AIS Targets Non-smart-phone Users With Facebook & Twitter Alerts

[george]

AIS targets non-smart-phone users with Facebook & Twitter alerts

BANGKOK: -- Advanced Info Service has launched a Facebook & Twitter Alert service to enable the 85 per cent of its 29 million mobile-phone service subscribers with non-smart phones to partake in the most popular social networks via their devices.

AIS has about 6 million mobile Internet users, of which around 100,000 have hooked up with Facebook through their mobile phones and some 30,000 have joined Twitter via the same route.

Pratthana Leelapanang, AIS assistant vice president for value-added service, said the new service targeted non-smart-phone users, which currently accounted for 85 per cent of the company's 29 million overall subscribers.

Its market research found there was high demand for using social-networking applications on mobile phones but also a lack of service to link users without smart phones to keep in touch with their social networks.

AIS therefore developed the Facebook & Twitter Alert service to bridge this gap.

To benefit from the service, users have to subscribe to tie their mobile-phone number to their Facebook or Twitter account. They can do this simply by pressing *900*9# call, or via AIS's website at www.ais.co.th/alert.

Subscribers can then avail of a seven-day free trial, after which there will be a weekly charge of Bt9 per Facebook or Twitter account.

This will entitle users to receive all notifications of conversation messages sent by their friends in their social network, such as updated friends' comments on one's Facebook status and mentions and direct messages from Twitter friends.

On the other hand, if users want to post their "status update" onto Facebook or Twitter, they just need to type an SMS, send it to an assigned number, and the message will be posted online immediately. They will be charged an additional Bt2 per message for this service.

If users want to post a photo, it can be sent via MMS for Bt6 per message.

The beauty of the service is that it is not limited to smart-phone users and is real-time communication, as users do not need to access the social-networking site to pull their latest messages. The messages will be sent to them immediately they occur on Facebook or Twitter, said Pratthana.

The service is available with immediate effect for Twitter, while the Facebook service will be available from next Tuesday, when AIS will launch it officially with Facebook.

Pratthana said AIS planned to have 100,000 users subscribing to the new service within three months. In the next couple of years, the service should help increase SMS revenue growth from 5 per cent per year to 6-7 per cent.

"It also helps increase momentum for smart-phone replacement and data consumption. This is because once they [non-smart-phone users] have a chance to experience social networking and grow to love it, they might replace their phone with a smart phone and become heavier users of data communication," said Pratthana.

AIS's non-voice revenue this year is expected to achieve the target of 25 per cent, with a similar growth rate likely for next year, he added.

-- The Nation 2009-12-09

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]