txtWeb launches App2Fame Challenge 2011

BANGALORE, INDIA: txtWeb, a platform where every mobile user can access information through SMS, today announced the launch of the App2Fame Challenge 2011. This contest encourages developers in India to create apps for this SMS-based platform. txtWeb is looking for applications that are creative, innovative and with a potential to impact the lives of billions of mobile users.

The developers of the best txtWeb apps stand to win exciting prizes under several categories including “Most Popular” and Judges Choice Award”. The grand prize winner under each of these categories will receive travel vouchers for Rs 1,00,000, and the second prize winner in each of these categories will win vouchers worth Rs 50,000 redeemable at an electronics store. In addition, three third prizes in each of these categories and the best apps in the sub categories of social networking, gaming and entertainment will win prizes worth Rs 20,000.

The top five student developers will also be eligible for an internship with the sponsor or its affiliates and the top five startups will be given the opportunity to present their business plan to an expert panel.

While the “Most Popular” apps will be determined by the number of unique users measured between July 1, 2011 and July 30, 2011, with 200 users as the minimum eligibility criteria, the finalists and winners for the “Judges Choice Awards” will be selected by a panel of 2-5 experts. Apps will be judged based on implementation quality and user experience.

The contest closes on June 30, 2011 at 11:59:59 pm IST and the winners will be announced in the first week of August.

txtWeb App2Fame builds on the tremendous response received for the first edition of the contest in 2010. The contest saw students across four university campuses in India creating over 150 apps. Based on this success, txtWeb has now expanded the scope of the contest for the second edition, which is open to anyone interested in app development.

The second edition of the contest is the next step in achieving txtWeb’s objective of empowering the hundreds of millions of Indians who have mobile phones, but do not have regular access to the Internet by giving them access to information.

txtWeb provides a platform for developers to create apps that can potentially reach every one of the 800 million mobile subscribers in India. An app can be created in five hours and a simple txtSite that provides static content can be created in less than 5 minutes.

txtWeb bridges the divide between the 81 million internet users and the rest of the population by delivering relevant information to every mobile user in a simple and convenient format. txtWeb is also popular among users who have internet access since it delivers the required information in a few seconds. Information includes job/career services, news, health information/services, market prices, weather and more -- information and services that are often found on the internet, but not accessible with simple feature phones, until now.

Currently, consumers can get updates on their mobiles from a wide range of over 800 applications. For example, SMS @WIKIPEDIA HINDI to get the Wikipedia entry on Hindi language or SMS @STOCKTIP to get latest stock tips and trends, SMS @PASSPORT to know the status of your passport application. The user has to SMS the keyword to 92433 42000 to get the information that s/he is looking for which would be delivered to their phone in seconds.

txtWeb is FREE for both users and developers/publishers. txtWeb does not charge for this service, There are no premium charges or GPRS plans, to access this service, only standard SMS rates as per the user’s plan with the carrier apply.

Currently, txtWeb has over 650,000 unique mobile users, making 800,000 requests each day. This platform is seeing huge adoption with the user base doubling every 15 days.