RIYADH, 15 March — Nasser Abdulrahman Al-Rasheed, a Saudi child, yesterday became the winner of a $1 million prize in a pan-Arab contest sponsored by a local audiotext service provider.
A total of SR12 million in prizes were distributed by Saudi Call at a function held here last night. There were 41 winners from the Kingdom and 20 from outside.
The competition was organized by Saudi Call in conjunction with two other companies to promote its 700 service. Launched in December last year, it has been described as a new service of its kind that gives out information of general or specialized interest on the telephone without the need for human intervention.
The second prize of $300,000 was picked up by a winner from Kuwait, while an Egyptian national landed the third prize of $200,000. There were also daily prizes of $30,000 for the contest, which started at the end of Ramadan and continued until February-end.
Hailing the competition as an innovative marketing approach, Saad Al-Balawi, chairman of the Board of Directors of Saudi Call, said the response to the contest was highly encouraging. Each participant was required to answer questions on Islamic and cultural issues as well as general knowledge.
“We are ushering in a new era of marketing by using digital communication in the Middle East and Arab world,” Al-Balawi said, adding that their company offers audio-text services to telephone subscribers.
The chairman also disclosed that Saudi Call was also planning to launch a new range of audio-text services, which are currently being studied by an IT specialized company.
