I recently stumbled on Wadja,a social networking site that allows its members to send free SMS messages across the world. Just like I usually do when I find good sites, I wanted to share the link with my friends on Facebook. But to my surprise, Facebook could not accept the wadja link. This was actually the very first time for me to experience this. Whenever, I try to preview the wadja link on Facebook, the following message pops up:
Warning: This Message Contains Blocked
ContentSome content in this message has been reported as abusive by Facebook users.
I am very surprised with this message because I do not find any kind of abusiveness on the wadja site. I am somehow thinking that it could be a deliberate ploy by Facebook to frustrate Wadja. What do you think?
53 users commented in " Facebook vs Wadja: Is Facebook scared? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackYes, they have blocked the word Wadja from any messages and even the chat options for some time now. Facebook officially states it as a spam issue, but I think we all know better 😉 Either way, it’s no problem for us, we continue to grow on the merit of our service and free messaging.
I empathize with Facebook’s position. We are talking about a company with almost 500 million invested from Venture Capital and Microsoft, and 750 on staff, so its success to become a closed walled monopoly is at stake. Blocking all and every likely competitor and innovator is part of the deal. Locking in users and their content, photos, and inbox messages is necessary for Facebook’s survival.
Its all about free and open vs closed and rigid. Giving users freedom to control their content, export their data, or port their media to other sites is a no go for Facebook, which has based its entire service on a walled garden approach.
Wadja works regardless of whether you have friends in it or not. Our service is anchored in a service utility model, not a friend directory model. If you enjoy the messaging service and derive value from it, as at its most basic level saves you money, we feel you will want to invite friends to check it out; not the other way around, invite friends and only then you can enjoy the service.
Thanks for the post and keep up the great work 🙂
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
January 7th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
@Alex:Too bad…if Facebook continues doing things like these, then they are indirectly scheming their own demise.
[Reply]
Thanks for this info on Wadja. I would really try it for its SMS feature
Selbourne designer´s last blog post..ROR Sitemap for http://www.selbourne.com/
[Reply]
I saw wadja, and opened a new account there… but wadja is just nothing infront of facebook, they have a long way to go! goodluck wadja
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
January 7th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
@Nokia Review:But why is Facebook treating them like this, if they are really nothing in front of them?
[Reply]
no it is like.. a new rider in an old race and so everyone is aware of this new rider but facebook is far form the these rookies! And applied new features techniques ideas so the members feel much more comfort in facebook. Wadja is new and following techniques instead of building new ones however there is a chance to get near facebook but that will take much time for wadja
[Reply]
Oooo, I think people are going to like the idea of this free SMS! Well, it’s free, so that’s what my blog is about! “free things” so gonna post it up straight away! Will leave credit to your blog though of course 🙂
Thanks a lot.
[Reply]
[…] more below: Taken from. nthambazale I recently stumbled on Wadja,a social networking site that allows its members to send free SMS […]
I honestly can’t see any other site getting anywhere near facebook in popularity. They at least would face an incredible uphill struggle.
Why would I join Wadja when all me friends are on Facebook? Exactly!
[Reply]
First time to hear this Wadja thing. Is the sms service worldwide? I like the idea huh. But why did facebook disallow it? Don’t know the fair business practice? It’s their loss anyway.
[Reply]
I too would say they are a bit weary about how far wadja could go. I must say though that I am grateful to you for sharing info about wadja on your blog. I have been able to communicate with family and friends in South Africa via SMS as I cant send messages to certain countries with my mobile service provider.
Gerri´s last blog post..125×125 Ad Spot Winners
[Reply]
I even don’t know what to say. Strange, that facebook is doing things like that. Such actions will not do any good for its reputation!
[Reply]
I agree, reputation will be spoiled a bit! But maybe facebook will change its attitude to wadja, who knows…
[Reply]
i’m late to knowing this issue, yes, wadja have a great service, I dont see something weird on wadja, why should they blocked wadja link? hopes they can be better in the future..
[Reply]
@PS3. True, but what happens when the Facebook fad dies down (it will eventually, this is certain as Geocities, Friendster and MySpace before them), and then your friends leave it or stop using it altogether. A lot of my friends have already grown tired of Facebook and its spammy service. Then how will you use Facebook? The service is 100% useless without your friends on it, its a deck of cards bro.
