Do you receive junk mails on your mailbox? Sure you do; like I do.
But you don't receive unsolicited SMS on your mobile phone, do you? Except the ones your carrier sends you of course. Personally, I receive an m-spam, let's say, once a month. Not enough to get my knickers in a twist!
Do you have anti-spam software on your computer? Sure you do; like all of us. Is it the same for your mobile phone? Have you ever heard about something similar for your mobile? I don't (even if I might be badly informed).
Does mobile spam exist? Are e-spammers also m-spammers? I doubt it, despite carriers' sayings.
Junk mails are free to push (or the cost of the sending is so low that it's worth for spammers doing so). Junk SMS aren't! Here, in France, we, agencies, pay around 0.07 € (0.10 $) to push an SMS (I sometimes wonder if we pay the right price…). Maybe I am not tricky enough to handle it at 0.04 €, but even with such a price, who would send millions of SMS to brag a new miraculous drug?
Let's go further: e-spam works because it's free to send AND you can trigger additional business on the web (e-commerce). Today, who's successful in Europe with m-commerce (except porn and ring tones)? Would it make sense to say by SMS "click here" knowing that most people don't click on their mobile?
In France, direct Marketing by SMS is embryonic (I am not talking of direct marketing by MMS!). It is not an industry like e-marketing is. The m-campaigns we make usually touch a few dozens of thousands people. Not enough for a business to grow.
Now imagine you want to promote your new product. What will you chose between:
- one million e-mails (wide screen, motion pictures, and a cost of 10 000 €)
- one million SMS (little screen, neither motion nor sound, and a cost of 70 000 €)?
When we, agencies, all invoke lower prices for SMS, we are answered that we'll have an m-tsunami if prices slacken.
How strange: we don't have spam on our mobile phones, but direct marketing industry just doesn't exist.
Isn't there something wrong in the mobile kingdom?
Emmanuel de Saint-Bon
