Tag Archives: Text Messaging

Indonesian Telcos Building Messaging Solution to Compete with the Likes of Viber, Line, WhatsApp

IndoTelko is reporting that BRTI, the Indonesian telecommunications industry regulator, along with local mobile operators are working on a plan to deliver “Messaging Indonesia”. Messaging Indonesia is expected to be a solution to a cross platform instant message and multimedia document delivery network which works across multiple carriers.The concept is similar to WhatsApp as well as other messaging solutions, but with domestic routing which is expected to reduce operational costs for carriers and offer an alternative solution to customers.

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Catching up With Mig33

When talking about the mobile text messaging space, it’s easy to forget about Singapore-based mig33, which operates primarily in countries like Indonesia, India, and Bangladesh, running mostly on feature phones. More than half of its 65 million members are in Indonesia. While it is a global network, its popularity in Indonesia means that many of its offline events are also meant for Indonesians.

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Revisiting SMS as a Consumer Engagement Tool

We previously reported that SMS usage has been in a steady decline in Indonesia. As Aulia noted, from June to September 2012 alone, SMS usage has dropped 38%. According to the Indonesian association of telecommunication interconnection clearing (Askitel), the number of SMS sent across all Indonesian mobile carries massively declined from 28 billion in June to 18.5 billion in September. This is much attributed to, as Rama also wrote, the rise of over the top (OTT) services like Skype, WhatsApp, Line, Kakao Talk, BBM or iMessage. With such statistics backing the fall of SMS, how can I ask you, the readers, to revisit SMS as an engagement marketing tools?

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WhatsApp’s Neeraj Arora is Bullish On Indonesia, Looking To Do More With The Local Mobile Market

Several weeks ago we spoke to Neeraj Arora, vice president of business at WhatsApp, to talk about the company’s plans and outlook as well as the Indonesian market. The popular messaging client has seen its market flooded with competition lately but still managed to contribute significantly to the shifting of messaging from SMS to Internet-based. Arora addressed the issue of more sophisticated competition, markets with low credit card adoption, its view on advertising, and how quickly the app’s adoption spread.
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Apakah Facebook Camera Akan Bernasib Sama dengan Facebook Messenger?

Ketika Facebook memilih untuk meluncurkan Messenger sebagai aplikasi terpisah, itu bukan keputusan yang sulit. Facebook telah lama merencanakan untuk membuat layanan pesan mereka sendiri untuk menggantikan SMS, email, dan instant messaging. Menggunakan banyak layanan pesan, menjadi tidak praktis di era konektivitas saat ini dan karena hampir semua orang yang berada di Internet terkoneksi melalui Facebook, ini menjadi solusi yang cukup jelas. Sebuah keputusan yang mudah dan brilian. Sayangnya aplikasi ini tidak populer.

Pada versi terbaru Facebook Messenger, kita bisa mengetahui tidak hanya ketika pesan yang kita kirimkan itu sudah terbaca, namun, jika kita mengirimkan pesan ke grup, kita juga bisa tahu siapa saja yang sudah membaca pesan kita. Aplikasi Messenger dari Facebook lebih fungsional, lebih berguna, dan lebih bisa diakses dari BlackBerry Messenger atau aplikasi pesan lain yang ada di pasaran, tapi bisa dibilang hampir tidak ada orang yang menggunakannya.

Orang masih terikat kepada saluran komunikasi yang mereka sukai. Pengguna fanatik BlackBerry terikat dengan BlackBerry Messenger, menyebutkan BBM Group, privasi, serta koneksi antar teman sebagai alasan utama untuk tetap menggunakannya. Pengguna lain, yang tidak menggunakan BlackBerry, memilih untuk menggunakan iMessage, WhatsApp, atau Line untuk pesan teks. Dan tentu saja ada SMS, yang kuno, tidak semenyenangkan maupun sefungsional Messenger, namun tersedia untuk setiap perangkat bergerak yang ada di bumi.

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Will Facebook Camera Suffer the Same Fate As Facebook Messenger?

When Facebook spun off Messenger as a separate app, it was a no-brainer. Facebook had long planned to make itself the default messaging service for people to use in place of SMS, email, and instant messaging. Having multiple messaging solutions seems pretty clumsy in the age of connectivity and with Facebook being the one network that almost everybody online is connected on, it seems like an obvious solution. It was a no-brainer and a brilliant idea. Unfortunately it hasn’t caught on.

The latest update to Facebook Messenger app features notices to let people know not only whether the message has been read but also, if it’s a group message, which of the group members have actually seen or read the message. The Messenger app is more functional, more ubiquitous, and more accessible than BlackBerry Messenger or any other messaging app out there yet hardly anybody uses it.

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Ada di Posisi Manakah Anda di Era Perang SMS?

Jon Russell dari The Next Web membicarakan kemungkinan atau efek dari kesepakatan Skype – Telkomsel yang berhubungan dengan pesan teks. Ketika orang mendengar nama Skype, hal pertama yang dipikirkan adalah sarana telepon gratis dan panggilan video antara pengguna Skype serta tarif panggilan murah untuk nomor landline serta ponsel biasa. Walaupun pesan teks gratis juga tersedia di Skype, brand ini tidak begitu identik atas fasilitas itu. Jika Skype ingin turut terjun dalam bidang ini – SMS, maka Skype harus melalui hambatan cukup berat.

Para pesaing Skype antara lain adalah BlackBerry Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, mig33, Facebook Message, dan WhatsApp. Ada lebih banyak lagi pesaing lain tetapi beberapa nama ini adalah layanan yang cukup menonjol. Apple iMessage dan Google Messenger di aplikasi Android Google+ cukup layak untuk dimasukkan dalam peta persaingan, tetapi mereka masih dalam tahap awal dengan fitur, jangkauan, dan kehandalan yang masih terbatas dan karena itu masih belum cukup menarik bagi pengguna umum.

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Which Side are You on in the Text Messaging War?

Jon Russell over at The Next Web brought up a possibility of what the Skype-Telkomsel deal means for messaging. When people think of Skype, the first thing that comes to mind is free phone and video calls between Skype users and reduced call rates to regular landline as well as mobile numbers. While free text messaging is certainly a part of Skype, the brand is not immediately identifiable with it. If Skype is going to make a challenge into this field, it has a mountain of competitors to conquer.

Competing with Skype in mobile instant messaging are big time players such as BlackBerry Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, mig33, Facebook Message, and WhatsApp. There are many more but these are the prominent ones. Apple’s iMessage and Google’s Messenger in Google+ Android and iPhone apps are worth mentioning but they are still in early infancy with limited feature, reach, and reliability and thus not in a position to appeal greatly to the masses just yet.
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