Pieter Streicher

Contemporary wisdom says that the lower the price of a service, the more people will use it. Consumer electronics is a great example of this though the early adopters will pay a premium to be the first to own a new gadget, it is only when the price drops that mass adoption takes place. Consider […]

Today the early warning for a government in trouble seems to be when the rulers in question clamp down on electronic communication, especially social media and SMS. We’ve seen it happen across the African continent and further afield, starting with Mozambique and India in 2010, and then this year in Egypt, Tunisia and Cameroon. In […]

By Dr Pieter Streicher, MD at BulkSMS.com It’s important to include mobile included in your marketing mix, and especially SMS thanks to its reach, pervasiveness and acceptance by consumers across all demographics. How do you effectively use SMS to bridge the gap between offline marketing activities and online, permission-based engagement with your customer base? How […]

There is no denying that the launch of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) “do-not-contact registry” to allow South African customers to permanently opt out of all unsolicited marketing communications will be a massive step forward for consumer rights. But customers need to understand the limitations of the mechanism and companies need to be ready to […]

Mobile payments for mobile subscription services are receiving much news of late due to negative consumer sentiment over unsolicited billings. An imminent change in the way that Vodacom customers sign up for third-party mobile subscription services is good news for consumers and paves the way towards building increased confidence in mobile payments. Another important development […]

While email spam is very annoying, it has unfortunately become something that most of us live with. SMS spam on the other hand, while less pervasive than email spam, is often a very different matter, thanks to how attached we have become to our cellphones, many of us having them close by 24 hours a […]

Time and time again SMS is the technological exception to the rule. Not only is it incredibly resistant to downward price pressure, which has seen it immune to the dramatic price drops in the tech world over the last 10 years, it also refuses to be usurped by newer technologies. A case in point is […]

According to Clay Shirky, renowned digital media commentator, “communication tools don’t become socially interesting until they become technologically boring”. Now while I’ll never consider SMS boring, I’d argue that SMS has become so entrenched in our day-to-day lives that it meets this criterion, and has not only become socially interesting, but is impacting our society […]

2011 is the year South African consumers become amongst the best protected in the world thanks to two important new laws. Far from seeing this as a threat, businesses should see this as a huge opportunity for improved customer communications, especially if they have SMS included in the mix. This is one of the main […]

When we were children the standing joke was that the kids had to set the video machine for their non-technical parents. We’d grown up with video machines, while for our parents they were still new-fangled devices. Fast forward to today and consider cell phones, the internet, Skype, instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter, MXit, PVRs, Xboxes, e-books […]

While your cellphone has access to the same internet that your PC has access to, it also carries a link to your phone bill and this combination affords new billing mechanisms to content providers. This change can catch consumers unaware and could result in unexpected cellphone charges. With more and more South Africans accessing the […]

People are quick to blame SMS language or “textspeak” for a rise in incorrect spelling and grammar among children and adults alike. It is also seen by parents and teachers as a barrier keeping children from learning English properly, contributing to the degradation in the English language. However, people are failing to see the opportunities […]