GoMo News covered the launch of a new voice-powered mobile social network in India in early February. Modeled on Twitter, “Bubbly” allows users to record and send short voice recordings to all of their followers. Four weeks after launch, the creators of the service are claiming over 500,000 users, and a growing portfolio of Bollywood stars.
How does it work?
The service is ENTIRELY based around SMS – essential, given it’s an Indian service. It’s tightly integrated with regional networks, so it doesn’t require any downloads or registration. To use Bubbly, Indian phone owners just dial a shortcode to record and post a voice message. Anyone who is following them gets sent an SMS with the instructions you need to hear the “Bubble”. To follow someone, you just input their number after the shortcode. Simple!
At the moment, users follow each other by word of mouth – there are no real discovery options. In time, Bubble Motion (the creators of Bubbly) intend to publish a directory, but for now you just have to know a persons number to follow them. For celebrity users, they get assigned a special shortcode so that followers don’t get their actual mobile number.
Celebrity users?
Much like Twitter, Bubbly is attracting Indian Bollywood stars. Well, I SAY stars, but I don’t really know. According to Bubble Motion, Kareena Kapoor, Aamir Khan and Bipasha Basu are all using Bubbly. To be honest, I don’t know who they are – I don’t follow Bollywood news.
What we think?
According to the release, Bubbly now has over 500,000 in Indian – that’s pretty good for a service that’s four weeks old. A big part of the reason it’s popular is because Bubble Motion has some very serious operator deals in place. So new users don’t need to do anything beyond what they’re used to – it doesn’t require apps or a long set up process. You simply dial the shortcode and speak.
