Beerud Sheth, Founder & VEO, SMS GupShup

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Launched in April 2007, SMS GupShup now serves 26 million users in over 2 million communities – double the number of communities supported just six months ago. These communities range from religious groups to sports teams to celebrities. Whether it's daily poems, traffic reports or tribal news, SMS GupShup is the centerpiece of connectivity in India. Over 100 advertisers currently run on the network including local insurance provider ICICI Lombard and international brands like Puma, Microsoft and Cadbury.

The creator of this distinct entity, Mr. Beerud Sheth talks about his venture, the journey so far and the future plans with Media Mughals (MM).

Q1. SMS GupShup is your Brainchild. Tell us about the initiation of ‘idea' and what motivated you to challenge uncrowned emperor of communication and information, ‘Internet' through SMS?

Mobile is bringing about the digital revolution in the developing world, as Internet revolutionized our lives in the developed world. With 4 Billion mobile subscribers, and this number growing rapidly, there is a large opportunity to deliver services to this burgeoning user set. SMS being the only ubiquitous protocol became our medium of choice.

Q2. How much communication interactivity you claim to offer by meager messages, which don't allow users to type more than 200 characters?

Mobile, in fact, is both interactive and direct in a way which the other traditional media are not. While it might not offer the rich browsing experience of the internet, it offers the ability to reach anyone, anywhere, anytime. Users can easily respond via SMS or call, and the communication could be 1-n, n-1 or n-n. Limitation on # of chars helps in cutting out the barrage of data and funneling it into useful information.

Q3. How do you see competition from Social Networking websites ambit; such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.? How can you justify the superiority of your service over these portals as they offer many other fascinating elements and verticals that are unmanageable for SMS?

We do not claim superiority to any service out there. While online social networking sites offer a rich interface, we offer communication, news & entertainment to a broader set of audience who is unable to access the internet for various reasons.

We offer this service to our end users for FREE, while discounting our cost of SMS through advertising.

Q4. Isn't it convenient for users to directly communicate through scraps on Orkut/Facebook, by use of affordable smartphones rather than typing long and time consuming messages?

Well, the Smart phones, with all their recent growth in penetration, constitute only 2-3% of the entire mobile user base in India. Whereas SMS has an over the edge advantage than them as this short messaging communication service works across all handsets.

Q5. What technology is involved in framing and implementing marketing services of sending ad messages to mobiles of consumers through SMS GupShup?

We've built an ad server into our platform that enables advertisers to send targeted ads to our users. These ads are delivered based on the available demographic data and behavior information with us. Brands can also create their own mobile communities of prospective/existing customers with whom they can interact with and engage on an ongoing basis.

Q6. Do you really feel advertisements telecast in the last few characters of SMS; attract an individual's interest towards that product/service/community?

A broadcast on traditional media is not guaranteed to be consumed by the target audience as they have the option to switch channels while surfing on TV. People are very likely to read the SMSs they receive, especially if they opted in to receive messages from a particular brand they like. Response rates for ads with call-to-action are typically greater for an SMS campaign v/s those on traditional media. With the character constraint, there is no wastage and the most powerful idea gets communicated.

Q7. But it is seen that receiving ad messages on odd hours seems irritating for people. Justify this slightly disturbing aspect of the SMS service?

SMS services have to be sensitive to user preferences. While some power users could treat SMS subscriptions similar to an RSS feed that downloads anytime, others might prefer it only during the day/evening. Everyone in the ecosystem has to observe discipline to ensure end users are not irritated. For example, we allow our advertisers to send messages only during business hours.

Q8. Have you got provisions of sending ‘Profile Centric' and ‘Location Centric' messages to people? Which one is more beneficial from the point of view of businesses?

Yes, demographic, location and behavior targeting is possible on our platform. What is more effective depends on the campaign objective- for launch of a store in a specific city, one could reach out to TG in that city, while for a pan-India youth-centric brand, it would be better to focus on the profile.

Q9. How brands like Lays, Puma and Cadbury have connected with their consumers through SMS GupShup?

Lays has a 1.75 Million strong community, and they engage their fans through interesting content & contests around the “Dillogical” (Logical from the heart) campaign.

Cadbury ran the ‘Iss Diwali Aap Kisse Khush Karenge' (This festival of Diwali, whom would you like to greet by sending across happiness) campaign across various media- it was super easy for users to send their name etc details as well as their message on SMS. They got a great user response through our channel.

Puma has run multiple advertising campaigns on our platform to reach out to their target profile within our user base.

Q10. Your remarks on the milestone achieved; garnering a great database of 26 million users within the short span of 3 years, since the inception of SMS GupShup!

We're very excited! We're thankful to our users for helping us achieve this milestone, and as we continue to receive a great response.

Q11. Your take on SMS GupShup's recent reception of funding for a $12 million round led by Globespan Capital Partners .

We're excited about this funding round and we welcome Venky Ganesan (Managing Director, Globespan Capital) as a Board Member.

Our user base and revenues have grown substantially over the last year and we are also seeing strong interest from carriers worldwide. We expect to use the proceeds from this funding round to accelerate our growth and expand our operations globally, to make our products useful to each of the 4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide.

Q12. How has SMS GupShup been working over the revenue streams?

We're working hard to deliver value to our various customer segments. We maintain a strong culture of customer focus, since our success depends on their success and satisfaction. Since mobile is a relatively new channel for brands & SMEs, we've invested efforts in evangelizing the efficacy and opportunity of this channel.

Q13. A brief outlook of your future plans for the strengthening position of SMS GupShup and devising new initiatives for one of the fastest growing platforms-mobile.

We'll continue to innovate and hire the best talent to develop an influential and leadership position in the industry. We're looking to grow globally, in partnership with leading carriers in major markets. We're excited by the potential of our products on SMS, a medium which touches billions of users worldwide.