Text messaging is getting a lot of attention right now. And for all the right reasons.
The pandemic has undoubtedly given Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS a real boost in the past year and indeed Mobilesquared’s latest research more than backs this up, seeing an increase of 20% in the number of registered businesses globally using it. Even so, a scarcely believable 97% of enterprises have not yet switched on to the benefits of using it at all!
Let’s revisit the previous paragraph: 97% of businesses aren’t using something which has proven itself time and again so many times over the past (almost) three decades. A proven mobile engagement, conversational powerhouse. With volumes heading north of 2 trillion a year and with so much scope for growth, there is a huge amount to play for in the coming years. But how do organizations go about standing out from the crowd, differentiating themselves from the huge number of companies that will undoubtedly be getting rolling with text messaging for the first time sooner rather than later? Content customization is key.
Moving away from the distribution of generic content to their whole client base is an absolute must for businesses of all sizes. Customers need to feel valued and that the brands servicing their needs understand what they need and want. Some companies have become exceedingly good at doing this. So much so that it can be argued very convincingly that they go way too far.
Most of us will have experienced that situation where you talk (real talk, not text chat) about something with somebody (no pro-active online search carried out) only to discover an advertisement on your device about that thing a short later. Our smartphones, smart televisions and other devices really are listening to us. But has this all gone way too far and become disconcerting, if not downright creepy? We think it just might have.
The words ‘privacy’ and ‘paradox’ appear increasingly frequently in the same sentence. People’s stated beliefs and intentions about privacy are one thing but their actions have shown themselves to be quite different, perhaps billions of times over. Whilst we can’t put an exact number on how many billions, it has to be tens of billions.
As per tech jury in 2020, the average smartphone user had 40 apps installed on their mobile phone and with app downloads across the Google Play and Apple App stores combined running at over 10 billion per month, apps’ influence across the world is gathering pace. But what are mobile subscribers the world over doing to get their hands on these apps, many of which come from companies those downloading often know precious little or sometimes even nothing about? The answer is very simple. They are prepared to give themselves. People have become the product.
Think about when downloading even the most basic of apps (torch) and in order to get your hands on it, you’ll have to agree to practically give up your soul to do so. You’ll allow the app full-on access to your camera, contacts, messages, browsing history and more. Were a brand in the ‘real’ world to approach you physically in person asking for the same, we know what many of you would say. The answer would be very short…
Regulations and laws have been introduced to protect consumers from exactly these practices in their homes, their sanctuary. In the public realm, beyond their own four brick walls, there is much less expectation of privacy. Physical space is a whole different ball game from online and there’s a huge disconnect. People don’t want government regulators peering into their living rooms but they have absolutely no problem with letting third-party devices like Amazon Echos do the same.
This paradox doesn’t just crack open the doors of people sleep-walking into handing their personal data to people and organizations they never intended it to go to, it simply blows them apart into a pile of splinters.
To access apps and other services and to get the exact products they want when they want, people have proved themselves to be consistently inconsistent with their personal data in ways most could never have conceived as ever have been possible before the world of apps blew up in popularity.
Whilst Vox Technologies can’t protect people from themselves, we are proving very good at protecting mobile operators and their subscribers from spam and attempted fraud attempts being delivered across both SMS and voice channels. The privacy paradox doesn’t look like it will be solved anytime soon but our security and monetization solutions can be deployed rapidly. A very different proposition and we have your back covered.
Written by Ehsan Ahmadi, CEO and Founder of Vox Carrier