Comments on: Why Webaroo Would Need As Much As $10 Million In Funding

By: Sumit Arora

Sumit Arora — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:18:52 +0000

Could someone list down some SMS providers who provide PUSH sms for less than 7 paise. I made the typo error.

By: Sumit Arora

Sumit Arora — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:17:52 +0000

Could someone list down some SMS providers who provide PUSH sms for less than 70 paise.

By: rahul

rahul — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:46:17 +0000

http://www.znisms.com/partners.html

Check this page.They are quoting 5paisa/sms(ex taxes) when the volume crosses 10 million/month. Since mytoday sends 360 million they will get a far better deal say 1 or 2 paisa/sms.
Surely they won’t be shelling 5 paisa.

By: How SMSGupShup Is Monetizing: Content Store, Premium Groups, Paid SMS | MediaNama

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:28:32 +0000

[...] MyToday, SMS Gupshup – Helion And Charles River Ventures Invest $11 M In SMS GupShup – Why Webaroo Would Need As Much As $10 Million In Funding Mobile Tags: Charles River Ventures, Helion, India, Mobile, Paid SMS, Premium, Push SMS, [...]

By: Yash

Yash — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:43:05 +0000

The VCs and the people running these businesses are definitely smarter than I am (I hope) and they must have some plans to recover all that money. But one thing is certain – advertising alone won’t be enough to survive.
Some of the VCs might be investing hoping for an acquisition. What these companies are doing right now is they are gaining traffic and userbase. VCs might be hoping that tomorrow some company like Google entering the SMS advertising space with its huge inventory of ads would like to buy some of these properties for its userbase – like YouTube. So lets say if Google buys MyToday, Microsoft might go for SMSGupshup.
If not for acquisition then these companies can make money in many different ways like providing premium content for a small fee, if not today then may be in the long run.
But clearly the idea right now is to acquire a loyal userbase which can be monetised later. It’s how back in the mid 1990s early Internet companies raised hundreds of millions and burned it on Super Bowl ads in the quest of gaining traffic. Some survived, some died. Who survives and who dies in SMS space will be clear in the next one or two years.

By: lOrD

lOrD — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:36:48 +0000

All said and done, the market is still not ready or sms advertising. Coupled with the restrictions we have in advertising of sms (i.e- character restrictions, text based advertising etc), this is not a model which can sustain in the market for long.
Secondly, as GPRS is becoming more and more popular, the SMS model has to eventually die down some day.
Thirdly, all these startups are just ginny pigs. The operators are just waiting to see which model works and then they will come down on the successful model and kill these people hands down.
Fourthly, a company like sms gupshup who has already so far raised around 20$ million in funding and still not focused on their product line and keeping on changing it from offline browsing, to mobile app to sms gupshup will run out of funds in the next 1 year and will hve a problem getting anymore funds if they have still not managed to break even, after raising 20$ milllion.
all n all, lets see how long sms gupshup survives. my guess is to a mazimum of 1 year. any guesses?

By: Gandolf Hübinger

Gandolf Hübinger — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:50:21 +0000

Internationalisation? What about SMS cost in Europe and US?

Bulk SMS seems to be extremely cheap in India and therefore the true enabler (if it works at all) for this business model in India. Bulk SMS in Europe cost betwen 5 and 7 cent. There is talk about an internationalisation of thes business models. How are they ever going to pay for the SMS cost? All the best from Berlin

By: Saurabh Sahni » Webaroo raises $10 million in another round of funding

Saurabh Sahni » Webaroo raises $10 million in another round of funding — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:59:33 +0000

[...] by over 300,000 publishers sending around 10M messages per day. SMS to mobile devices is one of the major costs for [...]

By: Nikhil Pahwa

Nikhil Pahwa — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:27:23 +0000

Hey VAS Guy,

thanks, and great to see you here. Always look forward to your inputs :)

About the VCs – I’m sure they must have looked at the burn rate before investing, and are aware that $10 million will not last over a year. The rest is opinion, and I’m sure they have theirs.

By: VAS Guy

VAS Guy — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:17:21 +0000

Dude,
I am afraid, if all these comments, read by perspective investors in these companies could affect their fund raising.

Nikhil, True web2.0 like Analysis for many business models, those who use this could be called VC 2.0 :))
Cheers on starting this new destination with so much buzz. Congratulations and Best Wishes!