Bulk SMS service provider Clickatell is eyeing the potentially lucrative US financial services sector as a primary source of expansion, says its GM and COO for the Americas, Jim Queen.
Speaking to ITWeb during a short trip to this country last week, Queen says SMS as a communications tool is beginning to take off in the US. He says there are great opportunities to take South African-developed intellectual property (IP) and use it there.
In March, Clickatell announced its merger with Queen`s former company, MultiMode, in a private deal that would see the local company expand into the US market.
"Obviously what South African financial services companies are already doing is of great interest to their American counterparts and the US market is ripe for this kind of service."
Queen says the development of the US SMS market has been hampered by the different communications protocols used by cellular network operators there and the fact that they often restrict their SMS services to their own particular networks.
"However, now they are seeing that it is beneficial to them to open up their networks and the customers are demanding this," he says.
The South African financial sector, particularly the commercial banks, has been quick to see the potential of SMS in servicing clients. Anton Lan, Clickatell`s head of business development in Africa and Middle East, says First National Bank, for example, is a prolific user.
"According to our estimates, First National Bank, the third largest commercial bank, now accounts for a third of this country`s SMS traffic," he says.
Queen says in terms of the new Clickatell structure, many of the South African developed IP and product services will be marketed and sold in the US.
"We still see the South African operation as a source for developing and exporting into the US the IP and product," he says.
Raising venture capital to fund Clickatell`s US expansion is also a priority and Queen says he and CEO Pieter de Villiers are in talks with a number of interested US parties.
"There has been great interest in what Clickatell has to offer and negotiations are going well," he says.
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