Cape Town, 12 Oct 2005
SMS aggregator Clickatell is preparing to open a US office during the first quarter of 2006 as part of its plan to capture more global business and service its existing American clients, says CEO Pieter de Villiers.
De Villiers says 80% of his five-year-old company`s business comes from outside SA and some key Fortune 500 companies are among its clients. It also deals, directly and indirectly, with about 550 mobile network operators. Clickatell already has a UK office.
"We have a virtual presence in the US, but we now need a more permanent set-up. I should be moving there in about February to help set it up," he says.
Clickatell claims to be the largest SMS aggregator in the world. An aggregator buys SMS capacity from mobile network operators, commits itself to fulfilling the volumes contracted, then bundles the SMS into offerings for its clients to use in their marketing and messaging campaigns.
Overseas network operators that Clickatell deals with on a regular basis include Vodafone, Vodafone Australia, T-Mobile and Orange. It also deals with the three local cellular operators.
De Villiers won`t give actual volumes transacted by Clickatell, but says his company owns "a significant share of a highly competitive market".
UK ICT research company Portia Research predicts that global SMS volumes will reach 1 trillion this year, and 2.38 trillion in 2010. According to the research house, 761 billion SMSes were sent in 2004, equating to more than 100 messages for every man, woman and child on the planet.
"One in three people around the world now have access to a cellphone and therefore SMS. This means SMS will become more important to almost every organisation`s messaging campaigns and not just for marketing purposes as was done by the early adopters," De Villiers says.
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