Media: GupShup in News

Facebook goes mobile in India with SMS GupShup
Indian Facebook users can now connect and share via SMS

Mumbai, July 20, 2009: Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has partnered with SMS GupShup, India's largest social messaging platform, to enable Indian Facebook users to go mobile. SMS GupShup's messaging platform will enable Indian users to take Facebook with them, wherever they go, using SMS.

With this technology partnership, Facebook is enabling its service on SMS, the most popular messaging platform in India. Facebook users can now update their status updates and message friends using SMS. They can also receive status updates, messages and wall posts instantly in their SMS inbox.

SMS GupShup will provide the underlying messaging infrastructure to rapidly and reliably deliver the high volume of incoming and outgoing messages between users and Facebook.

“SMS GupShup has built the largest SMS-based mobile community in India, on the foundation of a high-performance messaging platform that supports nearly 6% of India’s SMS traffic”, said Beerud Sheth, CEO, SMS GupShup. He added, “We are excited to enable mobilizing the Facebook service in India and look forward to delivering a great mobile experience to their users.”

“Facebook realizes the significance of the mobile medium in countries like India. By enabling Facebook on SMS, users can now use it even when they’re not near a computer” said <name>, <title>, Facebook. S/he added, “We are excited to partner with SMS GupShup, given their experience with both mobile messaging and social media in India”.

Users can activate Mobile Facebook by visiting www.facebook.com/mobile. Users can then update their status by sending a message to 92-FACEBOOK (9232232665). Users can reply to their friend’s messages by simply replying to the incoming SMS. The service will operate on longcodes (i.e. regular 10-digit phone number). Facebook does not charge anything for the mobile service, but regular carrier charges may apply for messages sent to Facebook.

About SMS GupShup
SMS GupShup is a social messaging platform that enables users to build mobile communities. Consumers use it to communicate and connect with family, friends and fans. Businesses use it to engage with their customers. Launched in Apr 2007, it is used by nearly 25 million users in over a million communities. Funded by Charles River Ventures and Helion Ventures, the company is founded by seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and incubated at the IIT Bombay Business Incubator.

About Facebook
Founded in February 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a privately held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

For further details on this release, contact:

Dolie George, Clea Public Relations, Phone: +91-98926-65625; +91-22-40188669-79, E-mail: dolie@cleapublicrelations.com	Swapna R., Clea Public Relations, Phone: +91-98206-87631, +91-22-40188669-79, E-mail: swapna@cleapublicrelations.com
Toral Sanghavi, Clea Public Relations, Phone: +91-98210-45846, +91-22-40188669-79, E-mail: toral@cleapublicrelations.com