India’s version of “Twitter” Has Millions of Users and Makes Money!

TechCrunch reports that SMSGupShup has 20 million users and makes USD 150,000 per month. And it's all SMS based!!!!

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"The service can only be accessed via SMS, which works just fine for India’s 400 million mobile phone users (there are just 40 million broadband Internet users, Sheth says). Users sign up and use the service all via text messages. They never need to visit the website at all.

The service’s main variable costs are fees for text messages, and Sheth says that they’ve had to implement caps to keep costs under control. But as the service grows, says Sheth, they are able to negotiate much better pricing. Already SMSGupShup accounts for 400 million monthly text messages, around “5%-6%” of the total Indian market.

Three months ago the service added advertising to messages. Three months in and they’re making $150,000/month in revenue. Not bad for a SMS-based service."

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Anyone heard of something similar for Indonesia or the Philippines or Vietnam?

Anyone want to launch such a service in those markets with me?