Phone Petrol, a local company that provides an e-commerce gateway for prepaid airtime, says it has achieved substantial growth since launching in December 2002, proving that there is a growing need for such a product.
"The response to our launch in December last year was overwhelming, with over 32 000 calls from potential customers received by our national call centre in the first month, clearly indicating that there is a need in the marketplace for our product," says CEO Kevin Cholwich.
"In the few months since Phone Petrol`s inception, the business has already registered almost 10 000 clients and we are aiming for at least 1% market penetration by the end of 2003."
He says that at present, the market is worth more than R27 billion per annum, with an estimated annual growth of at least 10%, while statistics show that over 85% of all cellphones utilise prepaid airtime, with the market growing by more than 8 000 new cellphone users every day.
According to Cholwich, the service that is provided is believed to be the first of its kind in the world, using locally developed and internationally patented technology from the organisation`s technology partner, Prepaid Online (PPOL).
"Consumers can now request and receive the enabling codes for their prepaid airtime directly from a cellular or landline handset, thanks to a short message service (SMS)-based interaction technology called encoded SMS protocol," he says.
"Through the use of caller line identification presentation technology, the PPOL server cluster can immediately identify a requesting subscriber and this - together with the use of the SMS delivery system - makes the implementation of such a service possible on more than 99% of mobile handsets worldwide."
He says the technology has been patented in 113 countries, and that as the local market continues to grow, the company is also looking forward to exporting the product.
"In its most basic form, this technology serves as a product dispensing system, while at its most advanced, it provides a total e-commerce solution," says Cholwich.
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