The businessmodel was based on overtaxed SMS services. You'd be able to sign up for updates about parties, where your friends were, etc. and each SMS would cost

The businessmodel was based on overtaxed SMS services. You'd be able to sign up for updates about parties, where your friends were, etc. and each SMS would cost around 20 cents. What made this work well was the fact that the overtaxed SMS is initiated by the server meaning that users that are signed up can receive a SMS and the 20 cents are immediately drawn from their mobile account. We had a a system set up so that people had to not only opt-in, but also accept a SMS when they signed up for this so that they wouldn't feel cheated. We had other things such as a monthly maximum, etc. set up to make sure everyone was OK with it. As you'll quickly realise the fact that overtaxed SMS services are initiated from the server can be misused - get a bunch of random phone numbers and send them all a SMS that costs $10. Someone did this, and the law was quickly changed so that a load of back-and-forth SMS'es were required to make the payment go through. Since each SMS costs money to send it ended up actually costing money to have this service running.