Vodafone live! was the brand name for the multimedia portal service of mobile phone operator Vodafone, offering news content, picture messaging, instant messaging, email, and downloadable ringtones and games.^[1] The service officially launched on 24 October 2002, originally in eight countries.^[2] The first compatible phones were the Japanese Sharp GX10 and Panasonic GD87, and the Nokia 7650.^[3]

It was initially developed by Japan's J-Phone under the J-Sky brand. Vodafone acquired J-Phone in August 2001^[4] and the J-Sky service in Japan was rebranded in line as Vodafone live! in 2003.^[5] In addition, London-based Vizzavi which provided media content was taken full control by Vodafone (previously 50% owned)^[6] in 2002 and the brand name was dropped, being integrated into Vodafone live!^[7] The service and its content are modelled largely on NTT DoCoMo's successful i-mode service.^[8]

The service was marketed extensively,^[9] using stars such as footballer David Beckham in the UK, Spain and Japan.^[10] As of May 2003 there were 1.5 million customers.^[11] In the UK market its main competing WAP portals were O2 Active and Orange World.^[12]

While the service itself could be looked at with any WAP browser, Vodafone live! handsets marketed by the company integrated the service with each handset's core functions. All handsets included a colour screen, a digital camera and the capability to send and receive email, SMS and MMS messages. Vodafone live! had an icon-driven interface that was the same on all compatible models regardless of operating system.^[13]

In December 2004, Vodafone live! with 3G services was launched.^[14]

Vodafone live! was struggling against competitors i-mode and EZweb in Japan. In 2006 Vodafone announced that its Japanese division will be sold to SoftBank Group. Vodafone live! was replaced there by Yahoo! Keitai.^[15]

In September 2009, Vodafone 360 and Vodafone My Web were announced to replace Vodafone live!^[16][17]