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Cost per activity

Open-knowledge reference entry

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 4, 2025
Entity authorityQ5174804
Source-derived summary

When a mobile consumer requests content in the form of, for example, e-vouchers, audio files or video clips, the advertiser is charged a nominal sum by the platform that supports the marketing campaign. Each request is defined as an "activity". The platform's pricing charges a cost-per-activity. The amount payable by the advertiser is a function of the number of requests for content from the consumer, multiplied by the agreed cost/activity. This pricing model was created by Mobilitrix, a mobile services company based in Cape Town, South Africa. The advertiser only pays when a potential consumer accesses information or content as prompted by static media (POS poster, billboard, TV, radio or print advertisement). Alternatives include the pay per click, also known as the cost per click model.

History

In February 2008, after three years of research and development, Mobilitrix launched its offering of a suite of interactive mobile marketing tools.

Mobilitrix Founder and CIO, Andrew Cardoza, an expert in satellite and cellular communication technology, with a NASA background, coined the term CPA during the run-up to the launch. The Mobilitrix site empowers marketers (from small to large firms) by giving them tools to cheaply create advertising and consumer interaction by providing downloadable content via SMS request, thereby extending the reach of traditional print and above-the-line media ad-spend.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cost per activity” as open-knowledge reference entry. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Cost, activity and Open-knowledge can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as open-knowledge reference entry. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 4, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5174804. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Cost per activity”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Cost per activity primary sources, Cost per activity archive and Cost research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cost per activity”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Cost per activity” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.