Cherple to Push PC-to-Cell Texting in Europe, Asia

Globaltel Media is preparing to push its PC-to-Cell SMS chat application Cherple in international markets, saying that the usage statistics for Cherple has encouraged the company to take this step.

 

The company now plans to expand its marketing efforts in Europe and Asia, the two regions outside of North America where usage is most concentrated.

 

“It makes sense for us to target those markets more directly to achieve greater penetration for Cherple,” said Robert Sanchez, president and chief executive officer of Globaltel. “In the month following its launch, Cherple was being used in 60 countries to connect to U.S. cell phones. Now four months out, that number has grown to 134 countries. The application has shown strong uptake in North America.”

 

With Cherple’s two-way SMS texting, users can have a real time, two-way chat across any distance. The company pays for these services through banner advertising and licensing. There is no need for a special wireless data plan, smart phone or registration to use this service.

 

Globaltel says that Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and the United Kingdom are currently emerging as top users of the service. Vietnam alone went from statistical obscurity straight to the number three slot for most Cherple users in the month of April, claims the company. Cherple has won nearly 10 million users from all over the world since its launch.

 

The company put out the pre-release version of Cherple in January. Windows users can download this application for free along with Macintosh computer users. A version that supports MySpace (News - Alert) personal web pages via widget integration will also be available soon. The company states that the versions for Linux computers and will allow integration into Facebook (News - Alert) pages. 

 

About eight percent of Cherple users come from Asia with China, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines accounting for 35.7 percent of all Asian usage. The company states that it is witnessing upwards of 10 percent of all users by organic usage alone.