A new venture called BigTime Arabia, based in Dubai, specialises in mobile text message, or SMS, question-and-answer games. Roland Beckmann-Kunz, the company's general manager, discusses what BigTime Arabia's approach to the scourge of "spam" messages will be as the company rolls out SMS games and marketing campaigns across the Middle East.
Tomorrow's exclusives tonight:
Industry Insights e-newsletter Stay ahead of the pack and get the pick of the premium Business content straight to your inbox. Sign up
q&a
q A lot of consumers in the UAE are not happy about spam SMS. Would you agree this is a problem?
a Exactly. You would like to get something that you're interested in. I'm a gadget fan, so if people were to send me information about gadgets, that would be interesting for me. But obviously I'm not interested in Arabic text messages for washing powder. I find it boring: I use washing powder, but that's about it. And I don't speak Arabic.
q How is your company, formed in October as a joint venture between BigTime Entertainment Group and the Libra Group, making sure it is not creating spam?
a By providing a very targeted way to engage with people. You have to find out what language the person speaks. Many telecoms operators now have a policy on how they can contact people. So [consumers] can opt in or out.
q Talk us through how a typical SMS game would work.
a One that has proven very successful works similar to a question-and-answer game like [the TV show] Who Wants to be a Millionaire. You would send in premium-priced SMS [in answer to a series of questions]. And at the end of the day, week or month you can also win a prize.
q What kind of market do you see in the Middle East?
a We have a very high penetration of mobile devices; people are highly engaged, so they never leave the house without their mobile phones. And at the same time, they are very open to innovative and playful engagement. So this is a big market here in the Middle East.
q Are you in talks with any telecommunications companies here?
a We're basically in talks with everyone. The clients that we would have are the telecoms as well as media companies. So we would work with any of those.
q There's a lot of excitement about mobile apps. Doesn't that mean SMS marketing is a thing of the past?
a Why use an app if you can actually engage in a conversation? The innovative thing is to engage people with messages, so that it feels like a conversation. And using low-end technology would make sure that every single phone can use it.
q Obviously, you have plans to launch campaigns in the UAE. Are you targeting any other Middle East markets?
a Yes of course: Saudi; Egypt; Oman; every market around. [The Middle East and North Africa] has very high penetration rates, especially in the Middle East. And people have a very good relationship with their mobile phones. They carry them everywhere. And Africa, in the last few years, has been the fastest-growing mobile market.
twitter: Follow and share our breaking business news. Follow us