Everyone is talking about an economic downturn or recession. IT professionals and other sector employees are worried about their job. But in this downtime, Value Added Service (VAS) provider and mobile operators is experiencing boom. In India, people have high faith in god, so they are taking appointments from pundits and availing online astrology services to have glimpse in their future or to protect themselves from the impact of recession.
Raghunath Mandava (Chief Marketing Officer, Mobile Services – Airtel) says, from past few months queries related to job safety, promotion, marriage and health have been increased. Apart from these queries, more and more peoples are subscribing online for astro service.
Sunzay Passari, VAS & Devices Head, Loop Mobile India views are also same as Raghunath views. Sunzay says, “In the last couple of months, job loss, promotion, career prospects related queries has been increased. An increase in the number of people seeking Mantras@cafe and Astrology Live services has been witnessed. Also, the minute of usage has also gone up.” Mantras@cafe subscription charge is Rs 30/month costs Re 1 per minute and Rs. 6 per minute for Astrology Live service.
India’s leading astrology service provider, Astroyogi.com has also seen an increase in the number of queries from the youngsters, majorly from IT professionals or B-school graduates. Primary questions are related to career, laid off and promotion.
CEO Astroyogi.com, Meena Kapoor says, “From past two months, on daily basis queries received are about future job prospects and career problems are 20% of the total queries. 9-11 callers on our Phone Advice service talking about their fears regarding their career on daily basis. In the last quarter, the Phone Advice service has seen a 50% increase in the number of callers.”
Nitish Mittersain, CEO of Nazara Technologies, says, “We have seen 40-50% increase in astro services in the last six months. Mostly are from the 20-40 years age group people.”
Madhavan Iyer, Vice President, Content Operations, Global, IMImobile, says, “We have seen a 300% increase in subscriptions of astro services in the last two months.”
With increased uncertainity comes the need to predict the future. And as the Election is in the town and with the recessionary atmosphere the need for people to know what will happen in the next year is stronger than ever before. From lucky colors to lucky charms, they seem to be hanging on to every advice.
VAS, mobile operators and Astrology sites have foreseen their own fortunes in this need and seem to be enjoying their recession better than most others.
Nice Post. Looks like astrology services will have some good time in recession