With SXSW Interactive kicking off this weekend, technology geeks will undoubtedly be searching for the next Twitter. It turns out that the next big thing won't be found in Austin, but on the other side of the globe, in India.
That's where a new social-networking device called Bubbly is taking off, with more than 500,000 users before its official launch, Ad Age reports.
Just like Twitter, Bubbly sends short messages to large groups of followers, only instead of quick bursts of text, Bubbly uses the actual human voice. Users can sign up to follow friends, brands, and celebrities, and whenever a message is sent out, users get an alert on their mobile devices. Most messages are less than 30 seconds, and the maximum length is one minute. If a user chooses to listen to the message, they pay for the mobile airtime. Brands like the BBC have already signed up to use the service in India.
Bubbly is the product of Bubble Motion, a 5-year-old mobile social application. Bubble Motion's current plan is to launch the product in fast-growing mobile markets like India, Japan, and Brazil.
