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Generating User Awareness for VAS Offerings in India
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At the IAMAI Mobile VAS 2008 Summit, the topic of VAS and user awareness was discussed by an esteemed panel that included:
Mr. Pradeep Shrivastava – CMO, Idea Cellular
Mr. Arvind Rao – Co - Founder of One Mobile
Mr. Ajay Vaishnavi – Director of Telecom at Times Internet
Mr. Raj Singh Bhandal – Managing Director, Active Media
Much is happening in the mobile consumer space – as Mr. Shrivasava says “it is increasingly important for consumers to pack 48 – 72 hours of work in their 24 hours”. Mobile operators today are under constant pressures to look at more organised and systematic ways to reach out to consumers beyond voice telephone as tariffs are constantly dropping.
- Create Content for consumer groups that hold certain kinds of handsets. Most of India does not have sophisticated handsets so how can VAS applications for them being built?
- Customized Regional and local content – the mobile market really has to touch the pulse of the ‘real’ Indian consumer. A Bhojpuri user would want to view Bhojpuri content so a marketer and a VAS creator needs to understand cultural nuances because in India atleast, it seems clear that portfolios of different products need to be sold to different unique markets.
Where have we reached here today in Terms of VAS?
In 2001, the cellular subscribers were 100 million, the mobile VAS market was about 100 crores in size. Today it’s about 4000 crores. Over the last 4 years more than 150 million users have used VAS in some form or the other. VAS now constitutes for about 9% of operators’ revenues and it is about to grow to about 15%.
But its important to note that the low hanging fruit has been exhausted. India has seen ringtones, SMS related VAS, caller tunes etc. That according to Mr. Arvind Rao is “the easy stuff”. The real challenge now is to profile users and figure out “who wants what, and of what kind?”
How can VAS Awareness explode in this country?
According to Mr. Rao, If one looks at the Internet today, Internet classes are being taught in High Schools and colleges – why cant that be done with respect to the Mobile Phone? Today VAS revenues come from Music related VAS (about 50% - 60%). VAS is mostly entertainment related. Mr. Rao sees this portfolio changing. VAS, one may note, will move even to financial services and things like M – Commerce, M – Banking, and P2P money Transfer.
Who is responsible then for the explosion of VAS in the Country? More importantly – why should they be interested in the explosion of VAS?
Mobile Operator – They are the consumer brand, they are the ones who will earn revenues on every VAS transaction undertaken.
Device Manufacturer – They have indirect benefits, they are the ones who will sell more high value phones as more VAS services grow.
The Content Provider – They so far have been ‘White Label’ providers – they create applications and sell them to the operators who Market these services. Content providers can now look to marketing VAS products using their consumer insights according to Mr. Raj Singh Bhandal. I have a feeling however that they may not have the muscle that the operators have and also operators may not like VAS content providers treading on their territory.
One can ascertain that VAS Revenue Growth Will Probably Come From:
- e – mail
- Search
- Full Downloadable Music Tracks
- GPS/ Navigation Services
- M – Commerce
VAS offerings however need to compete on “real world pricing” as Mr. Lloyd Matthias, Director of Marketing at Motorola India says. Today a full track costs Rs. 20 – 25. A full music CD costs around Rs. 50. An extremely important point especially on the front end with respect to consumers.
Who are Consumers interested of VAS in India? – Mr. Vaishnavi’s 58888 did a study.
Young Adults aged 16 – 25 in Class B and C towns.
n Contests
n Music
n Cricket
n Social Networking
Communication Medium – Local Lingo
The Result – 5 Million Users on Platforms and the SMS’ generated Contests with 40 Million SMS’
The recent trend that Mr. Vaishnavi has pointed out is that of Self Discovery:
Self Discovery has many forms that can be taken:
- Creating Mobile Communities through which consumers allow themselves to be marketed to.
- Creating WAP ‘easy to use’ portals where consumers can be directed and then left alone to explore a variety of content.
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Hi.. Harshil..,
Good analysis..!!
Thanks Rajeshree … Glad u enjoyed it!
hi,
Very good analysis..I am working with a s/w firm n doing a research on mobile data dervices.Actually our company wants to integrate health services with a new product(ex-u can get appointment through sms or may be once u have feed the prescription on your handset u will be probed when u need to take the medicine etc).if u have any relevant information about the same plz share it.