Instant Messaging? (Oh, u mean txtn frm ur PC!)
October 10, 2003
That would be the probable reaction from a Filipino when asked about an application, Instant Messaging or “IM,” which though immensely popular in countries where PC penetration is high such as the United States , is only beginning to be adopted here with the continued rise in PC and Internet availability. Conversely, had you asked somebody in the US about text messaging, he would have said, “Oh, like IM’ing but on a cellphone.” Americans are only now warming up to the idea of pausing and thumb-thumping on a mobile phone to send text messages. (Aah, it was never the economics, dude. It’s been about being tactful and unobtrusive, at the very heart of the Filipinos love affair with texting, so to speak).
Unknown to many, aside from the yoyo and the karaoke machine, Filipinos created the world’s first mobile Instant Messenger which married IM and texting even as the two killer apps raged in opposite sides of the world. Another testament to our adeptness as a culture in blending East and West so tastefully. Indeed, Chikka Txt Messenger (www.chikka.com, download it now if you still haven’t; it’s FREE!) is mobile Instant Messaging or texting from a PC depending on where you come from. The inventors of Chikka, coming as they are from the Philippines when to a great extent:
- Not to change the Filipino texter’s experience as far as using his mobile phone is concerned. No keywords. Simply reply as you would ordinarily to text.
- To protect mobile users from spamming by giving them a very intuitive BLOCK functionl and
- Give the Philippine mobile users an Instant Messaging experience unlike anyone else in the world (GSM number equals Chikka ID and with “always on” mobile phone, uninterrupted IM’ing).
Finally, Chikka went the proverbial mile to create a solid backend that has withstood two years of “chikka” texting in what is still the SMS capital of the world.
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And to speak of that backend, those of us who have embraced Chikka texting over the last two years may have noticed an even more stable connection and a more consistently faster delivery of text messages to mobile buddies and back. Sources confirm that close to a million dollars were spent on a recent upgrade of Chikka’s infrastructure to address capacity and reliability (although Chikka’s main servers are already located on a Tier 1 exchange in California , one hope away from other core of the Internet). We learned that the upgrades were due as the volume of text messages passing through Chikka courts new levels by the day! But also the upgrades were planned as the international rollout of Chikka text messenger is already happening.
In a sense really, the current Chikka user is already benefiting from the company’s success and from its plans to roll out worldwide and bring more and more communities together! What do we say by keep it going, Chikka!
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This write-up on Chikka has turned out timely as the company actually celebrated its second anniversary last August. Its CEO, Dennis Mendiola, said in a press conference that among the company’s many milestones, the granting of global patents for its application and ISO certification for its quality management processes were the most notable. He said this was because these milestones also helped establish the Philippines as a regional hub for excellent wireless applications development. It is a mission Chikka’s people have taken upnon themselves and they constantly pursue. Funny, it’s monicker “Chikka.com” has also stuck even as the company ventured out of its core Instant Messaging business to pioneer, once more, corporate solutions, including wireless promos and portals that showcased the group’s technological and marketing savvy. This again underscores the company’s strong presence in the Internet where it provides free PC-to-mobile messaging. “This makes us very happy to be able to say that we are in the service of overseas Filipinos who rely on Chikka for communication with friends and loved ones, who in turn, ‘text back’ at the standard value-added SMS charge of only P2.50 per message,” added Mendiola.”
Source: “Txt in D City” by Patrick R. Garcia , Philippine Star
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