No more download an app in a smartphone, but interact with ‘bots’ to know about a restaurant or taxi service in any locality. Users can interact with bots by sending command messages in private or group chats.
Gupshup, a cloud-based mobile marketing solution provider, is trying to push this smart messaging concept through ‘bot store’ that will have subjects like weather bot, news bot or restaurant bot, said Chief Operating Officer Ravi Sundararajan.
A bot (short for “robot”) is a software application that runs automated tasks over the Internet. It performs tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive at a higher rate. The application, also called spiders or crawlers, accesses various websites and gathers content for search engine indexes.
For example, a person can say ‘vegetarian bot’ and send it to the developer, who will in turn send the list of restaurants in the locality offering vegetarian food.
A company can develop a bot in two hours, while it takes nearly six months to develop a mobile app. Developers can access the bots in Gupshup’s website that has a list of 36 application programming interface (API) – a set of routines, protocols and tools to build a software – for various sectors, Sundararajan told select newspersons.
Since making available the bot API in GupShup website last month, nearly 800 developers have accessed it. GupShup API enables enterprises to message their customers across SMS, voice, and data channels.
Sundararajan said that GupShup, through its cloud messaging platform, supports over 3.6 billion mobile interactions per month, being associated with 550 plus brands. The company’s mobile marketing, mobile engagement, mobile CRM and mobile enterprise communication’ solutions serve various industries and governments.
Nearly 27,000 businesses use its service to reach over 81 million users to interact, engage and communicate using any mobile device.
Social media companies are leveraging its customer engagement tool through digital marketing and making a core aspect of their business dealings.
GupShup, which is part of the US-based Webaroo, clocked revenue of ₹360 crore during 2015, as against ₹210 crore in 2014. Revenue has grown by nearly ten times in the last four years, he said.