HAVING DIALLED up decent returns selling ringtones in Ireland and Britain earlier this decade, brothers Gavin and Iain McConnon are hoping to repeat success in Australia and South Africa.

The young entrepreneurs recently established a base in Sydney and set up a company called Clarion Marketing to sell ringtones across Australia.

They have also bought permits to offer lottery games via mobile phones in all states bar Tasmania and Northern Australia.

It seems hard to credit but the ringtones craze has, to date, largely bypassed Australia. "We're one of the first to sell ringtones there and we think it could take off like it did in Ireland and the UK," Gavin said.

They are also in the early stages of setting up a similar business in South Africa. With the Irish ringtone market saturated with providers, the McConnons are focusing on online DVD rental through moviestar.ie. The website has 12,000 active users out of 30,000 registered members.

After a slow start, online DVD rental is gaining traction here with consumers switching from high-street rental stores as operators like Xtravision close outlets.

The business model is simple. For a monthly membership fee, users can rent a set number of DVDs, returning them by post when they're done.

Moviestar.ie is generating annual sales of around €1.2 million and the brothers claim to be turning a profit each month of about €20,000.

They are planning a marketing push to boost its active user numbers to about 20,000 and they're also looking at offering video on demand.

The brothers own the business and say they have invested €700,000 in it to date.

Any plans to seek outside investment? "No," says Gavin. "We have the resources ourselves to grow the business for now."