Although there is nothing new about using USSD for competitions and market research, its popularity has increased and it is a valuable mobile communication tool.
The versatility and viability of USSD appeal to many industries such as marketing, banking, education and even social platforms. Brendan White, CEO of Connet Systems, reports: "There has been significant growth in USSD sessions since last year*. It is possible to attribute it to the dominating feature phone market in South Africa and the inaccessibility or higher cost of mobile and landline broadband."
Feature phones are still more common than smartphones in South Africa, and the text-only option in a USSD application flawlessly conveys the message and user response in a live, two-way interaction that is cheap for the end-user, at only 20c/20seconds.
"You would be surprised at how much information can be entered into a USSD menu in under 60 seconds," says White. "In this generation of users who are very experienced with texting, several questions can be answered and information gathered and delivered in live time to our client. If the end-user drops the session, we can build in a session resume option; an entire USSD session can last up to three minutes."
A variety of ways to receive or deliver information to the public over USSD have been used over the past year. Building custom mechanisms for clients to deliver airtime vouchers for competitions remains very popular, as it is a simple and rewarding incentive for the end-user. With the increasing popularity of social marketing on platforms such as Twitter, these feeds or tweets can be integrated into USSD. The end-user can in effect access the Internet over USSD and remain up to date on social happenings, big sales and events, news feeds, or as in the banking industry, access their account details.
Improving accessibility to education and information is a priority for HIVSA, which uses USSD for educating the public on HIV/Aids, pregnancy and other health issues. With its reverse-billed USSD code: *134*4052# there is no cost to the end-user who is on the Vodacom network. Rob Allen, the technical director for HIVSA, mentions: "For the past two years, HIVSA has been offering cellphone-based services under the hi4LIFE brand. hi4LIFE aims to provide accurate, up-to-date relevant health information anytime, anywhere. One important thing we have learnt is that people like to receive health information on their phones, but that cost is a major factor preventing them from using these services. The reverse-billed USSD system has allowed us to take away the issue of 'not having any airtime', and the service is being very well received by pregnant women who have been our main audience. We are confident that this service will be important and growing part of our continuing programme to improve health education through our hi4LIFE portals and messaging systems."
For more information on HIVSA, please contact the Programme Director, Jean Armstrong, at 011 494 1900 or visit www.hivsa.com.
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