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Ad per free text message
Tatango is such an impressive company - I've shared your services many times over the past year. PLEASE go back to some sort of ad-based free texting. It's brilliant - we care - and we love your company. Maybe you could send out one advertising message for every one free text. If I send my group 10 free texts in a year, you sell 10 free advertising messages to their cell phones. Might that work?
I’m thankful
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Tell me when this idea gets some attention.
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The more people who like this idea, the more it gets noticed.
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Inappropriate?Philip, thank you so much for the constructive feedback. We discussed something like this while we were looking at all of our options and we thought this wouldn't be very appealing to our current user base. Maybe I'm wrong, since you brought it up. Does anyone else like the above idea?
I’m excited
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Inappropriate?Derek, I'm so impressed with your quick replies to your customers. I view the old Tatango as incredibly valuable (and i really don't like the link solution you arrived at). I would think that people will understand that there is some "pay to play" aspect of your incredible service.
I’m impressed
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Thanks, we know our customers are what keep us in business, so we take what you guys say very seriously. Lets wait a couple of days and see if any other users like your idea. Thanks again and if you have any other ideas, be sure to let me know. -
Inappropriate?i also agree. I like the old tatango. Still have ads with each text msg like before and send 1 text message of ads per month. Also, you can target the adds to specific groups as well.1 Comment Add a comment
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Rishi, thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately with the costs charged by the carriers for every message, one additional text message ad per month wouldn't really put a dent in the monthly messaging costs a group incurs.
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Inappropriate?I like the idea of keeping this service completely free. I am doing research for a city tennis club to see if this could be used to notify people when courts are closed due to weather (since sometimes it is raining on one side of the city, and not the other). The problem I foresee is that not everyone is capable of viewing the internet on their phone. This limits the usefulness of the service. If you can only send 160 characters, take the first XX (60 maybe) and reserve those for ads and then send the whole message. I agree with Philip that the full message would be better and people would understand that ads come with it.
Now the pay plan would be great for companies wishing to market with this application as they don't want other people's advertisements as well.
Just my two cents on the matter.
I’m excited about the opportunities in store!
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Ryan,
Thanks for your comment. Here is the problem... the mobile phone carriers charge Tatango $X to send each individual message and with the economic downtown, advertisers are barely willing to pay a small fraction of $X to place their ads within your text messages. So where does the remaining revenue come from to cover the cost we incur to send the messages? Tough question huh? If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them.
- Derek (CEO Tatango) -
Derek,
How does this method that you have implemented saved money though? You still send out the message with the advertisement, but now people have to go online to read the message. The messaging fee is still there, correct? Since you are already sending the message, it would seem to me that you might as well just send the text of the message too instead of the url. By making people look online for the message, it doesn't increase the money you make.
I would suggest setting up different account levels. Non-profits, and whoever you would like could get free accounts up to XX messages. Companies trying to market to people like Coca-Cola pay for their messages and you set up some sort of system like that.
If everyone had phones capable of accessing the internet, the free accounts would still work. But until that day, I have to unfortunately agree with everyone else saying that it isn't of much use. -
Ryan,
By sending someone to a group profile, we are able to make another ad-impression. For example, you send one text message, we place an ad in that text message and in addition, we also place an ad on your group profile. That is two ad-impressions per group member, where before it was only one. This generates extra revenue per message as we try and cover the text messaging costs.
I like the idea about setting up different levels of accounts, but who will pay for the messaging costs? Should Tatango have to subsidize the costs of messaging for groups that don't want to pay? -
Inappropriate?Dear Derek (CEO Tatango),
Did you not plan for economic downturns when you first offered Tatango as a free service? Could your first business plan only succeed if the economy stayed positive? Did you not store up for a rainy day?
As it is, you have performed a "bait and switch" with your customers and we will not forgive you for it.
I know of no other web service that started out as FREE and changed to a PAY service. Maybe you do, but it still STINKS for you to do this.
You say you would love to hear ideas but you really don't have any other plan - it makes me think that the PLAN all along was to offer the service FREE for ONLY A LITTLE WHILE to build up a critical mass and then SWITCH to a paid service.
For the other victims, try out Wiggio:
http://www.wiggio.com/
I’m done with Tatango
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Philip,
We were one of the first group text messaging companies to place ads within text messages, which obviously means we were venturing into a market that had never been tested before. We gave it a run, and unfortunately it didn't work out because of many different variables.
You are welcome to check out Wiggio, but they are using SMTP (free version of SMS) not SMPP like Tatango. You can only grow so big before the carriers will force you to switch to SMPP and start billing you for the messages you are sending. This happened a few months after the launch of Tatango and will happen to Wiggio once they grow to a certain size. Wiggio, just like Tatango will than be forced to figure out a way to cover the high costs of the messages.
- Derek -
Inappropriate?If you are so sure that will happen to Wiggio, then you should have been able to predict that it would happen to you, right?
Why ask us (the customers) for suggestions when there is no way that you will alter your subscription based course of action?
Bait/Switch is no way to start a business and that is what you did.
I’m still frustrated.
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Philip,
Not sure if you know about the history of our company, but two years ago we sent out messages without ads through SMTP, because we didn't have any messaging costs to cover. When the carriers switched us to SMPP and started charging us for messages, we started inserting ads to cover the costs of the messages, which worked for over a year. Over the last six months, text message advertising has seen a sharp decline, forcing us now to find another way to cover the cost of messaging. Not sure how you think we are pulling a "bait and switch", more like adapting with the current market and making decisions that will keep the service online for groups that find value in what we are offering. -
Inappropriate?Derek,
It seems like a Bait/Switch because I found you after PC Magazine (or PC World) promoted your company because of your free SMS service. You have the long term prospective on your company but I was introduced to Tatango through some free press (?) you received through a respected computer periodical.
I then happily used and promoted your services to many other people - I was a Tatango messenger.
Your recent change has ruined your value . . . directing people to a website link destroys the timeliness of the message . . . which is the fundamental value that your company provided.
Don't you understand that?
I’m surprised the CEO doesn't understand.
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Philip,
I understand how you may think that, but I can assure you this was not our plan. As a business we have to adapt, it's only natural.
- Derek
EMPLOYEE
