Gadu-gadu, the firm responsible for the most popular instant-messaging (IM) service in Poland, is launching a campaign to promote its new Ukrainian service, Balaćka, which launched in June. With a total of zł.4.5 million being invested in the foreign operation, the firm aims to attract 150,000 users this year and eventually claim the leadership position in the Ukrainian market. By the end of the year, Gadu-gadu also hopes to tackle the markets in Romania and Bulgaria.
Competing in the Ukrainian market may prove a demanding task, given the strong presence of other IM services, such as the Israeli ICQ. The company's plan is to attract users by tailoring the product to local needs.
"Balaćka is not a copy-paste version of Gadu-gadu," explained Piotr Pokrzywa, a member of Gadu-gadu's management board. He stressed the Ukrainian service's distinct logo and interface, as well as the involvement of a relatively large number of Ukrainians in its creation. "This is a Ukrainian communicator," said Pokrzywa.
The localization of the service also means that its offer is less robust than that of the Polish version, lacking, for example, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) functions. "The Ukrainian online market is less developed than the Polish one," admitted Pokrzywa. "Still, it is growing at a much brisker pace." This growth is particularly visible in large cities such as Kiev, which accounts for 60 percent of all the Ukrainian internet users. "If we want to reach a top spot [in the market], we need to concentrate on that area," said Pokrzywa.
The firm's advertising strategy is based primarily on internet and word-of-mouth, reinforced by outdoor advertising. Balaćka is additionally attractive because of its "My Generation" service, Ukraine's first networking tool in the mold of Myspace or Facebook.
Although Balaćka has been available for over two months, the company declined to reveal its user numbers in Ukraine.
