Comments on: SMS 2.0 – Yeah Right!

By: 2008 predictions : business networking will rise, SaaS will see an uptake |Startups in India, Coverage of India Business

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 05:53:55 +0000

[...] Voice SMS and more innovation will happen in SMS (sms 2.0?) [...]

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Tue, 04 Dec 2007 09:25:55 +0000

[...] penetration and affordability, India will see more of opt-in services (i.e. permission marketing, SMS2.0) in the mobile [...]

By: kamal thakur

kamal thakur — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:16:52 +0000

something affle could do …
1. Application is built-in. ( Max cellphone manufacturers won’t like that because they want to keep the doors open for themselves – why have a 3rd party application on their product)
2. Accept the fact that people don’t like unnecessary advertisements. Even if I’m interested in some particular product I don’t want advertisements being pushed on my cellphone. And something I really want to receive as ads , they will never know about that.
3. As you suggested ” Keep it simple”.
4. gprs connectivity is a big problem. they will tell others that they are going to target a considerable number of mobile customers even in that case , BUT they need to polish their product. Polish it the Indian Way.

By: Airtel launches mobile money transfer, RCom goes for banner ads, Intl calls from coin PCOs...and more.. |Indian startups, India Business and Digital India

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:32:15 +0000

[...] RCom to use mobile banner ads to get across TRAI’s DNC RCom is putting up banner advertisements on its data suite of applications – Reliance Mobile World – accessible over the company’s handsets. When a user clicks on the advertisements, a lead is generated which is passed on to the advertiser for a follow-up. [Read our earlier coverage of SMS 2.0, i.e. Airtel/Affle partnership). [...]

By: Pratyush

Pratyush — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:36:32 +0000

Hi Karuna,

Sorry for the late reply – I was off to a conference. Let me clarify myself –

1) User studies – these user studies (many of which we conducted during my MBA days), are usually done on a sample population who *are open* to the idea. Also such studies make sure the sample set *do not* have to pay for the study – thereby making it free. In such cases ARPU is bound to rise because the user behavior does not necesarily mimic real behavior.

2) The app needs GPRS to be enabled. Airtel has either 7 Rs a day or 200 Rs a month for unlimited GPRS connectivity (at a low speed). I have Hutch and spend about 1000 Rs (1Rs per 10 KB) per month. The point being that your usage on GPRS would increase and thereby drive more ARPU.

3) Value for advertiser – ARPU goes to Airtel. They obv would be happy. What I didnt see and would like to see is what advertisers think is the value. I am sure the Aviva guys have not too good things to say (else that would have been a case study already)

4) I am not rich. No matter how hard I try (and have been trying at IIT and later at IIM) I havent got rich yet. Do let me know if you can help me in that. I hate being poor.

By: Karuna

Karuna — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:34:02 +0000

But at the same time, I have read tht the pilot project actually resulted in more ARPU. How do you account for that?
The typical market segment may not be people like you (tech savvy) rather rich kids?

Whats your take?

By: Pratyush

Pratyush — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:01:55 +0000

I am sorry rAm – I did not get your point

By: rAm

rAm — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:09:58 +0000

As you rightly pointed out. I don’t see much value add. A compelling point on why I should use their service!!