Enterprise Mobility company ValueFirst (VFirst), a part of Rajesh Jain’s Emergic Ecosystem, has entered into the direct-to-consumer business via its subsidiary SpotOn Media, with a service called SMSMEON (i.e. SMS-me-on)

Free Keyword On Short Code
SMSMEON gives consumers their own keyword on ValueFirsts short code - 56070. Users can set their status message, and their friends can pull the same information by SMSing the keyword to 56070. Users can also set up sub-keywords like Location, Plans etc, which they can update to provide their “followers” with requisite information. While the prospect of having their own keyword on the mobile might excite some, I do believe this particular pull based service has its limitations because of two reasons:

– User Behaviour: A pull based service required users to take an initiative to actively seek out information. This is often on an impulse, and this works better as a push based service. Take the example of Twitter - if you had to individually check for status updates from each person whom you were following, you would probably not check often, and follow very few people.
– Cost: to check for updates on a short code, a user would have to pay Rs. 3 to the operator. This will inhibit usage. Compare this to SMS GupShup, which enables you to push updates to users for free, though it uses a long code.
– Duplication: What prevents other service providers from setting up the same service on a long code? That’s a Rs. 1 SMS, instead of a Rs. 3 SMS

Monetization: VFirst will take a cut from the mobile operators, from the Rs. 3 that users pay for sending a premium SMS.

Implications
Enterprise SMS: First and foremost, this might actually take business away from enterprise SMS solutions - if a company can get a keyword for free, why would they subscribe to the enterprise business?
Database: Secondly, VFirst entering the direct to consumer business means they’re competing with some of their clients, like MyToday. While at present VFirst/SpotOn is in the pull SMS business, they’re actively collecting data on users, which can subsequently be used to launch Push SMS services. Even when they’re pushing SMS, their burn rate will be substantially lower than those for their clients.
MocoLife Keywords: Thirdly, what now happens to MocoLife Keywords? They’d launched a paid keyword service last month, and with this launch, that model has gone out the window.

We’ve heard of SpotOn Media before, and it’s interesting that it’s now being mentioned as a ValueFirst subsidiary. SpotOn Media was started by Priyaa Gupta, the wife of ValueFirst COO Apurva Kumar, who joined ValueFirst last month. SpotOn, though, has been around since last year. Also note that Manish Tyagi, who was earlier also with Info Edge, has joined SpotOn as COO.

Mobile
Tags: Apurva Kumar, Keyword, Mobile, MoCoLife, Short Code, SpotOn, SpotOn Media, ValueFirst

1. Cool service and to top it all its FREE!!

   But what I feel is that services offered by Emergic group of cos lack brand recall, their offerings are too fragmented. And being a media channel its essential to have brand recall.

   what would brand manager prefer a 10 sec slot on AAJTAK or NewsX

   Posted by buzz | November 6, 2008, 3:06 pm

2. This is too cool, i never imagined i can own a keyword on a short code and that too for FREE.
   This will take the whole keyword market by storm.

   Posted by Dude | November 6, 2008, 3:13 pm

3. Dude: there are various companies in the US and Eurpoe who offer free keywords since ages. India is far behind in this space.

   not sure about their revenue model. any inputs Nikhil?

   Posted by Code of Conduct | November 6, 2008, 4:58 pm

4. the service seems to be good, conceptually speaking. and with this i do see an end to the keyword selling business unless it is on the grounds of attractive short-codes like 54321 or 58888( tho i also wonder what’s attractive about it now!) - i mean why would any enterprise buy a keyword when it’s there for free w/o any additional services.
   let’s wait and watch — would love to hear opinions, even speculations, on the future of this service.

   of course i do see it big provided it is bundled as a utility service for which users don’t mind that 3 rs reduction each time.

   Posted by speedskill | November 6, 2008, 5:43 pm

5. IBSaxena offered this in 2000 as SaMoSa.

   Free (totally ad funded) is fad that will soon pass. Anyways when you don’t have much to loose, it is better to offer it free and create large user base.

   Good move.

   Posted by VAS Guy | November 6, 2008, 11:33 pm

6. “Anyways when you don’t have much to loose”

   You’re saying that they don’t have much of a short code keywords business? Or that the burn won’t be much for them?

   Posted by Nikhil Pahwa | November 6, 2008, 11:55 pm

7. The Premium SMS business is completely commoditised and revenues have dropped completely.

   There isnt much of model unless it takes off by storm and is really cheap and mass used.

   Posted by Mobyte | November 7, 2008, 1:03 pm

8. There is a business potential in premium sms even at a price point higher than Rs3. The product is efficient and good provided they dont make walls on creating friends user groups.

   Posted by manojit | November 13, 2008, 6:51 pm

9. Why would I/any corporate want to own a keyword today and there are already multiple offerings available (4 named below) to put out sms updates to friends or customers ? )Cost of any normal SMS as per Operator charges)
   1) Twitter
   2) My own mobile number–just sent to 500 people at the same cost..duh.
   3)Free sms Hi5, Free Sms etc web to mobile free services..?
   4) IM to mobile — Messenger/Yahoo offer sms to mobile numbers if you are offline..

   What is the USP of this SMSMEON again??

   Posted by old monk | November 14, 2008, 12:16 pm

10. the difference in the offering here is in the fact that the updates are not ’sent’ to the user(s) but received by them as and when they want it - ruling out all your examples of pushing updates to users.

    i still can’t answer you question
    ‘why would i/any corporate want to own a keyword…..’
    should probably ask the thousands of corporations who BUY keywords at high prices — that it is being distributed to the consumers, is a new concept and even i’m wondering what possibilities it could have.

    i’ll answer the USP thing with another question -
    where can you get a keyword which will be your identity? — the ones you have mentioned are excellent plain push services — while very utilitarian, some consider them as spam
    this one over here is demand-based information retrieval. i can think of several things as to why it is, in my opinion, revolutionary…

    Posted by speedskill | November 15, 2008, 9:41 am