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- 7.03.09 / 4pm
Www Buy Ac Com
SMS.ac Inc. is a mobile data and Internet communications company based in San Diego, California. The company provides distribution and billing to people buying and selling digital content (video, music, and applications) through (SMS) mobile services and web-based applications. SMS.ac's website integrates its mobile billing technology with various social networking services like photos, videos, music, and comments. SMS.ac has over 50 million registered users in more than 180 countries.
Business model
SMS.ac's revenue is derived through revenue-sharing arrangements with content providers and mobile operators. Specifically, the company enables content providers to bill subscribers for consumption of video, music, and widgets through SMS-based (text message) mobile billing.
Brief history
2002
- At the time of its launch, SMS.ac made history by signing up "nearly 6 million users in its first six months – making it the fastest product launch in Internet history".
2005
- SMS.ac is recognized as one of the "the top emerging companies in the wireless industry" by Fierce Wireless's "Fierce 15".
- An article by the Chicago Tribune accused the company of spamming. A claim in the article that "an e-mail account password is necessary to register with sms.ac's text messaging service" was later retracted.
2006
- An article in the International Herald Tribune, while praising the service's integrated billing option, stated that "SMS.ac is one of those right-place, right-time, right-technology companies that has nearly all the elements for colossal success. But it also has hovering over it a big red flag that could wrong-foot it at any moment...At least a handful of consumers...have complained on the Internet and in the mainstream press that SMS.ac has charged them for services they never asked for, making that billing relationship into potentially its greatest liability."
2007
- SMS.ac creates the spin-off site Fanbox, a social networking mobile desktop site.
2008
- SMS.ac is fined £250,000 by PhonepayPlus for operating misleading and unfair mobile-terminating text message services without giving proper pricing information, and barred from operating reverse-billed services in the UK until it became compliant with the PhonepayPlus compliance rules.
2009
- On July 18, 2009 San Diego 6 News covered the alleged unfair labor practices of SMS.ac, now known as FanBox. Former employees claimed they often received partial paychecks if they were paid at all.
- The Better Business Bureau has given SMS.ac an F, the lowest grade in its rating system, citing multiple complaints against the business and the business's failure to respond to said complaints.
See also
- Marketplace
- Micropayments
- Social Network
- User generated content
References
- ^ "SMS.ac Mobile Homepage service". SMS.ac . http://www.sms.ac/ . , sms.ac
- ^ "Fast Company: Speedometer". Fast Company . http://www.fastcompany.com/online/62/speedometer.html . , fastcompany.com
- ^ "Fierce Wireless". Fierce Wireless . http://www.fiercewireless.com/Fierce15/2005 .
- ^ "Message to the wise about text trick". Chicago Tribune . http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/sns-yourmoney-0501reality,0,5712434.story .
- ^ "Corrections and Clarifications". Chicago Tribune . http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/831851841.html?dids=831851841:831851841&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+4%2C+2005&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&edition=&startpage=2&desc=CORRECTIONS+AND+CLARIFICATIONS . , pqasb.pqarchiver.com
- ^ "The End User: Noticing a red flag". International Herald Tribune . http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/22/business/ptend23.php . , iht.com
- ^ Techcrunch.com
- ^ Cases 702783/GL and 704922/GL at Phonepayplus.org.uk
- ^ Sandiego6.com
- ^ BBB.org