Webaroo Inc, a company founded by non-resident Indian tech entrepreneur Rakesh Mathur, on Tuesday announced the launch of SMS GupShup, a service that uses technology to connect Internet users with mobile phones and form communities based on common interests, aiming to create a new avenue for Internet advertisements.
Company officials told a news conference that Webaroo aims to attach advertisements targeted around topics that reveal the user's interests, somewhat akin to search engine Google's ads based on key words.
Users logging in to the website (
), can create groups based on mobile phone numbers and forward messages at no charge.
"Additionally, users can also run a poll, rating and quiz within their group," Webaroo said in a statement.
Mathur, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, had co-founded sold junglee.com, which was acquired by oneline retailer Amazon.com for an estimated $180 million during the Internet boom of the late 1990s.