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MySME News… is a pioneering service which aims to provide the poor in India with essential business news while also reaching operating profit within two years. It will exploit the rapid spread of mobile phones in India’s slums, as well as rely on traditional media to reach a broad customer base with individually tailored services. Internews Europe, Mahiti and Plural India are launching the MySME News pilot in the Slums of Kolkata, West Bengal with 300,000 Micro-finance entrepreneurs. They have received funding from the EC, but seek co-financing to expand the power of the model. MySME News will blend the power of technology with existing realities and social networks in India's slums and villages to build a 'Bottom of the Pyramid' media business, and new models of pro-poor media sustainable in the market place.

Highlights

• Market News with wide-ranging delivery methods - mobile, newsletter handouts, radio.
• For the first time ever,millions of poor people can receive personally customized information tailored to their needs.
• Closing the information gap between the rich and the poor with news you can use on prices, markets, business, health and livelyhood information, available in your language - when and where you want.
• Potentially broad reach, exploiting the explosion of mobile ownership in India (300 million subscribers and counting).
• Mixture of Models, non-profit for training and set-up, for-profit revenue splits with telecom companies & advertising streams.
• Traditional Media tie-ins, mobile-based individual subscriptions cross-marketed on broadcast & print media outlets.
• In the middle of the technology curve, although geared to work on 'Any Handset Any Network', the project will also position for JVs with the telecom, IT and media industries to exploit tech advances fresh from the labs, including Bluetooth, 3G, Wi-Max, Smart Cards, VOIP and other voice technologies.