Affle claims its SMS2.0 application has attracted 6 lakh users in India
23 June, 2008
by Asfaq Tapia
UK-based Affle has said its flagship product SMS2.0, which offers an advertising platform for mobile phone users, has attracted about six lakh users in India and is getting one lakh new users a month thanks to its exclusive partnership with Airtel.
Affle had launched its SMS2.0 application in India in January 2008. The service is currently available to Airtel users with mobile phones having Symbian Series 60 operating system and GPRS capabilities. To download the application, Airtel customers need to send an SMS with the text ‘SMS2’ to 543210.
According to Affle, its SMS2.0 application replaces the standard SMS interface on the users’ mobile phone and allows them to add animated emoticons and coloured text and background to their SMS text messages. However, in order to view the coloured text and animated emoticons the receiver of the SMS also needs to have the SMS2.0 application installed on his mobile phone.
During installation, the application asks the user to choose from a variety of topics, which interest the user. The content for the ads is based on those selected topics. These ads are displayed in a ticker at the bottom of the mobile phone screen when typing a message and on the full-screen when the SMS is being sent.
Anuj Kumar, executive director, South Asia, Affle, claims that the SMS2.0 application delivered about 75 million animated display ad impressions to its Airtel users in May 2008. He also says that the company is witnessing a 15 per cent month on month growth in the number of ad impressions displayed on the mobile phones in India. According to Anuj Kumar, companies such as Perfetti, Britannia, Nike, Levis, Pepsi, IBM, ICICI and MakeMyTrip are using Affle’s SMS2.0 service for brand building.
Affle is planning to launch its SMS2.0 application for the subscribers of other GSM mobile operators in India. The company is also working with Videocon, to integrate its SMS2.0 application into Videocon’s CDMA phones. “We plan to grow to five million (50 lakh) users by 2009,” Anuj Kumar has told AlooTechie.
Affle SMS2.0 application is reall cool and useful,
cheers : )
These guys are doing way better than what we would expect by industry standards - I mean I've read somewhere that they are delivering around 100 million impressions a month and are now the largest mobile media in the country. I tried SMS2 and the best part is that the ads are not intrusive, it pretty cool infact. And at the rate at which they are adding users, the 6 lakh would have become 6.25 before most people read this article! :)
I am from Affle, so thought its best that I respond:) SMS2.0 is a free upgrade to the default SMS application which gives users (1) an option to personalise their SMS - make it colourful, add emoticons, signatures etc (2) Access to Free Content like Jokes,News,Cricket, Movie updates etc. which appear as small banners at the bottom of the messaging screen, and as full screen banners which replace the Message Sending/Message Sent screen.
Given this fun and compelling (& free) user proposition, the users have taken this up much more quickly than most would expect
Hmm, this is looking interesting .... but what exactly is the product offering is not very clear to me. In addition it is unable to address all those laks of users who dont have a feature full phone ....
So yes the 6 lac needs a bit more validation for me to believe it ....
6 lakh SMS2.0 users from "Airtel users with mobile phones having Symbian Series 60 operating system and GPRS capabilities"
These numbers are hard to believe!
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