The first panel discussion at the IAMAI conference on Mobile content and services was on Mobile Technology, the questions the panel tried to answer were:
* Will Technology be the driving factor for content and services in Future?
* What would be the future technology to boost the data services?
* How the technology could be used for efficiency in access of Services?
Language is a barrier for VAS adoption:
Starting the session Chirag Jain, VP Marketing, Webaroo said that the key proponents in the whole Mobile VAS system comprised of User and Content. He pointed out that language is one barrier mobile companies have to overcome for a wider VAS adoption in India. Later in a Q&A session he said that VAS services should be implemented for ease of access to the user and he stated that during the idealization of SMSGupshup, Webaroo (its parent company) did a test run of their idea at PanIIT, where in they gave fairly complex commands to the delegates to find their friends through SMS and later found out lot of errors in their logs construing that complexity doesn’t work even if it is for IITians.
VAS services are not really adding value to the consumer:
Continuing the discussion, Vijay Shekhar Sharma MD – One 97 tried to clarify how operators are robbing users in the name of VAS services and he stated that he doesn’t really like the term VAS as there is no value that operator is delivering to the user.
He said that Mobile operators and VAS companies are really focussing on increasing their ARPU’s and getting more money out of user, pushing services to their mobiles. Vijay said, “Pushing Mandi rates and weather updates daily to the farmer is of no value. If you cannot predict the weather in Delhi, what kind of weather information are you going to send the remote villages about and how useful is it going to be to a farmer?
He also added that it is a long held myth that VAS users are youth and that pushing two wallpapers @Rs. 30 a month or charging Rs.3 a joke is daylight robbery. There’s no value that a user is getting from it.
Understand the user needs:
Debasis Chatterji, CEO, NetXcell pointed out that India is extremely complex with it’s social system. He mentioned that rather than forcing one service or the other on the user, VAS companies need a greater understanding of the user needs, hence tailor the services according to the needs of different groups.
Hi Pradeep,
Some misquoting on your part for my words. I had said that it is not necessary a great value to push 2 wallpapers for Rs 30/- and it is time we started bothering about customer’s value proposition. Pricing had not changed for so many days and now needs new models to make reach and value to new low arpu customers. 6/- per min can not be a sustainable price for services , if we want to know what consumer wants.
Similarly, I said: youth is not necessarily only segment consuming VAS, high end customers consumer many VAS like messaging (blackberry) and should be offered great services.
Finally we have been looking it at as Value Add Services and do not take care of full value chain (like customer care etc), instead we should put the consumer in center and take care of every aspect that consumer might be bothered about.
Cheers!
hi vijay, thanks for the correction