ImaHima in Blick (translated from Swiss German) (January 31, 2002)

Internet-Adressen: Clicks to SMS Colleagues

We often lament that Switzerland is far behind Japan in terms of the mobile world. But a new light has been cast on the once gloomy situation, as the Swiss public now has access to one of the coolest Japanese mobile applications available.
In Japanse “imaHima” means “Are you free now?” and in Japan ImaHima, Inc. has more than half a million fans. The big advantage of imaHima’s service (compared to similar offerings like Swisscom’s “Friendzone”) is that it’s not only available through Swisscom, but also through the Sunrise Mobile Network (and mobile carrier Orange will join at the end of this week.) Another difference is that Friendzone depends on one’s exact geographic position (within 100 meters) while with imaHima it’s sufficient to know that your friends are in the same city.

Of course for communication limited to just two friends, direct SMS contact is enough. But lets say your tutor cancelled your lesson and you suddenly have some free time. Just use imaHima to inform your registered friends about your current status, then hook up with someone who’s free for shopping or cinema. The first step is to add your friends to your buddy list. But soon new friends from cyberspace will become available to you. This is possible because you can search other users’ profiles directly for key words which match your interests! After registering (via web or handy) imaHima commands should be sent via SMS to 9933.

- Peter Wolf