Cellular network provider Vodacom has introduced a mobile and fixed Internet classified service available to all South African cellphone and Internet users.
The service, LiveAds, provides a consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer classifieds service that enables users to post listings, find listings and set alerts directly from their cellphone or PC.
“LiveAds enables users with WAP-enabled cellphones to have instant access to a classifieds listing-service. Users will be able to advertise anything from home appliances through to properties for sale. They can also find jobs or place notices on births or marriages,” explains Shameel Joosub, MD of Vodacom SA.
Vodacom states that initially the service will provide free listings in all categories with no limit to the number of free ads a person or business can post. Typical classifieds categories, which are supported, include jobs, vehicles, housing, items for sale and personals.
The company expects LiveAds will eventually charge for listings posted in the jobs, motor and property sections. However, the majority of categories will remain “free-to-list” sections.
Market defined
The LiveAds service targets WAP-enabled cellphone users. The WAP Internet forms part of a three-tier framework definition of the mobile Internet; the mobile application Internet and mobile Web browsing form the two other tiers of the definition.
The WAP Internet includes access to WAP gateways. This includes mobile versions of brand sites, mobile versions of traditional and new media publisher sites, downloads of ringtones, games and other content, which may only involve a single link from the phone; the typical user of the WAP Internet is not always aware of using the Internet.
According to the World Wide Worx 2009 Mobile consumer study, WAP gateway usage was pegged between 12 million and 14 million users in SA.
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