Candy (www.can-dy.ph) is a mobile rewards platform, created by Singapore-based startup Yoyo Holdings [1]. It’s a solution that rewards users for performing micro-tasks – such as surveys, app installs, banner clicks, or review submissions – by giving them airtime, or prepaid phone credit. Of course, in emerging markets where credit card penetration and online payments is especially low, there is much opportunity for such an offering to excel.

Candy, which launched in the Philippines back in March, has seen promising results thus far. The service, which only accepted new users up until the end of April, saw 30,000 users in its first three weeks, and now has 47,000 subscribers with another 18,000 wait-listed. So far most of the users are in their teens or 20s, with a 64% majority of those being male.

I recently had a chance to catch up with Yoyo’s executive officer Arnab Gupta, who explained how their service offers something that many mobile carriers in emerging markets currently lack. Above all else it offers a place to collect and store detailed user information not usually available to telcos.

This includes, of course, information like name, telephone number, and age, but also things like education, industry, income, and employment.

So when it comes to things like surveys, questionnaires, or reviews, what Candy offers will likely be more appealing to advertisers or corporate clients looking to learn more about an emerging market like the Philippines.

Their client list looks pretty impressive so far with a number of large notable Japanese companies already under its belt. Their initial goal is to succeed in the Philippines, in the hopes of becoming the top mobile platform in emerging markets like this one. To that end, the team is currently working out of Manilla, and there are plans to expand outwards to Thailand and Indonesia by the end of this year. The see lots of potential in the smartphone market especially, and will be focusing their efforts on that front.

Readers may recall that we briefly mentioned them in our coverage of Rising Expo a few weeks back. If their initial success continues, I expect we’ll likely hear much more from the Candy team in the coming months.

It’s encouraging to see that the folks at Yoyo are also being good citizens too, launching a program to send free airtime to many of those affected by the devastating Typhoon Haiyan earlier in the month. You can find out more about that initiative here.

To learn more about Candy, check out the video above, featuring CEO and co-founder Yosuke Fukada.