Can you build a company around text messaging? Mozes says yes, with a big funding
Twitter isn’t the only company trying to build a big business off short messages. For text messages, or SMS, delivered via mobile phone, there’s Mozes, which says it’s ready to take the leading position in a growing marketing and communication business, and now has an $11.5 million funding (unearthed by peHUB ) to back up its claim.
Mozes is based off a simple idea, one that has barely changed since the company took seed funding two years ago. A mobile phone user sends a text message to MOZES (66937) involving the name of the person or entity they want information about. They get a response by text or voicemail, which will usually involve the option to sign up for further notifications. Mozes has applied this idea mainly to bands, who often tell their fans to send texts during concerts, while competitors like TextMarks and Waterfall Mobile have reached out to other audiences.
We’ve tracked Mozes’ progress over time, and it has been encouraging. By February of last year, it had raised $5 million and signed up 500 bands. It’s now got 4,000 bands, according to CEO Dorrian Porter, and sends out 10,000 to 190,000 messages per day. Almost 1.5 million unique phone numbers have messaged Mozes since it launched, and over 40 percent of its first-time users opt in for ongoing communications, which suggests over half a million “users” (assuming they don’t turn around and opt out).
But those numbers are just a start, says Porter. “Mobile marketing is going to be a huge opportunity, if you can believe that the world in the future will be centered around the mobile phone,” he told me earlier today. That means going after audiences other than musicians. Mozes has long been usable by small customers who sign up, but starting this summer, it will be turning its efforts to other defined markets, starting with sports and entertainment.
Signing up big customers is important, because Mozes makes its money primarily from charging its business users — people receiving the texts are charged only by their phone companies. Retailers and big brands are also on the roster, with one “major retailer” already testing out the service. Marketers have yet to fully grasp the concept, but mobile messaging likely has plenty of uses, like sending out information about sales in local stores.
Noise from competitors has always been a problem in Mozes’ space, because once you have a simple idea, it’s easy for others to try to copy. But as time goes on, Porter sees that being less of a problem than in the company’s early days. “We think we can take the music beach-head and use a scalable platform to reach further,’ he says. “We’ll build momentum and critical mass to show how the service is solving a real problem, and at that point, it becomes difficult for others to come in and expand as quickly as we can.”
The $11.5 million funding was led by Maveron, with participation from previous investors Norwest Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners. Mozes, based in Palo Alto, Calif., has taken $16.5 million to date.
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About the Author, Chris Morrison
Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.
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