Investment Project for India's First Mobile Answer Service.

Our business is all about information at on fingertips – info one can use, pass on, make life easier with, and benefit from. The service provides answers to "Any Question" by a simple SMS to a longcode. The user can access information on the go without the need of Internet on phone. We need funding for future development of technology and traffic.

AskBirbal is India’s First Mobile Answer service, where a user has to simply SMS his question to +91-9650607080 to get an answer for his questions. AskBirbal is also accessible via web through www.askbirbal.net

Ask Birbal defining the paradigm of the “Any Question” industry on mobile, with its unique technology

AskBirbal wants to serve its user with Information and entertainment on mobile by building on the simple interface of an SMS. It proposes to build an “Intelligent” friend who can be of use to the user at different times and situations.

AskBirbal wants become the bridge, a platform for those who have information on hand at a given time and those who do not.

As a mobile answer service, we hope to become

• A Google on SMS where user can search on practically any topic in the world and still not scan through 1000’s of results but getting concise and to the point information
• Yahoo Answers on Mobile where the community answers to others but following guidelines and quality control of AskBirbal giving accurate and relevant information
• 320 character Wikipedia: As we answer to complex questions in 320 characters on SMS, we hope to build a Micro-Wiki database, an encyclopaedia with accurate and to the point information in a question – answer format.

All this is done with the help of a community of Birbals who uses search tools developed by Ask Birbal filter accurate information and personalizes it to send answers to the user. All of this is done in a span of 5-7 minutes due to our path breaking technology.

Some distinct features/unique selling points of Ask Birbal are:

• SMS Based: No need of Internet, computer or a smart phone to search.
• 24x7: It is available to all who have access to a mobile phone no matter they are on the go or at home/work.
• Personalized Answers: The personality to the answers is what makes us an intelligent friend.
• Micro targeted Advertisement: Ask Birbal aims to deliver advertisements to the users when they need it. A simple example would be that our users asked us a question, which are some good dining out places in south Delhi for my first date? And we answer the question with the requisite information and an ad from a nearby florist. This makes for a solution for both the user and the advertiser.

AskBirbal is currently serving over 2000 users answering more that 1500 questions a week. We have 3 full time and 12 part time employees working in the organization.

There are around 155 million users subscribed to GPRSin India of which only 9 million use it actively. 26% or 2.3 million of these users use GPRS for information search. The question we ask is how does the balance 150mn access information while on the go.

Ask Birbal caters to the information needs of this population. With over 320 million SMS friendly urban mobile population subscribing to VAS services primarily through SMS (55%). SMS becomes the obvious choice of platform.

Ask Birbal, India’s first mobile answer service aims to become the answer for every question in our youth’s lifestyle. It cannot only become a perfect source for information but also for entertainment and hence has a great opportunity.

Contact us on Merar if you are interested investor.