Indian GIS company MapMyIndia has launched a maps and location service with telecom operator Aircel, called PocketFinder. It's a white labeled service for Aircel which allows users access to maps, points-of-interest like ATM's, Cafe's and restaurants, and more interestingly, "friend-finder" services and location specific deals. The subscription based service, priced at Rs. 10 per month (with data charges extra) is available as an application, on USSD, WAP and SMS, and it requires GPRS and/or 3G to work. Alternatively, of course, there's Google Maps, which is free (albeit, also with data charges). Friend Finder The service has a Friend Finder application (SMS in the format to 54654), similar to the Buddy Finder service which Airtel piloted over a year ago, which allows users to permit specific Aircel users to find them. In the application, one can get directions to the friend, but not on WAP. If the phone is switched off or not in network coverage, then the last known location is displayed. Chhavi Gupta, AVP at MapMyIndia, told MediaNama that it's a little clumsy to draw on WAP. Gupta declined to comment on how much MapMyIndia has invested in this initiative, but said that they're getting a revenue share on the subscription fees. It's worth noting that the service works only with Aircel users, and is not carrier-independent, which limits the functionality of the Friend Finder service. Gupta doesn't expect a carrier-independent service to be possible in the short run. "We aspire to do that, but the LBS ecosystem is…
Please subscribe to MediaNama. Don't share prints and PDFs.
You May Also Like
News
Google has released a Google Travel Trends Report which states that branded budget hotel search queries grew 179% year over year (YOY) in India, in...
Advert
135 job openings in over 60 companies are listed at our free Digital and Mobile Job Board: If you’re looking for a job, or...
News
By Aroon Deep and Aditya Chunduru You’re reading it here first: Twitter has complied with government requests to censor 52 tweets that mostly criticised...
News
Rajesh Kumar* doesn’t have many enemies in life. But, Uber, for which he drives a cab everyday, is starting to look like one, he...