Any conversation about the impact of social media in India is qualified by the fact that just about 200 million people have access to the Internet in India. But the country has over 900 million mobile phone connections and think of the impact if all of these people are able to access the Internet,without any need for a data connection. Having brought Facebook to over 11 million offline telephone users across five continents,mobile application provider U2opia is going to 'democratise' Twitter in the same way. The company,which started in Gurgaon and has since spread to over 30 countries,uses a signalling technology called USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) to let basic and feature phone users access Internet services. U2opia came into existence in late 2010 and kicked off the first offline Facebook service through Airtel a year later. "That was a time when a lot of companies were trying to understand the criticalities of mobile-first markets and the emerging market user base," says CEO Sumesh Menon,who is based in Gurgaon. "One of the key realities of these markets is that everyone is not online. So we developed a platform called Fonetwish to help people stay connected to Internet properties without data on their phone," he adds. The company now has exclusive partnerships with Facebook,and more recently Twitter,to take these services offline through its 45-odd network partners globally. USSD is the same technology most prepaid users turn to when they have to check their balance and used by service providers to push messages to users. "It essentially creates a session in which you are pulling data from the system. Because it is so simple it works on any phone,even smartphones," explains Menon,adding that users can literally browse through content using numbers. So once logged in using a code,the user will click numbers to select options like Like post on Facebook and follow a user on Twitter. "In a market like India,a large part of the user base is not accessing data,even when handset shipments are going through the roof. Africa is a couple of year behind even us. That is where we want to make an impact and empower the user," says Menon,adding that India still account for a third of its users. "Our most mature market is Malaysia,while Africa is the market where we have the highest penetration. About 8 out of 10 people in some of these markets are accessing Facebook through our services," he says. The company has now set its sights on Eastern Europe and Russia. Menon says the biggest advantage of their Twitter service is the fact that it lets even people who are not logged in access the content. "You would get the trending topics in your area and can follow people without even having a handle. That is why we call it Twitter for everyone," he adds. Menon says Twitter has a lot of information that is relevant for a lot of people who are not online. "There are different use cases that might come out of that," he says. The service,however,does not let users access or make direct mentions at the moment. The company has set up a app lab focusing on data centric apps for the future. "We are bullish about the apps going to come out of there," says Menon,adding that these solution could also add a lot of value for Instant Messaging platforms like WhatsApp. "We are hoping some messaging services will come on board,and talks are on." For now,U2opia is in a very comfortable space as only they have the technology to use USSD to take internet services offline. But is this a closing window with smartphone set to become the standard device in the near future? "The logic suggests the window is closing,but the speed is debatable. It is going to take some time for all users to start accessing data services. And we are fully aware of that. It is 8 out of 10 people in these markets and that is a large space to cover."
