Seattle-based Senada.com, an online event communications company recently launched its latest service: Senada.com Wireless. It allows consumers to send, receive and respond to announcements and invitations via WAP-enabled devices.
According to senada.com Co-Founder and CEO Gregory Brown, Senada.com Wireless will grow the company’s registered user base in the European and Asian markets. In fact, research by the Yankee Group shows that most European countries are already experiencing significantly higher penetration of wireless services than the Internet.
Brown just got back from a business trip in Finland where he met with executives from the mobile commerce company Sonera. Brown is excited about the opportunities that exist in terms of wireless payment systems and definitely sees that as yet another indication of the growing role wireless is having on the way people and companies communicate and do business.
The U.S. market also has its share of opportunities. Over the next 12 months it is expected that the number of Americans using mobile phones for wireless data will grow from 3 percent to 78 percent.
Until WAP-enabled phones become more widespread in the U.S., the company recently introduced Senada Mobile Messenger. The service allows senada.com members to receive announcement and invitation notifications on their existing digital wireless phones and pagers.
The company is also continuing to offer its web-based services. Several dotcoms in the Seattle area, such as Real Networks and King5.com are recent examples of companies that have turned to senada.com for a solution to their event communication strategies.
“Companies have the option to custom brand their invitations,” says Co-Founder and Vice President of Marketing Daniel Arnall. In fact, a recent invitation sent out by King5.com for a presentation of its upcoming digital TV operations, featured a flash presentation produced by King5.com’s web designer.
Back on the wireless front, senada.com recently joined the WAP Forum: An industry trade group that meets several times a year to discuss the wireless industry’s direction. According to Arnall, wireless is like the internet back in 1995. There are still a lot of technical and business hurdles to sort through. “This is a great opportunity for us to be involved in defining the standards of our industry,” says Arnall.
