MTN says it has the biggest Web site in Africa, with more than 32 million page impressions last month and almost a million registered users. And it claims to have achieved this with no marketing other than word of mouth.
The site, www.mtnsms.com, was launched three months ago, according to Sam Michel, the head of MTN`s new e-business division. He says a single link from the MTN homepage at mtn.co.za was the only way to the new site.
In comparison, the biggest Web site according to the Audit Bureau of Internet Standards is Africam, which recorded almost 24 million impressions on average in the third quarter this year. Almost 10 million of those impressions were refreshed pages, considered by some not to be valid as impressions.
The site is the first phase in the cellular operator`s Internet strategy; a strategy it promises will be different from that of its competitors.
"We want to build a community and be a PSI, not an ISP," Michel says. "A PSI is a provider of services on the Internet." Ari Kahn, a technology developer for MTN, says the strategy has nothing to do with being a portal. He would rather see MTN sites as a "port of call". "We want to give people a four second thrill before they move on. It is frictionless, not sticky at all."
MTN sees its first step as building a community. Phase two is the building of revenue streams and mining the opportunity such a community presents. It is unwilling to reveal any details of its plans for phase two.
MTNSMS allows users to send a short message to a cellphone using a Web interface, something Michel admits is far from new. He is proud of the 10 000 new users he says register on the site daily, but the entire MTN strategy does not rely on SMS services.
"WAP [wireless application protocol] is something of the future," says Kahn. "We can give mobile Internet to the masses now." Using MTN proprietary middleware named RIVR, any Internet content can be delivered to a cellphone without the need of WAP knowledge, he notes.
The system, demonstrated live, uses a five to ten second normal phonecall to a dedicated number. If profiled, a user receives an SMS messages shortly thereafter with the information described by his profile. The call activates a script on a remote machine which triggers the SMS. "I think the information is more appropriate this way than having someone read it to you," he says.
MTN claims that this is the first system of its kind in the world. Similar services are available using an SMS to trigger the information rather than a voice call, but Michel says the MTN version has benefits. "You are one of the 0.1% of people who know how to send an SMS," he responded to a journalist during a press briefing. "This way is much easier."
The company proposes to make such a service available to Web site operators in the first quarter of next year. Each Web site will have its own dedicated number on the MTN network through which users can request information.
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