New project idea: Bringing back Twitter SMS - Silicon Beach Australia

Message from discussion New project idea: Bringing back Twitter SMS
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Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:05:38 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: Re: New project idea: Bringing back Twitter SMS
From: Bart Jellema <bart.jell...@tjoos.com>
To: Silicon Beach Australia <silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com>
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I don't think pricing is an issue at all... I just build it with my
modem for fun... using a gateway is just as easy and just as cheap...
5c to 7c per message... http://www.clickatell.com/pricing/pricing_wizard.ph=
p

On Aug 17, 8:57=A0pm, Geoff McQueen <geoff.mcqu...@internetrix.com.au>
wrote:
> Bart,
>
> I'm thinking you might be onto something here. There has recently been a =
dramatic increase in the number of "unlimited" mobile plans on the market, =
which include unlimited text. While there are of course going to be massive=
 fine-print caveats on these plans (haven't had a chance to read up on them=
 yet), I imagine they'll come back to not running a commercial service, and=
 a fair use policy that you don't go completely nuts.
>
> As a result, buying a couple of these plans and then opening up shop woul=
d likely end up getting one into hot water pretty quickly, but, what if we =
could do something a little more "community" with it, and run the service i=
n a bit of a decentralised fashion, so that a number of individuals with th=
ese sorts of unlimited plans put up their hands and take a small bit of the=
 load in a way which doesn't breach fair use or commercial provisions in th=
ese sort of plans?
>
> I haven't thought about it enough to consider its mechanics, but the conc=
ept would probably be to have a central marshalling point where messages ar=
e read from Twitter (XMPP, API, whatever), and then a random user who's sig=
ned in is selected and the central point sends it through to their machine =
via the internet at which point it is then sent out. The user could nominat=
e what they're prepared to offer, so, say 250 SMS messages per month, with =
a cap of 30 per day (less than your average teenager sends, so, again, they=
 don't earn unwanted attention) could be what a user could choose, and once=
 they have used up their quota, they're not part of the random selection li=
st.
>
> Methods that come to mind include something like the HSDPA modem you're t=
alking about, or via an iPhone application (Apple are promising to be able =
to "wake up" applications on handsets using push technology aren't they?), =
or a Windows Mobile 6 application. Ideally, the "from" number for this sort=
 of service would be changed to be the +44 UK gateway (which twitter will s=
till receive messages via), so the innocent are protected.
>
> Anyway, this is a whole lot more engineering than other suggestions, but =
it could have the advantage of being a cost-less solution, and, personally,=
 I'd say the world would have to be in awe of Aussie ingenuity for coming u=
p with this work around (and since Twitter's domestic support is limited to=
 USA, Canada and India for the time being (I think?), open sourcing the eff=
ort could result in a massive peer supported network of these gateways.
>
> That's enough weekend dreaming for me... back to the 300+ item to do list=
... ;-)
>
> Geoff
>
> From: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com [mailto:silicon-beach-aust=
ralia@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Davis Weddi
> Sent: Sunday, 17 August 2008 8:42 PM
> To: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [SiliconBeach] Re: New project idea: Bringing back Twitter SMS
>
> Interesting stuff here on SMS.
> As a newbie here, I am looking forward to seeing this SMS idea mature int=
o a realtime projection.
>
> Davis
>
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 8:59 PM, Bart Jellema <bart.jell...@tjoos.com<mai=
lto:bart.jell...@tjoos.com>> wrote:
>
> Just got home from official friday and read (parts of) this thread...
> Decided to give it a whirl and got it working just fine...
>
> http://www.tjoos.com/Img/Tweet2Sms.png
>
> Twitter sends notifications to my email. I poll my email every 30 secs
> and if a new twitter direct mail arrives I'm sending out an SMS using
> my Huawei E220 USB HSDPA Modem. I can put any SIM in this device, so
> could load a prepaid vodafone one with $49 maxicap =3D $310 =3D 1240 smse=
s
> =3D 4 cents per sms. Obviously you'd set limits on both total number per
> day/week and total number from 1 person per day/week to prevent
> someone creating a crazy bill.
>
> So..... who would pay something like 10 cents per received sms? Should
> I build this prototype into a real solution? Does anyone really care?
>
> Time for bed.
>
> On Aug 15, 10:09 am, Elias Bizannes <elias.bizan...@gmail.com<mailto:elia=
s.bizan...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------=
--------------------
> > Adding Ivo's message which for some reason didn't post - Elias
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------=
--------------------
>
> > Hi Elias and Geoff,
>
> > I tried posting to the group but got an error message - maybe I'm not
> > allowed post. I've joined the group on google. Does someone need to
> > set me up to post?
>
> > Anyways heres my email.
