an incentive to take out their mobile app and interact with the brands.

Currently, Shazam users can use the app while watching the Olympics. Users can browse exclusive content, get up-to-the-minute information on results, video highlights, the medal count and check out the latest tweets from their favorite athletes.

?We believe that content drives engagement ? and this is particularly important as the whole idea of the ?second screen? is still in its early days,? Mr. Jones said. ?We know that, if people have a great experience when they use Shazam with an ad, they?re more likely to do it again. 

?With that in mind, we work closely with the brand and their agency to create a rich, interactive and engaging experience to promote the product and encourage people to tag more ads and shows,? he said.

?Unlike digital and mobile advertising, TV ads have never been ?clickable? or interactive ? until now.

Mobile efforts
Last year, Cable television network Spike TV partnered with Shazam for the fifth annual Guys Choice Awards to engage mobile viewers with exclusive behind-the-scenes content (see story).

Earlier this year, American Idol gave viewers a way to interact with the show via a new partnership with Shazam (see story).

Most recently, Brita ran Shazam-enabled television ads that promoted its FilterforGood Music Project and let users unlock exclusive content from musical band Train?s album (see story).

?As a mobile app, obviously all innovations in technology and changes in consumer behavior are important to us,? Mr. Jones said. ?Consumer behavior in the adaption of second-screen technology is faster than anything we have seen in the past. 

?In fact, 45 percent of people who use Shazam use it with television at least once a week, so mobile is and will remain key to this new way of experiencing media,? he said.

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York