Case Study on 'Cash-on-Ad'

For my home-made 'Cash on Ad Commercial', click here!

The impact of technology is immense! It has driven the mankind from straw hats and bull-carts to skyscrapers and high-speed trains. It has reached each and every aspect of our lives. Technology is now not only in the domain of Aircrafts and Spacecrafts. In fact, business sector is the both the primary sponsor and user of technology!

With the advent of Marketing Philosophy in the business horizon, service sectors have been gaining a significant amount of attention. Most of the developed countries rely heavily on the service sectors as their primary economic activities to contribute to the GNP.

A group of four Nepalese youths has created a new sensation among the Smartphone users by providing latter the opportunity to earn ‘dough’ for each call they receive! But money is not free. There are certain rules!

CashOnAd is a new Smartphone app based on Google’s Android Platform. This app is developed by Shiran Technologies Pvt. Ltd. This app is supposed to take the service marketing efforts one step further through digital advertising which is mass-personalized!

CashOnAd can be downloaded from Google Play. After installation, user registration is required which can be done either through the new account or an existing Facebook account. When the phone is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi or 3G network, the incoming call will trigger the video advertisement, replacing the default ringtone by the audio of the advertisement! The ad needs to be viewed for six seconds before the Smartphone holder can proceed to answer the call. This credits the call receiver’s account with a cent (US) for each call answered after six seconds. However, the missed call or the rejected call will not increase the amount! And the user is not obliged to wait for six seconds if he or she doesn’t wish to make money. The app is associated with the third party authentication server PayPal and eSewa as the payment gateways.

It is kind of ironical. About a decade ago when cell phones were just introduced in Nepal, users were charged for receiving the calls too. But now the situation has completely turned around: The user can earn money for receiving the calls.

As Newton’s Third Law of Motion goes: “Every action has equal and opposite reaction”, CashOnAd is no exception. In spite of the fact that in its most basic virtue it creates a win-win situation for both the app developers and the users (50-50 share of advertisers’ US 2 cents), in practical the latter seem to get in the problem sooner or later. CashOnAd requires either Wi-Fi or 3G network connectivity. The app actually downloads the videos when connected to the suitable network and stores in the cell phone. GPRS (or 2.5G) doesn’t work when the call is received; therefore, this app is incompatible with GSM (2G) and GPRS networks. But in Nepal, public Wi-Fi is rare. Private Wi-Fi and 3G networks are relatively costly which may create a negative value from the CashOnAd since how much the user earns may be less than the cost incurred by him or her. Unfortunate for the developers, Google doesn’t pay any amount to any of them on its Play Store unlike Apple which compensated the developers who contributes to the Apple Play Store.

Additionally, this app is totally categorized as “Intrusive and Adware” by the popular Mobile Security App—AVG Antivirus Pro. Therefore if the user is to comply by the security measures as suggested by the AVG, CahOnAd is somehow less reliable app. Moreover, many users of the CashOnAd have posted reviews on Google Play as the app being full of bugs and errors in video playback. Similarly, the app removal will result in the loss of accrued amount to the user. This indicates the lack of proper database management system.

Regarding its intrusive nature, the app is somehow inappropriate in certain social setting. Even though the developers have asserted on the personalization of the ads on the mobile, the user will be totally clueless of what ad is to appear when. Won’t the user be annoyed with the ads? Or, won’t he or she be overexposed to the same ad over and over again? And what is the mechanism to measure the ad effectives via this app? There are many unanswered questions concerning this app’s operations and feasibility. Even though it is feasible in developed countries (where there is 24x7 high-bandwidth connectivity), this app may be considered a huge turn-off being over-intrusive and too-obvious.

Hence, CashOnAd is both appreciated and criticized in the digital arena. There have been 10000-50000 installations of this app already since it was launched. This may not sound much, but it is still something. Being a “Made in Nepal” App, we wish for its Grand success and attention from the tech-giants all over the world.

©Linkinmyth: My Generation Case Study on Cash on Ad