Dialog IdeaMart: Rendezvous with Keren!

Anyone can be a SMS developer now!

“With a customer base over 7 million, you can be assured you will earn money while having fun creating your own app. you can select the type of your app may it be Voting, Alert, Contact or Service, with a easy step by step wizard, creating apps never been this easy” says Keren Gunaratnam.

We had a brief rendezvous with her sometime back to clarify a few FAQ’s about IdeaMart and this is what she had to say. The answers might seem biased for obvious reasons but it certainly gives a better idea of what the application is all about!

1. What is Idea Mart? 

IdeaMart is a web portal created by us that gives you the option to create SMS based applications. This makes it easier for you to create and communicate your message to the right audience. What kind of updates can you do? You can send daily messages, periodic updates about business developments, conduct polls, or allow customers to contact you. Once your application is created you can use the SMS short code and invite subscribers and start building an audience for your product. All you have to do is simply log onto https://ideamart.dialog.lk and sign up to start.

1. What made Dialog initiate a product such as this? 

We identified our subscriber needs, which are growing day by day. We’ve noticed that there are content providers who come up with many good ideas but who do not have a platform to build their ideas on. So we came up with IdeaMart, to bridge the gap between subscribers and content providers as well as creating a platform upon which anyone can build a simple application.

2. Are there any partners for IdeaMart? 

hSenid Mobile is our technology partner. The platform is built by them. The research and idea is by Dialog.

 3. Who operates and administers IdeaMart ? 

Dialog is operating and administrating the platform, as well as overlooking research and development for the program.

4. Is there an initial fee that one has to pay to sign up? 

No. Sign up and registration is free. However each application is reviewed by our admin panel prior to approval. Once approved you can begin using the service

 5. How is the profit shared? 

70% for the content creator and 30% for dialog as administration fee.

6. What is the end goal of this programme? 

To aid and encourage anyone to become an entrepreneur! Basically, this allows just about anyone to be able to create an app which they can use to promote their ideas and earn money doing it. it’s about empowering them.

7. Would this be a threat to the mobile development market, in the sense the actual developers?

No. Take WordPress for example. Website creation and blogging were made easy by this. But it was never a threat to the actual web developers. So in the same way we hope this too would be a useful resource to everyone.

8. Isn’t there a risk that Idea Mart could be misused? That it could be used as spam? 

It is a consent based service. When you register, you are agreeing to receive SMS alerts from the content provider who is promoting the said service. Subscribers can unregister anytime they want. However if they want to complain to Dialog about a certain application, they can do this too.

9. It is very simple to create an application using the program. What made you make it as having it that simple?

Idea Mart is ideal for non technical people. This is why the process is simplified. However it is not to say a developer can’t use it. This is a platform for anyone, be it a developer or otherwise.

10. What challenges have you faced thus far?  

I would say identifying subscriber needs in detail – what they want and how can we map these solutions to their need was the biggest challenge. Of course, this is a continuous process and we hope to keep improving the service accordingly.

11. Are there any type of application you would have to use your discretion and ban? 

Yes. There are certain types of content we need to avoid. What to ban and what to approve depends on each application and its intention, and we do this on a case by case basis.