Make way for world’s first mobile instant messenger

Small talk is getting bigger and bigger and definitely much better.

First, there’s text messaging. The Filipinos’ innate love for lively, animated conversations and vibrant discussions has found ultimate expression through the Short Messaging Service (SMS) capability of GSM mobile phones. Through texting, the art of talk has been elevated from the neighborhood sidestreet or the office cubicle to the handy device called the mobile phone. In anybody’s experience, it is euphoric, almost intoxicating to be able to talk, chat or swap jokes with friends, family members or business associates anytime, anywhere. No wonder, the mobile phone is everyone’s most valuable personal possession in current history.

Then, there’s instant messengers – texting’s counterpart in cyberspace. Via the very popular instant messaging services of ICQ, Yahoo, MSN or AOL, people separated by time and space and scattered across the globe are able to send and receive text messages via the Internet. Like mobile phones’ SMS feature, instant messengers provide direct, private and one-to-one communications. Using the computer, face-to-face conversations are replicated in this state-of-the-art medium where people find each other and foster bonding.

Now if these two powerful technological innovations can be combined into one killer messaging application, the end-result would be no less than a new upheaval in the already very dynamic and fluid world of personal communications.

Bringing texting to the next level

At its offices at Tektite Towers in Ortigas Center, a tech-business group is furiously hatching a mobile instant messaging application that will allow two-way connectivity between a GSM mobile phone and the online computer. Very soon, SMS or texting and the instant messenger will be merged into one powerful communications tool that will further empower the mobile generation. The promise: absolute connectivity.

The company that is set to launch the world’s first two-way mobile instant messenger is Chikka.com, a Philippine-based company developed by Incredibly Fast Internet Company (IFIC) which specializes in the development of wireless application services through SMS. It is the same group behind Bidshot.com, the world’s first wireless auction site.

Chikka is riding the crest of two important waves – the popularity of SMS and the tremendous potential of mobile Internet.

With SMS volume in the Philippines currently hitting 2.5 billion messages a month (or 15 percent of the global volume), the country is the undisputed world leader in text messaging.

Meanwhile, traditional instant messengers (IM) like ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger or AOL Instant Messenger have grown in popularity because they offer real-time communications. Chikka’s breakthrough is to enable this and other basic IM functionalities on any SMS-enabled GSM phone through simple text messaging.

"The consensus during recent international fora on mobile messaging is that it will be SMS-based because of the high market penetration of SMS compared with PC and Internet presence in the market," says Dennis Mendiola, chief executive officer of Chikka which is gearing up for the revolutionary applicantion’s pilot launch.

Simply put, through Chikka’s Wireless Instant Messenger, anybody with a GSM mobile phone can now send and receive text messages to and from their friends’ or buddies’ online computer and vice versa. Now you don’t have to have a PC or Internet connection to know if any of your friends, families or business associates are online. Moreover, any network device capable of sending and receiving data is Chikka-compliant. Chikka buddies can be reached through a GSM phone, a landline and later, through pagers or personal digital assistants (PDAs).

As more and more people want to access the Internet through their mobile phones and other wireless devices, Chikka offers a simple messaging application that is both cool and powerful.

To become a Chikka member, all one has to do is to register his or her mobile phone number to a Chikka access number defined by partner-carriers (which will be announced later) or download the Chikka wireless IM software from www.chikka.com. Then you can start creating your buddy list. You can send invites to friends to be Chikka members, add or delete buddies, and configure your Chikka IM to your taste and preferences.

To date, six patent applications for Chikka’s core technology, those dealing with its proprietary wireless-centric configuration, have been filed.

Proudly Filipino

It seems just natural that the Philippines, as the text capital of the world, will be the launching pad for a Wireless Instant Messenger that the Internet world and the global telecommunications companies have been waiting for.

"Finally, the Filipino techie may have something to celebrate," says Mendiola, who reveals that 80 percent of the company’s investment was spent on technology. "We are confident that we have a great product. And in a level-playing field, there is no reason why the Filipino cannot succeed in a global marketplace."

Even in harsh market conditions highlighted by the closure of more dot-coms and downsizing of blue-chip companies, Chikka has grabbed the attention of venture capitalists. Only last month, a private equity fund listed in the London Stock Exchange and which has George Soros, the Port of Singapore Authority, Mitsui and the Bass Brothers among its strategic investors, approved an investment in Chikka.

Chikka is a global business concern. It will be launched successively in growth markets in Asia, Europe and the United States. Stay tuned for its Philippine launch and support an IT product that is truly and proudly Filipino!