The telltale beep and flashing notification light indicates a new Whatsapp message. Not the casual banter from the high school group or the random smiley sent by a bored friend. Instead the phone periodically chimes with little nuggets of information: a traffic block here, a sale there, a new shop opens its doors and a company awaits new recruits. It’s a stripped down version of radio, delivered using the broadcast functionality of Whatsapp. The brainchild of Kochi-based couple Gokul Das and Vijitha Sharma, the service, called Comet Broadcast, is barely over a month old and already has a rapidly expanding following.
According to Gokul, the increasing demands of professional life do not allow most of the working population to get updates on what is happening in the city, and this prompted him and Vijitha to start their initiative. “We realised that Whatsapp is a great medium as it is free and accessible across almost every phone platform. So we decided to provide news, trivia and event updates that people might find interesting,” says Gokul, who works as VP - Sales at Wowmakers.
Vijitha, who quit her job to focus her attentions on the venture, explains that the response has been overwhelmingly positive. “Over the past month we got over 1,400 subscribers and the number is steadily increasing. We are currently focussing on Kochi though we do include the occasional update from places like Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur,” she says. And the updates come in at a steady pace; just enough to keep one updated and not feel like spam.
But where do they get all this information? Gokul smiles good naturedly as he attributes most of Comet’s information mining to the Internet. “That and some of our subscribers also send in information. For example, if someone reports a traffic block, we call them to verify if it is a legitimate snarl or a minor hold up. Even when we get information online, we cross check it multiple times before posting it.”
Mahesh Bala, CEO of Optiologic Technologies based in Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, who has been using the service since its inception, says that it has been helpful for him in multiple ways. “Kochi is my hometown but I am based in Thiruvananthapuram, so the city updates help me plan my visits by informing what the weather is like and what movies are playing and so on. Even if we need something, a quick broadcast can get responses from other subscribers that prove helpful,” he says. This view is shared by Jeethu P.S., a final year MBA student at Mar Thoma College in the city, who says that the updates on impending storms and traffic jams have been the most useful to her.
The ‘Comet Jockeys’ or CJs, as they call themselves, have also received many requests to start the service in other cities and states. “We are planning to start the service in Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad by next month as we have sources there,” says Vijitha, “we also intend on tailoring more content for NRIs, so that they can get pictures of the rain in their hometown and other updates that make them feel connected with home.”
The couple intend to follow a radio-like model, and include new CJs as they go, to bring in a fun element to their updates. “We are in talks with various businesses to advertise with us, so that we can sustain ourselves and provide more interesting information to our subscribers in our own unique way,” says Gokul. That said, are they concerned about sustainability in the ever-changing world of apps? “Yes, there are changes, like the acquisition of Whatsapp by Facebook. But so far things have been steady and there are not many restrictions on what we can do with the medium. However, if things change we intend to create our own app. Since we already have a subscriber base, it’s just a question of transition.”
Though still at an early stage, the Comet updates have their own flavour. A request from one subscriber to others asking them to pray that the sample fireworks for Thrissur pooram are not interrupted by rain follows pictures of the downpour sent in by a subscriber from Thiruvananthapuram. Tourist packages, mobile phone recharge offers and even some trivia about Indian currency accompany each ping and flash of the phone. Broadcast has entered a new age.
To sign up for the Comet Broadcast service, save +91 9048488822 to contacts under the name ‘Comet Broadcast’ and send a Whatsapp message to the same with the text ‘JOIN’.
