I just presented the keynote at the First Tuesday event of Vodacom in Johannesburg South Africa. One of the other presenters at the event was a Capetown based company called BulkSMS which now operates internationally in many markets.
I found it fascinating to learn how the founders of BulkSMS got into the mobile telecoms service providers business. And it proves you don't need a 3G license and a brand like Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, Orange or T-Mobile to be able to make it big in mobile.
A bunch of young employed guys in Capetown South Africa liked to windsurf. The problem is that they needed the wind speeds to reach a certain level for it to be fun. There was a national wind status service that you could call and find out what the wind level was. But the problem was that for this you'd need to call about every hour to find out what the current wind level was. The guys wanted an alert when the wind reached a given speed - so to make it worthwhile leaving the office to go windsurfing.
One of the guys lived right on the beach. They set up a wind speed meter, connected it to a computer, some software and a bulk messenger. They thought of messages via e-mail (for free) but thought SMS text messaging was better, as it would reach them immediately wherever they might be.
Then a couple of dozen of them were set up to receive the alerts. Whenever the wind hit the right speeds, they would then take a break for a few hours from work, go windsurfing, and then return and finish the day (working later into the evening on such days).
Soon the word spread. And soon they were asked to do such alerts for other beaches etc. Today they manage all kinds of alerts and text messaging based corporate communications such as banking transaction alerts and offering corporate critical communications that need message archives for attorney offices etc. The windsurfer "dudes" are now owners of a company that now has already opened offices in the UK, USA and Spain and their corporate oriented bulk SMS services are available on 500 mobile networks all around the globe. And with their HQ in Capetown, they still windsurf.
I love this industry.
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