Asian eMarketing recently met Caroline Doussot, Head of Mobile Marketing at Gemalto, during the MMA Forum in Singapore.

In an exclusive interview she spoke about Gemalto‘s new Smart Message Technology that brings Facebook to all mobile phones - connected to the internet or not.

Since Asia Pacific has the highest penetration of mobile phones in the world, but there is still a huge percentage not able to afford the mobile internet, with Gemalto’s „facebook for SIM“, the heavens seems to smile upon the company’s new venture that was launched around two months ago.

So far, traditional SMSs have been the sole channel that could reach all mobile users, although an SMS does not provide the most attractive user experience. However, now there is Smart Message Technology, a brand new messaging channel, invented by Gemalto.

Caroline Doussot explained that the smart message sends a very small application (4kb) to the phone‘s SIM card, that has the power to completely transforming the user experience: instead of an SMS in the inbox the user has a pop-up on the screen, that leads with one click to the next action, providing an attractive and interactive user experience for a whole new traget group of users.

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At the time being, this technology provides facebook access to mobile users that still have no smartphone and therefore Internet access, making Gemalto‘s technology highly interesting for CRM and mobile marketing. This way, users that don‘t have access to the web can nevertheless kind of be part of the web.

When asked whether Gemalto is planning similar projects with other social media companies, and which countries in APAC would be the most interesting, Caroline replied that this technology is highly relevant for Asia and countries like India and Indonesia, Korea and even Japan. She expressed interest in future projects with e.g. Twitter, however made it clear that Gemalto‘s current focus is on making a case with facebook first, and then carefully approaching other social media channels.

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Key service features of Gemalto’s Smart Message Technology that provides Facebook access from any GSM handset :

  • Access to key Facebook functions,
  • Compliant with any GSM handset supporting SIM Toolkit standards;
  • An intuitive and interactive menu to navigate the service;
  • A turnkey social network gateway service in partnership with Facebook ;
  • A fully-hosted world-class and trusted data centre to ensure robustness, scalability, efficiency and cost effectiveness.

Benefits for operators :

  • Acquisition of new customers thanks to the power of the Facebook brand;
  • Indirect revenue generation;
  • Increased subscriber loyalty;
  • New revenue streams through the sale of SMS data packs;
  • Rapid time-to-market and CAPEX-free deployment;
  • Pay-as-you-go pricing model offered to subscribers.

Benefits for end-users

  • Peace of mind and readiness, since no application download is required;
  • Easy service discovery through a welcome message with direct service access;
  • A user-friendly service with interactive menus, compatible with any GSM handset;
  • Increased users’ engagement and usage, thanks to the interactive notifications;
  • Adapted pricing with daily, weekly or monthly passes.

For further information on facebook for SIM, watch the video at www.gemalto.com/telecom/life_mobilizer/facebook.html or download the brochure at www.gemalto.com/brochures/download/tel_facebook.pdf.

By Daniela La Marca