Missed call

Missed calls are also referred to in some parts of Africa as beeping,[1][2] flashing in Nigeria,[3] a flashcall in Pakistan,[4] miskol in the Philippines and Indonesia, and ring-cut in Sri Lanka.

"[4] In countries where missed calling is common, some wireless carriers showed concerns that the practice uses their networks in a manner they cannot derive revenue from.

[10] "Miskol", a Tagalog loanword for "miss call", was declared the "word of the year" at a language convention held by the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2007.

[7] They are typically used to signal the sender's status, such as indicating their arrival at a specific destination, or a business informing a customer that their order is ready for pickup.

[13][23][24][14] In 2014, the social networking service Facebook announced that it would support links to missed call numbers as an ad format, as part of an effort to bolster its advertising business in emerging markets such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa.

[16] In 2013, Hindustan Unilever launched Kan Khajura Tesan (Earworm Radio), a missed call service that responded with a 15-minute block of Hindi entertainment content (such as Bollywood music and devotionals), interspersed with advertising for the company's brands.

Companies that are not direct competitors to Unilever were also allowed to advertise on the service;[17][26][27] a campaign promoting the film Singham Returns through Kan Khajura Tesan generated 17 million calls.

[4] Flashcall found that the concept was not viable in regions where missed calls were not an established social practice, such as the United States (where smartphones and mobile broadband were widely-available).

[20] On 31 January 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's monthly radio address Mann Ki Baat became available by phone through a missed call number.

[16] In 2014, Zipdial had been increasingly used for campaigns by e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart to advertise their mobile apps, targeting new smartphone users still familiar with missed calling.

[16] The 2016 launch of Jio—which offered competitively-priced plans and devices on a national LTE network (including coverage in both urban and rural regions), and launch offers with large amounts of free data allotments—triggered a significant growth in mobile broadband usage in the country, a price war between its established rivals, and the increased use of internet video, e-commerce, social networking services, and messaging apps.