Business Description:Way2SMS.com is India's first portal to offer its users text messaging absolutely free of cost. The text messages are appended with ads which can be geo-targeted. Users get this free text messaging service in exchange for opting in to have targeted ads appended to their message.
Mobile users can register at absolutely no cost with Way2SMS.com, and start sending out text messages to their near and dear ones across the country.
Out of the 160 characters of a standard SMS, Way2SMS offers only 110 characters to the User to send out their personal SMS. The rest of the characters are reserved for geo-targeted advertisement or Mobitisement. The smaller the message that the users send, the larger the ad content that will be pushed with it.
The Way2SMS Dynamic Ad platform allows advertisers to insert ads in 120, 85 and 35 characters depending on the users personal message length.
Although SMS has gained tremendous popularity, its growth has been hampered in countries such as India due to high costs that have to be borne by the mobile user.
Currently India's mobile user base is more than a staggering 29 crores. When it comes to end subscribers, the advertising potential is as huge as the Indian print media. However, Indian advertisers, till recently, did not have the right platform to reach out to this ever growing base of Indian mobile users.
Our pioneering model benefits both users as well as advertisers. Advertisers need not worry about database & spam issues and can reach out to their target audience. Simultaneously, users can communicate more for nothing through ad funded messaging.
This revolutionary effort has already captured the imagination of millions of mobile users across the globe. Currently, Way2SMS has got more than 2 million registered users through word of mouth. Also, it's reaching over 8 million unique mobiles every month.
Our Objective is to reach out to every mobile user at least once in a month, thus creating a strong platform for advertisers for winning mobile advertising proposition.
Industry:Telecom/ Mobile
Founded in:2006
Source of idea:Systematic search for business opportunity
Significant Competitors:160by2.com
Company Details :
Company Name:Way2SMS
HeadQuarters:Hyderabad
Stage of the company:Scaling up
No of Employees (2006):6-15
No of Employees (2007):26-50
Office Locations(2006):0-1`
Office Locations(2007):0-1
No of companies promoted:
Profits (2006):losing money
Profits (2007):6 to 15 lacs
>Partnerships:We believe that meaningful partnerships are the foundation for success. Partnerships enable us to make continuous improvements and offer best of breed solutions to our customers.
We have recently partnered with Phoneytunes, a top player in the telecom VAS segment, for mobile content. Phoneytunes provides us mobile content such as ringtones, wallpapers, videos, games, animations etc.
We have also tied up with Mauj, a telecom solutions company, to strengthen our Bollywood mobile content offerings to our users.
These two partnerships, today, make Way2SMS a one stop shop for any mobile download requirement. Furthermore, through an alliance with US based Gamejump, a leader in mobile gaming and applications, we are able to offer advertisement supported free games to all our users.
This partnership has again proved our commitment towards advertisement funded service to users. Users can download games free of cost from our WAP portal at http://games.way2sms.com.
Initial Funding:Family & friends
Addl Funding:Family & friends
Institutitional Capital:No
Revneue Model:Way2SMS believes that ad supported messaging is the key channel to drive revenues.
Our revenue streams include:
1. Mobitisements (appended advertisements)
2. Online advertising on our portal way2sms.com (CPC/CPM /CPL modes)
3. Banner advertisements on WAP (We work on CPC and CPM basis here)
4. Lead generation through banners/e-mailers
Awards & honors:-NO-
Promoters Details :
Promoters Name(s):Venkam Raju
Age:0
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No of companies promoted:
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