Wadja can be used with or without having friends or contacts on it (as can Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Zoho etc…), because they have a true services that gives you some real value or cost savings.
Just a thought 🙂
[Reply]
That’s indeed very strange thing. Especially when they really can’t compare in popularity and i see no reason why should Facebook be afraid of Wadja. Competition is always healthy.
George´s last blog post..SeaWorld Orlando
[Reply]
Yeah, you are right about the competition, but I don’t see any between Facebook and Wadja
[Reply]
Mr. Clement, what plugin do you use for this comment area? I see if one comments your post, it appears (who am I) link and it shows a list of his comment. Hehe…it’s unique. I want to try it too, can you share to me?
Evyta SEO´s last blog post..Palestine – Magazine Blogger Template
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
January 9th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
@Evyta: I use the Sezwho plugin.
[Reply]
Ic, thanks Mr. Clement. I’m reading it and trying to install it. And one question if you don’t mind, why in my comment here doesn’t show the “Who am I?”
Evyta SEO´s last blog post..Palestine – Magazine Blogger Template
[Reply]
yeah i’ve had this problem with another url and FB as well that i don’t remember, i doubt it would be to frustrate wadja or anything like that. apparently it might have been reported by the community as the url must have been used to excessively spam other members.
Thanks for the Wadja resource by the way,
Computer Realm´s last blog post..Adsense Stats Junkie? This is what you’ve been waiting for.
[Reply]
When there is competition, the big guys will try and do everything possible to prevent the growth of the little fellow. Wadja will slowly get loyal users and the growth may not be spectacular like Facebook’s but grow they will.
Nicole Price´s last blog post..Good Deals on Hair Products
[Reply]
This is the first time I ever heard of Wadja I just signed up after reading thanks.
[Reply]
Thanx a lot for the info. Money does lead to a lot of ugly things. I’ll certainly take a look at Wadja though I can’t promise I’ll join as I’m already on Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed inorder to promote my blog.
Good Luck Wadja 🙂
[Reply]
To hell both of them! Those social networks are soooo time consuming!
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
January 26th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
@AlexKazarkin: Yes, they are time consuming. But do not send them to hell.lol
[Reply]
Brands which have an open approach to competition succeed. If google started banning yahoo and wikipedia pages, they would be hated.
It will just be a matter of time before facebook users realise the closed approach that facebook is using and then suddenly a cooler website might emerge
[Reply]
Just protecting their business. Facebook are so big that they can afford to be heavy-handed…
[Reply]
I use wadja a lot for sending sms from philippines. sad to hear about facebook
Alfred´s last blog post..GTA San Andreas Vista Crash / Freeze fix – How to
[Reply]
I don’t think Facebook has anything to worry about, but they probably want to protect their business anyways just in case.
Funny Images´s last blog post..Wife and Mistress
[Reply]
I don’t see why facebook should fear a new social network. There are plenty of apps on facebook that will let you send free SMS. These are country specific apps sometimes.
Doesn’t matter how hard I try, I can’t move my existing friend network from facebook to myspace or orkut, I am sure the same would happen for smaller networks.
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
January 26th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
@Jeet: Can you share with me the names of the FB applications that will let you send you free SMS like Wadja does. I would be very grateful if you could provide their names.
[Reply]
just type ‘sms’ on the search bar. .and you will find not one but many ‘Send SMS – Text Messaging’, JYGY is another one, just search and you will find many 🙂
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
January 26th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
@Jeet: I know FB has many applications, some too attractive but useless. As far as FB SMS applications are concerned, I have a few questions to you. Have you used them before? Are they free? Can they allow one to send his sms to a mobile in any other country on the face of the earth like Wadja does?
[Reply]
I have used two apps for sending SMS to India and US for free. I have seen others that charge monthly fee (haven’t tried those). I haven’t tried sending SMS to other countries yet 🙂
There have been a LOT of free SMS websites and they can not survive on this alone, they need to figure out a monetization method, free SMS is just a way to inflate initial ‘numbers’. In India I saw ibibo giving out free SMS. They also had free calls for some time.
