Mobile VAS To Skyrocket.. Do You See It Happening?
The telecom growth story in India is not news anymore. Inspite of that, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in India has remained abysmally low compared to the ARPU in other developing and developed markets across the world.
ARPU in the GSM segment in the previous quarter was INR 205 while the corresponding number for CDMA was INR 99. Both of these numbers are lesser than what was observed in the quarter earlier. This is understandable considering that all along, the focus of the Indian telecom operators has been on acquiring new subscribers. It has clearly been a volumes game so far.
But with proliferation of advanced handsets even in the semi-urban and rural areas, along with the fact that the subscribers have always been the youth with a penchant for music and gaming, telecom operators are finally looking to focus on alternate revenue streams as well.
In a new study published by industry research firm RNCOS titled, “Indian Telecom Analysis (2008-2012)”, revenue from mobile value added services seems to be gathering steam. Revenues from mobile VAS are expected to reach over INR 16,500 crore in the year 2010. To put this in perspective, mobile VAS revenues are projected to cross $348.8 million (approx. INR 1675 crore) in 2009. What will cause this sudden spurt in the revenue numbers is the introduction of advanced telecom services like 3G and MNP services.
A personal thought – Though I do think 3G and MNP will help a great deal in Indian mobile subscribers come of age, I am still sceptical about how much revolutionary this is going to be. Do you think a 16500 crore revenue from mobile VAS is possible in 2010? Do share your thoughts..
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Figure of 348 mio is little skewed. As of now MVAS (including p2p sms) accounts for about 10% of Telco revenues which bring total MVAS revenues to about USD 2bn.
Out of total MVAS p2p sms accounts for about 50% of revenues and hence pure MVAS (excluding p2p sms) is about USD 1bn. Taking it from USD 1bn to USD 3bn (its a projection after all!!!) is not sky rocketing.
All this figure can be substantiated, though they are not taken from some news article from a ‘Biz Daily’. Ping me if you need more details!
i THINK TELECOM LAWS ARE MAKING THINGS WORSE…… people send free SMS through internet…. it makes loss to the mobile companies……