SMSes complement greeting cards this Diwali

Is sending an SMS a replacement for a traditional greeting card? Alternatively, for that matter do SMSes actually eat into the market share of greeting cards when festivals and other festivities happen? Well, apparently they don't. Today, there seems to be a good number of patrons for both the modes.

Says K Srinivas, chief operating officer of Bharti Mobile Limited in Andhra Pradesh, "During festivals like Diwali, our SMS traffic increases by at least four to five times than the usual traffic of around one million per day."

"The SMS traffic hits its peak during New Year, followed by Diwali, Valentine's Day and Christmas. During important cricket matches also, office-goers resort to SMSes to know the latest scores," Srinivas points out.

He adds that while about 50 per cent of the SMSes are local, 40 per cent are national and the remaining are international. Such is the popularity of SMS that traffic at Airtel is growing at the rate of 10-15 per cent on a month-on-month basis, Srinivas points out.

However, all this has had little or no impact on people buying cards to greet others. Manoj Chawla, partner of Hallmark Cards and Gifts in Hyderabad, says: "Mobile phones have not really affected our card sales as there are people who care about the content and the value of messages and therefore like giving greeting cards to their loved ones rather than just forwarded messages." The sales, in fact, have been growing by about 25 per cent every year, he adds.

Nevertheless, with the SMS traffic skyrocketing during festivals like Diwali, cellular operators today are extra careful about ensuring that there are no disruptions. Says Srinivas, "We currently have a built-in-capacity to handle 180 SMSes per second. So handling heavier SMS traffic during festival days is not a major issue for us."

Pradeep Shrivastava, the head of Idea Cellular's operations in Andhra Pradesh, says, "With the originating traffic growing four-fold, this time we have ensured that there is no disruption in the services." The SMS traffic continues to be high at both the local and national level, compared to the international level and the numbers are increasing by the day, he adds.

One of the main reasons that the cellular operators cite for the increase in the SMS traffic is the low cost of SMS vis-à-vis greeting cards. Says Srinivas, "You can send a message at a maximum cost of Re 1 or Rs 2 and are thus able to wish more number of people at a lesser cost."

It appears, however, that in spite of being competitors, SMSes and greeting cards are not really fighting for the same market pie. For, there seems to be enough space for both of them to thrive.