> > Ivo
>
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: Ivo Brett <ivo.br...@gmail.com<mailto:ivo.br...@gmail.com>>
> > Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:38:12 +0100
> > Subject: Re: [SiliconBeach] New project idea: Bringing back Twitter
>
> > SMS
> > To: "silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com<mailto:silicon-beach-aust=
ralia@googlegroups.com>"
> > <silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com<mailto:silicon-beach-australi=
a@googlegroups.com>>
>
> > Hi there,
>
> > Thanks for including me on this email and thanks to Elias for
> > introducing me2mobile.com<http://me2mobile.com>. Premium SMS and bulk S=
MS is an area I know
> > quite a bit about after having struggled with many different business
> > models in this area. Its interesting that you've mentioned this as I
> > have spent the last couple of weeks looking into the area of SMS
> > enabling 'life streaming' services.
>
> > A few things I've learnt about running a premium SMS business that you
> > might not already know. Firstly, the costs for a shortcode with a
> > carrier is expensive to setup and maintain. The revenue share is
> > stacked in favour of the operators and they take a large share for no
> > risk. Secondly, you need to be doing a large volume of SMS for any
> > business case to pay off. This =A0means that the only people who make
> > money out of premium SMS are the companies that can afford massive
> > marketing (e.g. late night text for a babe type services). This has
> > resulted in premium SMS being considered a slightly "grubby" service.
> > For all these reasons me2mobile has moved away from premium SMS as our
> > core offering. We now make most of our money out of selling
> > interactive SMS services to businesses (i.e. SMS campaigns using bulk
> > SMS) rather than premium SMS.
>
> > That being said, I think that your idea has a lot of merit. Twitter
> > have done the hard work of creating a market for this idea (they've
> > just withdrawn their own heavily used sms service). There is also a
> > sizable and well connected twitter user base so it would be relatively
> > easy to get this service 'out there'.
>
> > Geoff and some of the other posters correctly pointed out some of the
> > necessary mechanics of how premium SMS works so I wont go over them.
> > But you thing that wasnt mentioned was the ability to send a low
> > charged premium SMS (MT) to each follower. This could be as low as 25
> > cents. I do, however, accept the point from Silky that its a pain to
> > have to pay for incoming tweets especially since you dont know how
> > many there'll be but as Elias says you can give people the option to
> > opt out (or set a daily limit on how many they'll receive).
>
> > Not too make it sound too trivial as I know there'll be some gotchas
> > but I reckon I've implemented about 75% of what needs to be done for
> > this project. I also have an agreement with one of the top premium SMS
> > and bulk SMS aggregators. I selected them after indepth selection
> > process and I reckon I have the best rates and revenue share that one
> > can get. The best thing about this aggregator is that they have
> > premium SMS connectivity in 28 countries so if this offering proven
> > successful in Australia it would be very simple to roll out
> > internationally.
>
> > I have a good premium SMS shortcode already set up (19961996) with
> > this aggregator (its 55 cents MO). Note: If you were to set up a
> > shortcode yourself it normally takes 6 to 8 weeks to get a shortcode
> > set up and sometimes operators knock back the applications.
>
> > To be perfectly honest - the most expensive part of my agreement is
> > maintaining the premium shortcode and I have been considering closing
> > this part down altogether. There is one customer using it extensively
> > but I dont push our premium sms offering anymore. Therefore, ne
> > possibility is that I share my current agreement with others that want
> > to take advantage of this shortcode. I'll be a transparent as possible
> > and even share the contract details I have with the aggregator just to
> > show that I wont be creaming any margin off the top. All I'd ask is to
> > be involved in the service and any revenues generated by it.
>
> > I'd like to be involved in this project as I think its got a lot of
> > legs. I'm back in Ireland at the moment but I can have a call with
> > others if that helps speed things up.
>
> > Ivo
>
> > On 8/14/08, Geoff McQueen <geoff.mcqu...@internetrix.com.au<mailto:geof=
f.mcqu...@internetrix.com.au>> wrote:
>
> > - Show quoted text -
> > > Elias,
>
> > > Sounds interesting. As someone who's messed around with premium SMS b=
efore,
> > > could I confirm the idea is:
>
> > > 1. A "short code" or 19 number be registered in AU
> > > 2. People who send to this number pay a premium to send their SMS
> > > 3. Some of this premium is revenue that goes to the "owner" of the 19=
 number
> > > 4. This revenue be re-invested in the community, in whatever form tha=
t is?
>
> > > If that is the plan, this would require:
> > > 1. Account setup with a carrier, which I take it you're suggesting mo=
bileme
> > > (although [3] wasn't referenced in your post)
> > > 2. Some glue to tie submission posts to the short code as submitting =
to the
> > > Twitter API
> > > 3. Resolving who's going to pay for broadcast/outgoing messages from =
Twitter
> > > (unless people agree to cop a fee per message they get delivered a la=
 late
> > > nite adult tv commercials)
>
> > > I see aspect 3 of the requirements above as the hard bit financially;=
 this
> > > is why Twitter is removing support for
>
> ...
>