A lot can be said and done in 160 characters. Relationships can flourish with constant “thinking of you” and “can’t wait to see you later tonight” messages, crowds can be formed and riots can start as we’ve seen in Iran, and financial transactions, such as those done by people in Kenya using the M-PESA system, can take place, but for Snackable Media, a company that employees 100 people via two office in New York and Florida, SMS based games made the company $170 million in revenue during 2009. That’s almost double than the $90 million they made in 2008, and more than 5 times the $30 million they made in 2007. After the 50/50 revenue split with operators, those are some pretty pennies. Their most popular product is Predicto, a $9.95/month multiple choice question and answer game with over a million subscribers.
Now before you poo poo the idea and go on and on about the Open GL ES 2.0 games on your iPhone 3GS, recognize that the size of the addressable market of iPhone users absolutely pales in comparison to the size of SMS enabled devices. If some 100 person company can do this well, then what about a corporation the size of Nokia? They’re already deploying their “Life Tools” services to emerging economies, making data such as crop prices and weather reports available to the people whose lives depend on agriculture. How much money can they make when tens or even hundreds of millions of customers are paying a $1 or $2 monthly fee?
The world can change, one text at a time.
[Via: TechCrunch]