Why the Philippines Was the Texting Capitalof the WorldThe Philippines was the original textingcapital of the world. When SMS wasintroduced to the public in 1995, it was usedas a promotional gimmick for the hearingimpaired. It was in fact originally offered asa value-added service available for free tosubscribers. Not surprisingly, Filipinosstarted getting cellphones for the purpose oftexting only so that they could communicateinstantly for free.The telecoms caught on to this trend andstarted charging PHP1.00 per text message.For some good reason, that price did notchange since... Owning a cellphone in thePhilippines was an instant membership to themobile social network. Long beforeFriendster, My Space and Facebook came tobe, texting was the social networkingapplication.A lot of applications and services wereinvented around texting. For mostcompanies, offering an SMS-based servicewas the cheapest way to expand theircustomer-base. Instant news, dailyhoroscopes, registration services, games,surveys, tickets, mobile phone banking,mobile phone wallet... you name it, theywere tried and tested in the Philippines.The cellphone was never a luxury in thePhilippines. At some point, it even almostbecame a necessity for everyone to own one.There were some events and activities thatrequire participants and members to have acellphone (say for example, if theregistration process is via SMS only). Itbecame so much a part of the generation Ysgrowing up that it would be surprising toknow someone without a cellphone.Almost everyone in the country owned acellphone. As proof, texting was consideredto had played important roles in some of themany recent historic events in thePhilippines. Text is both a noun and a verbin the Philippines. Ill text you. Text me.I got your text. Dont text me, Ill textyou. Its part of the generation Ys modernvocabulary. But dont be fooled because eventhe older generations know what textmeans in this context...The good thing is that everyone could affordto send and receive text messages. Therewere more texts than there were calls really.Besides instant messaging via PC, texting isthe cheapest way to communicate instantlyin the Philippines. You pay a minimal priceto send one and you get the replies for free.The charging model is a sure hit! Its beenthat way since around 15 years ago and itmight stay that way for a long while. How Iwish its the same around the world! Inquire business here:vmobileteamtitans.net/maricarcatalbas
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 14:40:38 +0000
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