Our users have asked for some time that they would like to test their service via web interface not to send messages. It is also a great feature to service providers who have services running in different countries.

Now it is really easy, you can create services and test them right away from your Fortumo account. It doesn’t matter which service or which country. Basically you just have to go to the service view and open the testing tab. Cool thing is that there is no limits in testing, if you change your service or script a bit you can run another test right away.

Other new features

Virtualgoodsnews is a blog which talks about virtual world – latest trends, new cool sites, payment methods and everything that happens in virtual world. They also wrote a story about Fortumo:

Fortumo’s strategy allows them to get the valuable first foothold in an emergent market that could become very significant in the future. Virtual goods are increasingly a global business since it’s easy to sell to anyone in any country provided they can understand the platform and find a way to pay for what they want. Fortumo gives Eastern Europe a fairly easy way, and may open up more countries to the sort of low-friction payment methods that can drive virtual goods sales in the future.

Check out the full story .

MWC is officially over and it is time to take a small look back. It was great to be part of that fantastic event and meet so many interesting people. And what’s more important to get so much positive feedback from people. It shows that Fortumo is moving to the right direction.

I can already see many interesting partnerships deals from MWC.

We’ve got a very exciting announcement today. We’re launching a new Fortumo Affiliate Program. Through this program you can promote Fortumo and earn additional revenue.

How does it work?
The model of Fortumo Affiliate Program is simple:
1. You promote Fortumo by placing a banner, text link, promotional code or any other Fortumo promotional item to your website, portal, blog, IM, Twitter, facebook account etc.
2. We pay you 20 EUR every time an user who had found Fortumo through your site has earned his or her first 50 EUR.

By doing this, you are not only earning money, but also promoting a worthwhile cause.

We have already provided you easy promotional tools:
* pre-made flash banners in different languages which you can place to your site
* pre-made text banners in different languages if you prefer text to flash, but you can use them both
* promotion code which you can share with others via IM, Twitter, e-mail, facebook account etc
* your promotion URL which you can also share with others via IM, Twitter, e-mail, facebook account etc

Inside your Fortumo account you are able keep an eye on how things are doing 24/7. It is possible to see the numbers of visits, registrations, affiliate revenue etc and informative graphs.

As the name says criminala is crime based free online web game where the main activities are not so legal. Every player´s main function is to be the greatest and strongest player in the game. There are so many activities that can’t be written – you just have to see and play it yourself.

“The idea of making web-based online crime game came actually from people from Netherlands. Also there was only one similar game in Estonia. Then we had enough motivation to create crime based game in Estonia. As Fortumo offers free, easy and quick services, we integrated SMS-services as well.”

How have you applied SMS-services?
There are always some people who want to be the best in low time. So we gave them the opportunity via SMS service. Users can voluntarily send an SMS message to certain number and get back some game credit what can be changed to various services and be the greatest player in the game.

Where did the idea of using SMS-services come from?
Integrating an SMS service for the site was an idea already from the beginning and as all the other game sites in Estonia were using SMS services as well.
Also it is the cheapest and fastest way to integrate paid services for websites and as we all know – almost everybody has a cellphone in Estonia.

Why did you decide to use SMS-services in your web business?
Main reason for using SMS services in our websites was and is because Fortumo offers free, easy and quick service to intergrate SMS services to any kind of service. Also SMS service is automatic so the end-users get their service instantly.

What has SMS-service additionally given you?
Actually everybody knows the answer to this question. Mainly SMS-services support us financially and of course, if there is money – there is motivation to develop the game and give players the pleasure to play the game.

Venturebeat is a US company who is providing news and information about private companies and the venture capital that fuels them. They also gave their review to Fortumo in MWC.

“Fortumo allows even layman mobile users to build and monetize their
own text messaging services. … It differentiates itself by offering
a very rich set of tools to satisfy both beginner and professional
customers.”

BTW! If you are in Barcelona, come and listen Fortumo @ The Business of Mobile 2.0 session.

We’ve already written on a previous occasion about TelePizza and its service enabling food ordering via text message. Always happy to see a good idea spread, I was recently pleased to note that the big sandwich chain Subway has enabled text ordering in New York City.

Users of Subway Now begin by entering their address online to find the Subway shop nearest them. They then create and save their favourite orders, each of which is assigned a number. To order by text message, they simply text the word “menu” to Subway’s shortcode, and the service sends back a list of their favourites. They reply with the number they want, and Subway Now responds with a text confirmation and pickup time.

It may sound kinda complicated, but it’s quite simple, and the popularity of this service is based on some strong points of this service:

• It takes only one, max two text messages for ordering
• All orders are paid via credit card information saved on the Subway Now site
• With no need to pay in cash and with a priority service, customers can skip the line entirely when they pick up their food
• The service itself is free (i mean, you pay only for the messages to the shortcode ).

The service is getting more popular with the day. As a result, I would expect to see Subway launching the service in other metro areas in the near future, possibly also in Europe.