Designed with feature-phone users in mind, in less than six months Metrorail’s mobile site, GoMetro, has attracted more than half a million monthly visitors. The reason could provide insights into how to target South Africa’s mass commuter market where smartphones are not prevalent.
GoMetro offers commuters on Metrorail pertinent information using a simple interface that consumes very little data.
With more than 3m daily rail commuters in South Africa, the GoMetro site also offers advertisers a chance to reach a captive, recurring audience in an income bracket seldom targeted through mobile marketing campaigns.
Gustav Goosen, CEO of The SpaceStation, the digital agency responsible for GoMetro, says the site was designed with entry-level feature phones in mind so that the largest number of commuters could use it.
Any phone with a mobile web browser can use GoMetro. Usage figures show how popular entry-level BlackBerry devices remain with the midtier and low-end of the South African market: more than 80% of the site’s users accessed it from BlackBerrys, while only 8% of users are on Android phones, 6% on Nokias and 1,5% on iPhones.
“From a top-end view, the mobi site may seem clunky,” Goosen says. “But it works and it keeps the updates feed quick while reducing data consumption.”
Most users of the site are prepaid customers, “which means they’re more cost sensitive so they don’t want airtime used quickly by a data-rich service”.
GoMetro provides Metrorail commuters in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape with real-time information directly from Metrorail’s control centre, including train timetables, line announcements and service updates.
Consumers can input their current location and destination and view the next six suitable trains, including departure times and estimated arrival times. They can also use the site to report vandalism or security concerns.
The service has another use over and above providing commuters with information. “We realised that commuters needed proof that trains were stuck or delayed to show their employers,” Goosen says. “Now they can. GoMetro also allows people to plan better, be it knowing whether a train is delayed or cancelled, or knowing when to meet someone taking a train.”
A major update to the site will be launched in June, and there are plans to release standalone applications for Android, Apple and BlackBerry offering more functionality. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
