Smart bares SMS service for Japanese, Chinese

Telecom giant Smart Communications Inc. on Monday unveiled its newest text messaging service which will enable Japanese and Chinese nationals in the Philippines to use their own language when sending text messages to their loved ones. In July, Smart launched a similar service for the Korean community in the country. "People communicate best in their native tongue. By offering Japanese and Chinese SMS, Smart is simply enhancing its basic SMS service to meet the communication needs of all its subscribers, regardless of their location and nationality," said Danilo J. Mojica, Smart wireless consumer division head. Smart is the first operator in the country to offer Japanese and Korean SMS. Through Smart’s Japanese and Chinese SMS service, foreign nationals can now use their handsets capable of Japanese or Chinese character input to compose a Japanese- or Chinese-character text and send to a Japan- or China-based number. Figures from the Department of Tourism show that Japanese tourists ranked third among Philippine visitors in July 2007 with 34,156 or 12.2 percent of the total 281,032 tourists for the month. China was listed fourth, bringing in 13,304 or a 4.7 percent share, to the islands. Korea was still the leading source of arrivals in July 2007, taking a 22.3 percent share or 62,692 tourists. The United States followed closely as the second biggest provider, contributing 17.3 percent or 48,560 to the aggregate. - GMANews.TV