- Leader in SMS Mobile Search Growth Hailed by Leading Wireless Industry Authority -
Indianapolis, IN – October 1, 2008. Adding to its impressive list of recognitions this year, ChaCha was honored yesterday by Penton Media’s Telephony® Magazine as the Most Innovative Mobile Service for 2008. The Telephony® Innovation Awards recognize service providers who have developed unique or first-to-market offerings that utilize technology or address customer needs in a new way.
“This is an outstanding recognition that further substantiates how we’ve cemented our position as a mobile search leader in only eight months, with a new customer trying us every 6 seconds, receiving over 31 million mobile answers since our launch in January,” said Scott Jones, CEO and Co-founder of ChaCha. “Our game-changing technology is being widely embraced by consumers throughout the U.S. due to the radical simplicity of getting quick answers through our human guides – as opposed to getting links to first-generation search engine results that miss the mark in a mobile context. We are pleased to see our efforts rewarded by Telephony Magazine, but, best of all, we are proud of the validation from our customers. According to a recent survey of our users, 93% recommend our service to friends, 83% consider our service to be very valuable and our loyal customers query ChaCha an average of nearly once per day.”
“I was highly impressed by this service,” said Kevin Fitchard, senior editor with Telephony and lead reporter on wireless as well as a member of the judging panel. “I tried three questions, all of which were answered in detail. All returned detailed responses with some bonus information. For example, I asked for the closest bar that serves food near a specific corner in Chicago, and not only got the name of the establishment, but also the hours that it serves food. Basically this service is like having your own personal researcher and goes far beyond directory assistance.”
Earlier this month, ChaCha reported that according to data provided by Nielsen Mobile, ChaCha was the fastest growing SMS mobile search service through Q2 and increased its market share in U.S. SMS mobile search transactions to seven percent, tieing for second place with Yahoo at the end of June 2008. Most important, SMS mobile search is the segment of the mobile search industry in which the most questions are asked — much more so than through the much-publicized segments of WAP-based search, carrier search box, carrier portal search, or directory assistance.
“ChaCha has quickly become the mobile search frontrunner because text messaging is the method of communication preferred by today’s on-the-go mobile consumers – especially the highly-coveted younger demographic groups,” said Jones. “ChaCha’s Mobile Answers service doesn’t require a web enabled phone, special browsers or codes to search the internet as those required in a Wireless Application Protocol (”WAP”) environment. Mobile users simply text 242242 or call 1-800-2ChaCha™ on their mobile phones, ask their questions and we return succinct, relevant answers via text messaging. It’s clear with our explosive growth that on-the-go mobile users want information provided in this radically simple way.”
The Awards
Telephony’s Innovation Awards are in their second year of recognizing creative service creation and deployment in the telecom service provider space. The awards were presented at a special reception at Telephony LIVE – The 2008 Telecom Summit in Chicago on September 30th. The awards are judged by members of Telephony’s editorial staff and by guest judges. This year’s guest judging panel included Daniel Briere, CEO of TeleChoice, Vince Vittore, program manager with the Yankee Group and Cindy Whelan, analyst with Current Analysis.
Recently, ChaCha launched its mobile marketing solution, ChaCha 1:1, and is partnering with global brands such as Coca Cola, McDonald’s and Fifth Third Bank to implement strategic, integrated and targeted mobile marketing campaigns. ChaCha 1:1 enables intimate and conversational relationships between brands and consumers, bringing the industry a more personal – and profitable – mobile marketing model. Using ChaCha’s solution in a campaign this summer, Coke saw a 5.2 percent click through rate, compared to 1-2 percent industry averages. (To obtain a copy of the Coke case study visit: http://akhost.chacha.com/siteimages/new_chacha/share/casestudy/caseStudy_coke.pdf)
About ChaCha
ChaCha, a free mobile answers service, allows users to call 1-800-2ChaCha™ or text questions to ChaCha (242242™) on mobile phones and receive answers within minutes. ChaCha expert guides - trained and skilled individuals - use ChaCha’s powerful internal patent-pending search tools to respond to any query. For more information about ChaCha’s newest features, go to www.chacha.com.
For more information about how to maximize the power of mobile answers to take your marketing campaigns to a new level on the mobile frontier, visit ChaCha’s 1:1 Mobile Marketing Solutions partner site at: http://partners.chacha.com/
Created by serial entrepreneur Scott A. Jones (www.scottajones.com) and Brad Bostic (http://blog.bradbostic.com), ChaCha is funded by Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment firm of Jeff Bezos; Morton Meyerson, former President and Vice Chairman of EDS as well as Chairman and CEO of Perot Systems; Rod Canion, founding CEO of Compaq Computer; and Jack Gill, Silicon Valley venture capitalist.
Visit the article on Telephonyonline.com
MEDIA CONTACTS
Wireless/ Mobility Trade Publications and Industry Analysts
Melodye Demastus, Melrose Consulting
Tele: 614.771.8810; Mobile: 614.579.9192
mdemastus@columbus.rr.com
General Media / Business / Mobile Marketing and Advertising Publications
Lisa Kennedy
Tele: 415.618.8726
lkennedy@citigatecunningham.com
