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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from CNET Asia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Mobile spam: Be afraid, be very afraid
By Aloysius Choong
14/03/2002 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,39032014,00.htm We've all experienced them in one way or another: Spam. Electronic junk messages, the gadfly of electronic mail. Unwanted messages that scream instant weight-loss programs and money-making schemes, often mass-mailed to hapless users. Worse, there are now signs that spam could make the leap to mobile phones. The problem is already prevalent in Japan, where mobile operator NTT DoCoMo is reported to have invested one billion yen (US$7.76 million) to block spam.
In the U.S. last year, Phoenix-based lender Acacia National Mortgage allegedly sent about 170,000 SMS (Short Messaging Service) messages to thousands of phone users in Colorado and Arizona. One sample message went: The incident has since been held up as a classic case of cellphone spam. According to the Wall Street Journal, Acacia president Gerry Youhanaie insisted there was nothing wrong with what he did, and added that hundreds of people responded to the message.
Mobile operator Verizon Wireless eventually took Acacia to court, and the case was settled when Acacia agreed to stop sending repeated, unsolicited commercial text messages to Verizon's customers.
SMS: Right for advertising Youhanaie, despite his questionable means of reaching his potential customers, made a strong point. "This is the new wave for marketing. It brings our message right to the people's doorstep," he told the Wall Street Journal. Some members of the wireless industry agree with him, believing that SMS advertising is inevitable and will eventually help subsidize cellphone use. In a recent survey by technology research firm Forrester, 56 percent of responding companies indicated that they planned to use text messaging as a marketing tool in 2003. It is easy to see why. SMS is immediate, personal and cost-effective--the same reasons they have been popular with users. Furthermore, as Acacia demonstrated, SMS allows companies to reach thousands of potential customers at one go. Mobile phone technology makes location-based services possible. For instance, a restaurant could send a special promotion by SMS to people in the vicinity during lunchtime.
Emerging technologies will also play a part. Rudy Temiz, CEO of mobile accessories firm Plugout.com, predicts that Bluetooth will eventually be used to send messages to cellphones.
Safeguarding the medium in Singapore Because of the vast opportunities in SMS, several global industry players are trying to prevent abuse of the medium. At the heart of it, marketers want to ensure that the reputation of SMS direct marketing is not tarnished by mobile spam. "It is absolutely vital to protect the privacy of all mobile users while being able to meet their individual needs," said Gary Chan, CEO of Singapore-based mobile services developer CELPH, in a statement in January. CELPH has created a system where visitors to the Jurong Point shopping mall can selectively receive electronic flyers and coupons from participating merchants. It uses an opt-in system, where users sign up to receive advertisements. In contrast, companies that send email spam often employ the opt-out system, and users are included in the mailing list, until they state their intentions otherwise. Mobile operators in Singapore also make use of SMS to deliver in-house messages, viewing it as a value-added service. "We try to keep our customers informed of M1 events and services via SMS but we do it very selectively and on targeted basis," said M1 spokesperson Chua Swee Kiat. He added that customers who do not wish to receive such messages can opt out on the M1 Web site. SingTel, however, did not follow through with our query on SMS spam. Meanwhile, a check with StarHub revealed that it has a policy of not allowing other companies to advertise through the service provider. "This is due to the intrusive nature of SMS. We want SMS to be a useful communications tool for customers, not a platform to receive junk messages from advertisers," said Joanna Chan, StarHub's assistant vice president for Marketing. While StarHub agreed that it is a matter of time before SMS advertising becomes prevalent, advertisers will have to meet certain privacy and quality of service conditions before that can happen, said Chan. She also added that StarHub has a system for tracking senders of unsolicited SMS, whether it's from an individual or a service provider. If necessary, StarHub will suspend the sender's mobile service with the service provider.
It appears that with mobile operators holding the fort here, the approach of mobile spam looks to have been stalled--at least for now. With new technologies such as Bluetooth and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) emerging on the mobile landscape, this can only bring about greater challenges for managing SMS spam.
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