More companies are using SMS for their promotions

November 2nd, 2005

The Philippines offers great potentials to push mobile marketing in Southeast Asia because Filipinos have developed a high degree of sophistication in terms of mobile-phone usage.

Arthur Policarpio, chief operating officer of Global Wireless Connections (GWC), said countries such as Indonesia and Thailand have already recognized the impact of mobile marketing.

"I believe that the Philippines can be the pioneer in Asia when it comes to mobile marketing", Policarpio said.

"We are the short messaging service (SMS) capital of the world and of Asia, and most of the mobile marketing concepts, models and products we have developed here have not yet been done outside the country", he said.

Mobile marketing is essentially the use of mobile-phone technology such as SMS, MMS and video streaming to build and promote brands and products. It covers the entire spectrum of current and future mobile-phone technology.

GWC is engaged in implementing end-to-end mobile marketing campaigns from concept development, software development, database management and securing of permits to marketing plan preparation and implementation, as well as logistics.

The company is looking to export its mobile marketing models this year to Indonesia, Thailand and Hong Kong as part of efforts to boost its presence in the Southeast Asian region. As far as Thailand is concerned, Policarpio said GWC is going to export Girl Text, a value-added service used by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) subsidiary Smart Communications.

He said GWC is conducting talks with Indonesia-based Filipino entrepreneurs to finalize what projects could be brought to different Indonesian cities.

"We are also planning to enter the United States market after we have established our presence in Asia", he pointed out.

Policarpio allayed fears that mobile business has already reached its saturation point, citing the current subscriber growth rates posted by Smart and rival Globe Telecom, which indicate that there is still room for expansion.

"Many have said that Smart and Globe have reached subscriber penetration rate saturation point, but look at how they are beating analyst expectations", he said.

"We now have 30 million mobile-phone users in the country, and by end of next year, fully one out of two Filipinos are projected to have a mobile phone. In time, 70 percent to 80 percent of all Filipinos will have a mobile phone, by which time, the potential of mobile marketing will have reached its peak", he added.