Send Free International SMS using Jaxtr

Jaxtr does it again. This time they are providing free international SMS message. For all those users that were enjoying free international voice calls, this is an additional treat from jaxtr. This definitely seems to be an awesome deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if jaxtr reached 20 million in another 6 months. Using this new service, users can send free text messages to mobile phones in 38 countries directly from the member's jaxtr home page. The message text is limited to 65 characters with additional space taken for advertisement. So users shall see advertisement with the message. Not sure if in-call advertisement is something jaxtr is planning for the existing free voice calls. With cost of the SMS so high in North America, this one is a killer deal. For those of you folks that have not heard about jaxtr, here is some info about them-- Jaxtr is a VoIP widget provider that can be used for anonymous calling. Similar to jangl and jajah

Here is what jaxtr has to say about the service:

"Jaxtr allows anyone to sign up for a free membership and start sending SMS messages internationally at absolutely no cost," said jaxtr co-founder and COO Touraj Parang. "You can SMS your friends and family abroad whether or not they are currently members of jaxtr. The moment you sign up for a free account at jaxtr.com, the world is literally at your fingertips."

The latest annual report from Research and Markets predicts that 2008 will see over two trillion SMS text messages sent worldwide. While domestic SMS is generally affordable, sending messages to friends and family abroad is generally still quite expensive. In the United States, it costs roughly $.20-$.25 to send SMS messages internationally via the major mobile providers.

Though iam not a big believer of freebies. This one might be an exception, since it’s a break even model. Iam sure the cost of acquiring new customer is paid off through advertisement. Good strategy. I was always critical of jaxtr business model (Check out my earlier post on jaxtr Time to milk jaxtr users). I guess part of the strategy could be to build user base. Jaxtr Cafe was part of a bigger strategy to make some revenue out of the already acquired user base. Iam not sure if its working. I know for sure call me widgets are not working.From what I hear, this summer, they are planning to start selling more jaxtr credits/minutes. Consumers can buy more minutes once they exhaust the free 100 minutes limit every month.

Wish there were lot more startups like jaxtr that giveaway free stuff  .