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Texting Biz

bad_dog

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Oct 7, 2007
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Hey everyone

I was skimming thru a european Maxim mag not too long ago, and was also watching a football match at my local pub, and was blown away by all the "TEXT ____ to ____ FOR ____" ads over there.

Why has this not taken off on our side of the pond to the extent over there? Why can I not enter my # into a website service and be updated with traffic info, etc. or text my # for stuff over the TV, radio?

Regulations???? I'm confused!
 
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Jorge

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I've thought about this many many times.
In Argentinian TV you see this ads all the time, but most of them are useless: Jokes, Horoscope, Ringtones and wallpapers. Thats it. No value in that service.

A friend of mine has a friend who works in a Mobile Company (Movistar) but never let me know how to get a Code. Its a somewhat "underground" business.

I have plenty ideas but without a code, I'm trapped.
 

Rawr

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Could you please provide some examples of what you saw?


I see a lot of txt advertising - usually some giveaways or "should I dump my boyfriend" nonsense ;)
 
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Jorge

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Great info! Thanks!

Now the thing is, in this ads, at the bottom of the screen it says something like this:

"$3,50 for each message sended, other charges my apply"

Are they making a deal with the mobile company, or what?

Because if you send a message for example to get a joke, in your monthly bill you get that credit billed also...
 

Andrew

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Huge industry, I would guess somewhere north of $500 million a year right now. The big wildcard is the mobile providers make all of the rules and the contracts are written so that they can chose not to pay you for any reason.

Assuming everything is set up right you can make about $6 profit a month per customer, factor your marketing costs in to that.
 

LightHouse

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I wont dig into this too much, however, one of my tenants does this business. last year they were offered 33 mil for the company... this year they cant find a buyer becsue the carriers are taking it in their own hands. this business has come and gone for the quick money (if even ethical in the first place).

developing a system to text to get new etc etc would be a huge expense and chances are the texting generation wont dig. just my opinions on the subject.
 
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Andrew

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There still is "easy" money involved, but you need to know what you are doing. Understanding the advertising angle is absolutely critical. If you have no experience in doing large ad buys you will have a rough time.

As far as ethics, the mobile providers have to review and approve *everything.* I'll leave it at that. I don't know if that was the case 12 months ago.

JScott -- this doesn't even involve application developers, it involves SMS billing. The contracts have all kinds of holes and no one is in a position to change the terms with a $120 billion+ company such as Verizon. I am not going to go into the reasons of "choose not to pay" here, but its fair to say they are there, other than it would still be a future event.
 

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