We recently wrote about Sequoia-backed voice messaging company Bubble Motion’s foray into voice blogging, Bubbly. While the thought of a Twitter-like voice blogging service is a little strange, the service is picking up steam in India, where politicians, brands and actor are using Bubbly to connect with fans. Today, Bubble Motion is releasing a new, more interactive version of Bubbly, the voice-blogging phone service where people share voice updates with friends, family, fans and followers instantly via SMS alerts.
With Bubbly, you can record and broadcast messages from any mobile device. When a users records audio messages and updates, followers can listen in whenever they want. To start voice-blogging, you enter a short code onto your phone, and start recording your messages. To follow another voice-blogger, users dial the phone number for whomever they want to follow. Whenever there’s a new audio update, followers are notified via SMS with instructions on how to listen. Deployed through partnerships with mobile operators, Bubbly is an extension of BubbleTalk, a click, talk, and send’ messaging service that doesn’t require any calling.
Users can now vote on popular content, and comment on messages, allowing voice-bloggers to send a recorded voice reply. Users can also now forward compelling, funny, or inspiring blog updates to other interested parties. While Bubble Motion is seeing strong traction in India, the service will be making a big push on other countries in Asia through recent partnerships with the largest mobile operators in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
As we’ve said in the past, India seems like a perfect market for Bubbly, especially considering the success and rapid growth of the Indian Twitter-like SMS microblogging network, SMS GupShup. But it should be interesting to see if Bubbly can take off in other parts of Asia.
Bubble Motion, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., has raised a total of $35 million in funding since the company’s launch in 2003.
