TICET launches mobile social networking platform enabling targeted advertising
MSNP helps provide the right information to the right person at the right time.
BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | August 30, 2011
Tata Teleservices Limited and IIT Bombay Center for Excellence in Telecom (TICET) today announced the launch of the Mobile Social Network Platform, a unique and powerful social recommendation and networking platform to develop personalized applications and send targeted promotions to users within the network. These promotional advertisements will be based on the user's demographic profile, call detail records, buddy list and other areas of interest. Instead of flooding the user with advertisements of every kind and nature, MSNP will direct only relevant and useful information to them.
An algorithm mines the call detail records available and searches for patterns in interactions between various users. These patterns, along with the information about the set of applications that a user is currently using—and what his/her friends like/dislike—are then analyzed to narrow the choice down to a specific set of users with similar interests. Anything that is popular in a user's “cluster” has a high probability of being liked by users in that cluster, and thus, can be recommended to them.
“Social networking has seen strong and sustained growth over the last few years. With the advent of new technologies, it is now possible for people to share information at the click of a button. Also, its unexploited potential gives rise to exciting possibilities and opportunities for us. Keeping this in mind, we have developed the Mobile Social Networking Platform, aiming to revolutionize the way we perceive and use social media,” said Sushil Prakash, Head – Emerging Technology and Business Innovation Group, Tata Teleservices Limited. “With MSNP, we are focusing on bringing the social media experience to customers based on their location, activities and likings. With this launch, we're making social media more social, in a network that moves with you and is always connected on the basis of where you are and what you're doing—or even what you would like to do.”
One of the key features of the MSNP platform is that it can host SMS-based applications and, therefore, there is no requirement to download additional software on mobile phones and no necessity to have a 3G-ready handset. Another highlight is that MSNP it is operator-agnostic—which implies that the applications on the MSNP platform can be used by subscribers of any service providers.