82ASK re-brands and re-launches as Texperts™ with £1m marketing campaign
New Texperts service in major push to claim ‘mobile find’ space

Cambridge, 14 August 2007

Mobile text-and-answer service 82ASK today announces the re-launch of the company under the new name of Texperts™ and the acquisition of a new ‘Golden Shortcode’, 66000. The £1m re-launch is part of a major initiative to establish a new ‘mobile find’ category aimed at addressing the shortcomings of mobile search by providing high-quality answers to specific needs quickly and simply.

Texperts will focus on providing the exact answers to people’s everyday questions by ensuring each one is answered as quickly as possible by a professional finder. The company now has more than 200 Texperts from around the globe answering questions 24 hours a day on individual topics such as travel, restaurants, shopping, health, music and sport. Many of these are PhD students and even doctors and university lecturers.

As mobile search engines haven’t transferred well from their Internet-based counterparts, often providing many results and no answers, the Texperts plan to capitalise on this by providing timely high quality information to help people out of tough situations. This recognises the need for practical and useful information that saves time and hassle has become increasingly important to users. Questions such as directory enquiries, travel queries, restaurant information and directions with maps now form an increasing proportion of requests and as such the company are tailoring their service accordingly.

The award-winning service will switch from the shortcode 82275 to 66000 from today. This memorable number, a sought-after ‘Golden Shortcode’, ties in with the company’s core proposition of providing answers as simply as possible. The Texperts have also kicked off a significant marketing campaign designed to grow the customer base and increase question volumes.

Sarah McVittie, Texperts CEO, said, “We strongly believe people don’t want to waste time and effort using mobile search and feel that the Texperts have what it takes to get people the information they need on the go. The general public want the correct information delivered to them in a simple and timely manner, what better way to do this than by simply sending a trusted person a text question?

“We have seen impressive organic growth in the service recently from exactly this type of usage and with our planned marketing activities we hope to grow on this”.

The new Texperts service costs £1 and allows customers to text any question to 66000 and receive an answer within minutes. Given the large and loyal following the company has already built, exisiting customers will still be able to use the service on the old 82275 number.

ENDS

About Texperts
Texperts™ is a mobile find service which allows users to text a question to a team of research experts who provide individually tailored, relevant answers straight to your mobile. Anyone using a UK mobile number anywhere in the world (bar Japan & Korea) can text a question to 66000 and receive an accurate answer within minutes for just £1. If for any reason the correct answer cannot be found there is no charge.

Texperts, formerly called 82ASK, receives thousands of texts per day and has seen average month-on-month growth of 20% with little or no marketing spend to date. The company and management team has also won numerous awards for quality and innovation.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 by Eric White and is filed under Press Releases.