<p> <i> 12.20 pm </i>

Tata Docomo plans personalised service messages via Facebook

KOLKATA, FEB

RUARY 18:  

Tata Docomo will look to offer personalised service messages on “Facebook” in the coming days.

These messages will appear on the right hand side of the user’s screen (Facebook wall) and will not be displayed as public messages and will look at pushing the telcos value added services (VAS).

Some of these include messages such as subscribing to a particular caller tune or reminder on refilling data-packs. Even customised messages will be sent based on the browsing history of the customer (on the social networking site).

For example, a Kishore Kumar fan might have a specific service message offering him to subscribe to a specific set of caller tunes only (songs by Kishore) or one may be alerted on the expiry of his data pack in advance.

According to Praveen Gupta, Head-Digital Business, Tata Teleservices Ltd, the project is being carried out on a pilot basis and will soon be introduced on a commercial scale. He, however, did not reveal a time frame for its introduction.

“We have carried out a pilot wherein based on a customer’s browsing history we can send him personalised or customised services that will mostly be our value-added services,” he said during a media conference.

Gupta was in the city for the launch of the Tata Docomo “Millenials Decoded” survey.

Survey

According to Docomo’s “Millenials Decoded” survey, Internet came up as the first place where people are known to search for new – general as well as specific such as entertainment. Internet access, it states, is mostly through mobile phones.

However, there remains a question of reliability of such news as people still prefer to combine multiple formats such as newspapers or magazines (including their online versions) or the Television for authenticity purposes.

While 33 per cent of the participants use their handsets to look at the news; just 7 per cent use a fixed connection. On the other hand, 36 per cent of the respondents look up their mobile phones for entertainment news; compared to 9 per cent who used a fixed connection.

The study also reveals that although 40 per cent of people take to the Internet to look up for news on current affairs (and 45 per cent for entertainment news); however, only 19 per cent of them consider the Internet “most trustable” as a source.</p>