Innoz, one of India's youngest and fastest growing mobile and wireless
innovation company, said on the 20th anniversary of the first SMS
message Monday it has touched the one billion queries mark on their
flagship product 55444.
Innoz's 55444, also known as SMSGyan, is an offline search engine that allows users to search the web by sending an SMS.
With the support of 120 million active users, 55444 has managed to reach the billion mark in just 18 months.
Founded
by a group of four engineering students then students at the LBS
College of Engineering in Kasargode four years back, Innoz developed a
novel idea of giving internet to the offline world.
Users will
receive a specific answer of 480 characters within seconds with an
option of retrieving further information on the query, if required.
Consumers can choose to get charged a rupee an SMS or an avid user may opt for a monthly or daily subscription.
Speaking
about the reason behind the rapid growth of Innoz, CEO Deepak Ravindran
said India has over 900 million mobile phone users making it the second
largest in the world.
"Though being the second largest, India has
a dearth of users having access to internet via mobile phones. Innoz
identified this huge gap and has successfully addressed it by bringing
the web to everyone. In short, we make all phones think smart," said
Ravindran.
The queries predominantly come in from the South zone
which accounts for 40 percent, followed by the West zone at 25 percent
and the rest accounted for by the East and North zone.
Location
based queries such as location of ATMs, restaurants, petrol pumps topped
the list of most searched on 55444, movie reviews and movie timings
came in a close second followed by search for music information and
lyrics.
Surprisingly, the platform is also largely used as a calculator for complex mathematical problems and dictionary.
Ravindran
further added that this milestone puts at rest all doubts and proves
yet again that SMS is definitely not a dying tool of communication.
One billion and counting, Innoz is planning expansion.
It
recently launched its services in Dubai through the Du Network and is
in talks with operators in the United States, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and
Africa.