SMSCountry brings contextual ads

HYDERABAD, INDIA: Various modes of advertisements via the SMS platform are catching up. The latest, permission based marketing through SMSes, was brought to life by mGinger. While a couple of more companies like m-earn and sms2india followed suit.

Hyderabad-based SMSCountry Network Private Limited has come up with a dissimilar offering. The company has taken a leaf out of the contextual advertisements being carried out on Gmail. Christened 160by2, the new offering enables advertisers to send an advertisement based on the context of the personal SMS.

“We have spotted out some keywords frequently used for SMSes,’’ said Satya Kalyan Yerramsetti, chief executive officer, SMSCountry.

Sender, on the other hand, gets to send free SMSes of maximum 80 characters long through 160by2.com. The rest 80 characters belong to the advertisers.

Currently, users can avail the service only through invitations. A user can send 50 messages per day and 10 SMSes are allowed to a single number.

“Advertisers can chose the mobile circles and the time of advertising,’’ informed Yerramsetti.

“This is a very effective way for the advertisers to reach out to a large audience,’’ said Sanyog Jain, director, Business Development, SMSCountry.

In January, SMSCountry launched its Middle-East operation by setting up a subsidiary in the Humriyah Free Trade Zone, Sharjah. The company is also approaching venture capitalists to raise funds for itself. Yerramsetti, in a recent visit to the US, had shown the company’s concept to some venture capitalists.

The company also offers email to SMS services. The service is available in more than 200 countries and covers more than 500 networks. SMSCountry also offers bulk mail solutions and plugins for Microsoft Outlook and Excel.