www.mailpush.com

MailPush is an innovative service from Israel’s Cellcom, partially owned by BellSouth International Group.

The service notifies users through alternative channels when they receive an email message. Users can select notification via phone, cell phone, pager, or fax.

MailPush at a Glance

A powerful marketing tool.
Each time an email message is sent to a MailPush subscriber, the sender receives a distinctive HTML email confirmation that the recipient was notified.

Launch: December 1997 in Israel; summer 1998 in U.S. and eight other countries (ref: Business Wire, 7/29/98, www.pathfinder.com/money/latest/press/BU/1998Jul29/238.html ).

Cost: First month is free, then users pay $3 to $9 per month depending on their notification options and geographic location (depends on local telecom charges). The company intends to offer a free option if users are willing to see/hear advertisements with their email notifications.

User Base: Exact figures are not available, although the company does say it surpassed 10,000 users in July.

ISP Participation: As long as the Internet Service Provider (ISP) runs a POP3 server, they don’t have to do anything to enable users to use MailPush. However, ISPs (and presumably banks) that promote the service to their users can receive 10% of profits generated by their users.

How it Works:

1. MailPush automatically notifies subscribers when a new email message arrives in their mailbox. Users have the option of then routing the message to a fax machine where it will be printed in its entirety. The methods of notification are:

•  Land-line or cellular phone: Users receive an automated voice call with email sender and subject.
•  Digital cellular: Users receive a text message of sender and subject on the cell phone screen.
•  Fax: The full text of the message is printed.
•  Pagers: Sender and subject sent to pager.
•  Direct to the Win95/98 desktop: A yellow envelope blinks in the lower-right bar of your computer desktop and users hear “New Email” played through the sound card. This is the only option that requires software installation.
•  Touch-tone dial-in: Users can call the system 24 hours a day toll-free to check for new email messages and route to a fax machine if needed. This would be useful for travelers with access to a fax machine at a hotel but no email access.

2. The sender of the email receives a confirmation email that the recipient has been notified (it’s how we first learned of the program). This provides MailPush a great referral each time an email is sent to a MailPush participant. It’s the same approach the free email companies, such as HotMail, used in rapidly expanding their user bases.

3. The service includes expansive filters so users can determine exactly which emails they wish to be notified about; filter selections include: sender, subject, time of day and notification method.

MailPush, or MailPush-like messaging, has a big future in banking. Banking communications have varying levels of urgency. A notice of insufficient funds might have a high priority and warrant notification by voice call, whereas a deposit confirmation could be handled with routine email.

Users might also change their notification preferences at different times of the year. When out of town, users might want a voice notification so they could print out the message on the hotel’s fax. Or users might prefer an email notice to their work address on weekdays and a voice call to their home on weekends.

The service could be bundled with your online banking program, or provided for an additional fee. If all you wanted was an email notification, you wouldn’t need MailPush. You could simply send a notification to the user’s regular email address(es) directing them to their bank email box.

Banks could deploy MailPush in at least two ways:

1. As a private-branded tool used only for email housed on a bank-run server, e.g., mymail@ yourbank.com. For example, all registered Web users could have a private, secure mailbox at the bank in which routine and urgent correspondance is housed. Since the user is not likely to check the bank box on a daily basis, MailPush could be used to notify your customers when a time-sensitive message is waiting in their bank email box.

2. As a co-branded service offered to your customers as a profit center. Users could sign up at your bank and use the service with their regular ISP to set up notifications on a variety of email messages, from the bank and anyone else. In this scenario, the bank could earn at least 10% of the subscriber fees paid to MailPush.

3. As a co-branded service offered to customers at a significant discount negotiated with MailPush in return for the positive buzz they could generate with a bank partner.

No matter which option is selected, a message notification service would undoubtably be an attention grabber in the media and with your growing email-savvy customer base.