May 24, 2014: A new use has been found for Whatsapp one of the highly popular messaging apps in India with 40 million active users in the country. Telemarketers who were earlier barred from sending bulk messages or making pesky calls are increasingly using the Whatsapp route to get on to their target group. Since the social media is largely unregulated in India and the rules that apply to unwanted market calls and SMSes don’t apply for messages sent on Whatsapp some telemarketers like Delhi based Elion Technologies & Consulting Pvt. Ltd. have started using this route. Marketers can opt for plans starting from 10,000 messages which cost 30 paise each plus taxes to a million messages which will cost 22 paise a message. The users will have the option to exhaust this in one year’s time.
Though sending bulk unsolicited messages comes as a violation of Whatsapp’s terms of service and the users can be banned from doing it strict action from the part of Whatsapp is still missing. But Whatsapp has been maintaining a stand that they have already started taking legal actions against many companies who are violating the terms of service and sending unsolicited messages. By using the Whatsapp route to send bulk messages marketers were taking the unregulated over-the-top (OTT) route since sending unsolicited messages through the telecom route is already prohibited by TRAI.
Though since 2011 “Do Not Disturb” facility has been launched in India so that users don’t get these promotional messages, marketers have been using OTT service like Whatsapp and Facebook to reach out to the customers and fast developing technologies which can be used to by pass the rules are going to be a major challenge in the days to come.
