Where to next?

Latin CEO: Executive Strategies for the Americas, Dec, 2001 by Rochelle Broder-Singer

You've just finished a late-afternoon meeting and things didn't go well. You could use a stiff drink, but are in an unfamiliar part of town. If you're a Telernig Celular user in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, you could pull out your telephone, send a short text message with the right keyword in it, and get back a list of the three closest bars.

The location-based, short message service technology, from Internet company Star Media, is the first of its kind in the world, the company claims. Customers of Telemig--which holds 70 percent of the cell phone market in this Brazilian state north of Sao Paulo--can use it to find the three closest restaurants, drugstores, movie theaters, exhibitions, theatrical shows, hotels or bars, at any time. Each search costs US$0.11. Only 25 percent of Telemig's current customers have handsets that can access the service, but the company will, of course, use it to encourage new purchases. You'll never again be able to say there's nothing to do tonight.