Chikka unites online and mobile Indians

Chikka, the popular Internet to mobile text messaging service created by Manila-based Chikka.com, is now also uniting Indians online and those using mobile phones subscribed to a majority of Indian mobile network operators.

Partnering with Indiatimes, the new media brand of India’s oldest and largest media conglomerate Times Internet Ltd. (TIL-BCCL), Chikka has extended the high utility of its mobile instant messaging service to millions of Indians around the world with friends and loved ones in the country of 1.2 billion people.

"Chikka and Times Internet Ltd. are uniting the vibrant Indian online community worldwide with the fast-growing community of mobile phone users in India," said Dennis Mendiola, CEO of Chikka Asia Inc.

"Today we are making available, the most seamless two-way PC to mobile connectivity to mobile phones in India, also the world’s fourth largest growing economy," he said.

"Chikka by Indiantimes" is currently supported by all major mobile operators across India, including the top three telcos – Airtel, BSNL, and Reliance Infocomm – and others like MTNL, Hutch, Idea, Reliance Telecom and Spice.

These operators cover 92 percent of the market share, live across eight of 10 mobile operators.

The application represents the marriage of instant messaging popular among Internet users all over the world with Short Messaging Service (SMS).

With thousands registering to use the service daily since its launch in December 2005 in Bangalore, India’s IT capital, the total subscriber base of "Chikka by Indiatimes" is approaching the one million mark.

With various wireless applications now made available by over 30 telcos in 11 countries, including the United States, China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and India, Chikka is the Philippines’ leading "exporter" of SMS-based applications.

According to the company, Chikka Messenger, with close to 30 million users, is seen to be the most widely used electronic property by Filipinos worldwide next to e-mail.

"Chikka.com has now increased its international scope many fold by entering the South Asian market. India, with the world’s second largest population, is a nascent mobile market with "only" 65 million subscribers but growing at a remarkable rate of 50 percent year-on-year," Mendiola said.