Answer at your fingertips

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 29 Oct 2008

Local entrepreneur Jonathan Ratcliffe has launched a messaging service, Ask a Guru, that promises to get the answer to any question.

According to Ratcliffe, the service has been successful in the UK and Australia, and the local service is based on and serviced by the international versions. “We are working with the company that started the service in the UK.”

The service allows users to message any question to 38138. The query is routed to the international service and answered by one of five to 10 people who will research the query and send an answer.

Ratcliffe says the service is perfect for those occasions when users may not be close to an Internet service. “In the pub or on the golf course, when you just have to know the answer, this service is ideal for that.'

Good cause

The service costs R10 per SMS, which Ratcliffe admits is pricey. However, until the end of December, all proceeds will be donated to Percy Bartley Children's shelter, for disadvantaged children from around SA.

According to Ratcliffe, there will be no way to reduce the price. “It is unfortunately the price we need to charge to run the service. The mobile operators take over half of the cost of the SMS. So at the moment the target audience are those who have disposable income.”

However, despite the high cost, Ratcliffe says there has been a positive response to the service. While he can't provide exact figures, he says the service has seen more question submissions than expected.

Mobile messaging platforms have proven extremely successful in the local market, with companies like Mxit showing excellent returns. Gartner predicted in 2007 that mobile messages will surpass two trillion messages in major markets this year, a 19.6% increase from the 2007 total of 1.9 trillion messages.

Time frames

Ratcliffe says the service aims to respond to any question within four minutes. “This will not always be possible, especially with obscure questions. More difficult questions can take up to half an hour to answer, although our average is currently about six minutes.

"Since our service started, we've only had about six questions that we could not answer.”

He says the service offers anonymity, which makes it an appealing option for users who need sensitive questions answered.

The service was heavily tested, because the questions are routed half way across the world. “This leaves us with many points of failure and we had to make sure that none of our users' questions are lost in transit. It has happened, but those are very few and far between.”

ITWeb's query was “What did Picasso say about computers and answers?” The answer: “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”