XL Axiata Loves Emoticons, Launches Indonesia’s First Stickers for SMS

Thanks to the growing popularity of social messaging apps like Line ແລະ KakaoTalk, the days where people are content in just using simple text emoticons are numbered. That has prompted Indonesian operator XL Axiata to become the first to roll out sticker-like emoticons for SMS in the country.

As reported by IndoTelko today, this SMS sticker feature is available on both smartphones and feature phones, as the stickers are compatible with MMS technology. To use a sticker, users need to put “X [keyword]” and then a sticker will be sent inside that SMS. There are currently 1,000 stickers available (ເບ​ງິ່​ຮູບ​ຂ້າງ​ລຸ່ມ​ນີ້), and they all can be seen by inputting “*123*888#” on your phone. ແມ່ນ, that sounds horribly inconvenient compared to the ease of sending and seeing huge stickers in social messaging apps, but it’s still a good alternative for offline messaging app users in the country.

XL Bebas and XL Ku subscribers are the only ones on the network who get to use this. The first 14 days of stickers usage are free, then an additional IDR 100 (1 cent) will be charged for every sticker sent. That is a bit steep, though, because the usual SMS fee for XL users is IDR 150 (2 cents), and users will get 100 free SMS ¹ for every six SMS sent per day. So if the stickers prove to be popular, you can imagine how much revenue the telco will generate. The upcoming fasting month of Ramadan might help with uptake of these new SMS emoticons.

Speaking of Ramadan, yesterday KakaoTalk chose a controversial Indonesian star as the app’s new celebrity face for Ramadan month.

One Indonesian startup that’s already enabling stickers inside SMS is Unyu, which took part in the recent IDByte Jakarta event. I think the other telcos in the country won’t let XL have all the fun and will launch their own SMS stickers soon.

(Source: IndoTelko)

(Edited by Steven Millward and Paul Bischoff)