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
January 26th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
@Jeet: Now we seem to be converging. One can send free sms on most apps on FB and on the Internet to some specific countries like USA, Canada, India etc. But it is not possible to send free sms to low income countries such Malawi, my home country. That is where Wadja beats them. Wadja offers free sms to all countries. This free sms is however limited to 90 characters. The number sms messages that you can send to a particular recipient per day is also limited to 5 or 7. If you need to remove these limits, you have to pay. That is how they monetize their service apart from ads. For a student like me, the free sms service is enough. It gives me a chance to communicate with my people in Malawi free of charge.
But your comment teaches me something. It could be possible that wadja are giving us this free service in order to increase membership. I look forward to seeing Alex and his team at wadja responding to this one. Will Wadja’s free sms service continue even after wadja gets more than 80 million members?
[Reply]
If they have a premium service as well, it makes sense. One subscriber on their paid service might be able to support 10-15 free subscribers. I don’t know of it would be incorrect, but they can use the spare 50 characters for advertisements as well.
The only catch is receiver is not agreeing to receiving promotional SMS (along with a message from a friend), they have to build an opt-out method as well.
[Reply]
That’s pretty strange of Facebook to do. I’ve never seen them block links to a site like this before, and it’s a little discouraging to see them try to stifle competition like this.
Bidet Reviews´s last blog post..Toto Washlet S400 Bidet
[Reply]
wow! sending free sms all over the world! i hav to check it out 🙂
aniroy1986´s last blog post..Try Amazon New Blogs Widget to Get Few More Referral Bucks
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
February 1st, 2009 at 12:34 am
@aniroy1986: Check it and share your experience
[Reply]
@Alex:Too bad…if Facebook continues doing things like these, then they are indirectly scheming their own demise.
[Reply]
Any way to keep another site from stepping on their toes.
The Blogger Source´s last blog post..What Time Should You Post?
[Reply]
May be this is because of wadja is in direct competitor list of facebook or some business issue is there
[Reply]
Wadja offers a great deal that facebook can’t offer any more. It’s the only option that they have left.
[Reply]
Facebook is not at all worried about this site; they just don’t want to link to this site. Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world recently it has over taken MySpace also. Facebook now has 170 million active users out of which 15 million changes their status daily.
So think how big is Facebook and are they need to be scared?
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
May 8th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
@Shailendra: So why are they blocking it?
[Reply]
You know, I think I’m against free SMS and its a security issue. Here, in Russia, swindlers know how to cheat someone into giving them their cell phone numbers. Imagine, if s list of phone numbers gets into bad hands: they could make a script, and automate the process of sending spam to thousands of cell phone numbers… so developers at wadja should think of a good protection against automate sms sending.. in any case, good luck to them in building that competition to facebook (never liked it anyways 😉 )
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
June 7th, 2009 at 12:32 am
@dmitri: I do not get you. What you are saying does not make sense to me?
[Reply]
I found this “Facebook says that Wadja is just too spammy for their clean and safe network (sarcastic tone here), so being the champions of privacy and protection for the average Joe (totally sarcastic tone) they love and care for so much, they took the initiative to block the word Wadja.com (say what???).” (http://blog.wadjaworld.com/?p=12)
I think it’s just an excuse from Facebook. They might just fear the quick growth of Wadja.
[Reply]
That’s interesting. I’ve never seen anything like that on Facebook. I guess it could be an underhanded tactic to lower competition
.-= Kevin Tan´s last blog ..Article Marketing Tips: How To Build Permanent Traffic With Article Marketing =-.
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
August 28th, 2009 at 11:45 am
You are right. Most people are saying so.
[Reply]
If Face book doesn’t want to be criticized for censoring (fascism), then they shouldn’t have placed themselves as a “modern communication platform” . Can you imagine talking on the phone and certain words are covered with a beep?
[Reply]
I belive that in the near future Facebook will become the next Myspace:(
[Reply]
Please use your name when commenting. Using just keywords makes your comment seem spammy, and it's liable to get deleted. Please read my comment policy for more details. Many thanks for your cooperation!
Got an opinion? Leave a civil reply.