Surprise, surprise. Telkomsel has secretly enabled the Facebook Voice feature, which allows users calling reserved numbers and recording voices before sharing them as their Facebook status, mostly useful in the non-Internet mobile environment. This becomes an ultimate proposal to attract Facebook users who haven’t got engaged with Internet-based smartphones just yet.
Interestingly, we found out a fact that this Facebook Voice feature has been available since last March or April, though it has yet led to the expected viral effect. However, Telkomsel does not lose hope. The company keeps expecting that users who live in rural areas with no proper Internet connection can be this project’s loyal consumers, since the service practically requires no Internet connection at all.
The subscription cost of this service is not that expensive. Telkomsel offers several denominations, which are Rp 1.100/day, Rp 5.500/week, and Rp 16.500/month. To massively attract more users, Telkomsel is even giving away an iPhone 5 every week until the end of this September.
For Facebook, this type of partnership is not new. In fact, the company has already established a similar partnership with India’s Aircel since 2011.
This Facebook Voice feature reminded us to the Singapore’s Bubbly, which was reportedly shut down due to its inability to grow its business. The startup itself then got acquired by India’s Altruist.
The feature itself becomes another Telkomsel’s attempt to increase the number of Facebook users in Indonesia. It joins the company’s previous Facebook-related services, such as the Facebook Chat and Facebook SMS.
By only having one third of its population connected through Internet, Indonesia has 60 million registered users in Facebook. This shows that the probability (to grow the market) is still huge in the country, with both Telkomsel and Facebook realize it.
[Illustration: Shutterstock]
