Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Mobikwik.com launches India's first prepaid mobile recharge through SMS

NEW DELHI, INDIA: "Out of prepaid talk time? No problem, just send an SMS to mobikwik.com to get instant mobile recharge," says Bipin Preet Singh, founder and CEO of mobikwik.com.

Of the 500 million odd mobile subscribers in India, around 94 percent are prepaid, making India one of the world's larget markets for prepaid topup. According to estimates, every month recharges worth 2 billion USD are sold in India. Most of these are sold through distribution networks created by the mobile carriers.

Many attempts are being made to use technology to make this huge logistics chain more efficient. One of the players in the mobile recharge space is mobikwik.com which sells directly to the end user through the web. A customer needs to create an account, make a payment with credit card, debit card or netbanking and get the mobile topup instantly.

Though recharge through internet is convenient, a large section of India's population do not have access to internet. Mobikwik.com has solved this problem by creating the world's first recharging system through SMS.

Since SMS facility is present in all mobile handsets, this means around 400 million people can now recharge their mobile phones anywhere,anytime.

The format of the SMS is very simple: RCamountcellnumber. For example, if a user wanted to recharge 9810598105 with Rs 10, an SMS like RC 10 9810598105 needs to be sent to mobikwik's cell number (9711981981). Currently, this service is available only to Indian mobiles.

Bipin Preet Singh says: "Going to a mobile recharge shop is a big hassle, especially for women and elderly since they are either occupied or too infirm to walk. Buying recharge is not like buying vegetables or grocery because the customer need not see, feel or taste the product he/she is buying. All that matters is that recharge should be done correctly. Therefore, mobile recharge is a perfect opportunity to be sold by employing intelligent technology."

Mobikwik.com has managed to create a unique service which is fast, user friendly and might change the logistics of mobile recharge in India.

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