Let your mobile burrp!
I have been following Burrp! for quite some time and must say that they are a smart ass.
Apart from introducing features in a phase wise manner, these guys spend huge amount of time/ resource to get the cities listed; but what I really appreciate is the kind of effort they have put in for driving the end users.
Being a Product Manager, I can definitely say that building a product is one thing, making it a huge success is another. Bringing users is easy, making sure that they converse/emote is difficult!!
Today, Burrp has launched a much-needed feature, i.e. SMS alerts.
SMS alerts:
- keep you updated on restaurants, bars and clubs that open and shut in your neighbourhood
- inform you when a place in your neighbourhood is reviewed by a fellow burrper
- provide you with more alerts for TV shows, movies, and other local businesses
The service is currently available in Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
Pay attention to the last section – TV shows, movies..
Deap mentioned during the podcast about the TV listing service, and looks like my TV is the next to burrp!
Guys, give Burrp SMS alerts a spin and share your comments.
i think they must be supporting the service with mobile ads.this is what we can call as target advertisments.i like the sms scraps feature at indyarocks(they havent put any ads though).Services such as m-ginger are nothing but self spamming tools.
Hey anon:
What I liked about Burrp’s SMS alert is that the ads are not at all intrusive. services like m-ginger are too spammy – not worth trying
Yup
tried burrp
its simple and non intrusive
Great review and I do agree with you that building community is way too difficult!
I see very few Indian startups even trying that!
sunil
Thanks for the mention, Ashish. We’ll continue to keep our ears on the street, evolving the product with the user’s needs ahead of anything else.
Anon:
Removing the comment (but keeping the link), as it doesnt fit into this discussion..
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Read more here :
http://www.loscreador.com/2007/06/11/burrp-deap-ubhi-tells-lc-of-his-hunger-for-food-and-technology/
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To be very honest, it doesn’t matter what Deap (or for that matter any founder of any co. does). This is not a media site (where I discuss founder’s love life!), but is dedicated to product reviews/startups. As long as founders get it right, I am pluGGd.in!
-Ashish
I could not understand why the SMS service is “much needed”.
1. Restaurants do not open or close frequently and usually a normal person will not go to a restaurant just because it is new. So alerts for that or for any new business does not make much sense to me.
2. I do like to read review about a place nearby but then why would i like to get an alert when some body writes about it? People might write a review at any insane time of the day I would seriously not enjoy waking up at night to see a message about a review being written.
3. Messages about TV listings and movies is ok but again not something which is necessary as I already get a comprehensive list in the morning newspaper.
I also have a niggling doubt about advertisments in an SMS. Bulk SMS cost around 40-50 paise, so making a profit out of that would mean charging the customer more than 40-50 paise per user… well that is quite expensive. I seriously doubt the business model of companies whose revenues depend on SMS ads… I hope I am right on the cost of the Bulk SMS though…
Dheeraj
Interesting points.
The reason why I mention the SMS alert as “much needed” is for the same reason that I subscribe to product reviews (using Google alerts).
I may not be interested in all the restaurants in my areas, but definitely there are a few I would like to know what others feel about.
Regd. the TV listing part,let me share my personal experience- I always want to watch Young Turks (CNBC), but since it’s scheduled on Sundays (I usually wake up too late), I end up missing the prgrm. I know I can set up mobile alerts, watch the morning newspaper etc – but I will not.
I am a lazy bum (behavioral aspect, you see!)
If not for laziness, you wouldn’t need apps like alerts!
As far as SMS cost is concerned, I believe Burrp doesn’t charges to the end users. They embed text ads in the SMS. Try out their SMS functionality and you will understand what I mean.
I agree with you that cos that solely rely on SMS ads are walking a tight rope – there are legal issues involved too. But at the same time, if the ads are non-intrusive (think of reasons why Google broke the hell out of banner ads thru’ his contextuals/ non-intrusive ads), I guess these cos. stand a good chance.
Let me know what do you think.
-Ashish
@Dhiraj
Totally agree with your points.
Nowadays, anything related to mobile is given un-necessary hype.I do understand the usability of mobiles but i don’t understand why integration with mobile is so imperative when it doesn’t make any business sense or adds real value to the user.Who has the time to keep receieving sms alerts whenever a shop opens or closes or any tom or sam writes some review for a restaurant.I couldn’t find out the usability of it.
And TV listing part, if it’s a behavioral aspect / laziness,i don’t think one will watch it even after receiving alerts (afterall nothing can replace a good sleep
Email-Alerts make sense in Google and same holds true even for reading reviews of restaurants.It’s better to receieve email alert or better to see the review online rather than to receieve sms all the times.
Whay other guys think?
I disagree with the above people. I think this service is very good and it will help me find places I did not know about. As long as they provide additional areas alerts, I like it very much. Where does Dheeraj live? In big cities, restaurants have highest churn rates. I have seen no cost on my airtel bill for burp sms so I believe it is free to me.
Bang fantastic job guys. 10 of my mates have already signed up and it’s working great!
I just want to respond to some comments about the timing of the alerts. There is a blackout and queuing process in place that respects certain hours of the day when we all would rather not be disturbed. Thanks for the feedback, everyone.
@Chirag
I am from Bangalore and am related to the hospitality industry to have a fair idea of how many restaurants open and close in big cities… thats the reason why I think about the necessity of this alert..
I agree to Akash completely… one cannot compare email alerts to mobile alerts… and well if I am lazy even after an SMS alert I still would need to wake up and switch the TV on…
Though its good that the SMS are held in a queue, it does make it less disturbing…
By SMS cost I meant per SMS it would cost burrp any thing above 40 paisa, now to make profit from that SMS they would need to charge either the receiver or the client for whom the ad is embedded. Since the SMS has to be free for the receiver it would mean the client pays more than 40 paise per user… which is a lot of money actually for a small textual advertising.
Dheeraj
Will you ever use a twitter like service?
I am trying to understand your usage behavior. As far as SMS alerts/mobile alerts are concerned, the point that was being attempted was delivery channel.
If you can make money thru’ ads, why worry about the SMS cost?
So you are in hospitality and restaurant industry and just happening to know the bulk cost for sms? How convenient…and in terms of your points about laziness, we use such devices called remote controls these days, so I do not understand this laziness point of yours.
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