Sunday, February 25, 2007

VAS in India

Moving from nowhere (significance point of view) to not only occupying top of mind space from Branding but also for revenue (read EBIDTA!!), VAS has taken and become an Industry in itself.

Thus it becomes pertinent that necessary forum is setup to discuss, share and collaborate, for the benefit of players (both existing and new) and a possible space (rightfully) in the world market (well IT did it!!).

Thus starting off on the Mission..

Regards

Saket

18 comments:

  1. Hi Saket,

    Wanted to know more about VAS - especially the part about kids using VAS in India. Could you mail me any information that you might have to share? My email id is seema.chawla@disney.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Seema,

    I’m trying to very briefly walk you through the great rapport VAS services share with the youth in India.

    VAS + Youth in INDIA

    Usage of VAS over the years has seen a phenomenal growth across demographic profile of customers (but this has not spread evenly).

    In the current scenario the youth segment is driving the VAS market as can be seen from the rapid growth of entertainment VAS (mass service). In light of this trend the stakeholders are also concentrating there energies on mass services. Resulting in favour of youth—today they have a multiple arena of options to choose from.

    VAS service continues to appeal to the younger consumers, as these provide entertainment for leisure time usage. Examples of these services are:

    -Jokes
    -Bollywood Ring tones
    -Games
    -Data (download of wallpapers & logos/board result sms etc.)

    These services are currently very popular with the youth (they play a key role in driving the revenues for the Indian mobile VAS market).

    Thanks and best regards,
    Saket

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Saket,

    I always wonder why VAS is only associated with SMS at least thats the case in India.Yes, one possible reason is that its ubiquitous and easy to use. But at the same time GPRS is much more economical and powerful.Moreover, one can bypass service providers as far as revenue sharing is concerned.

    Is lack of awareness the only reason for GPRS being less popular?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Sumit,

    I think the question does not have single reason but a mix of following :
    1. Pretty bad infrastructure on GPRS - one on within circle, two in roaming and three on speeds

    2. Lack of handsets (being price sensitive, too few,,, while thats changing pretty fast now)

    3. Lack of device management tools,,, meaning just about 20% of capable handsets are enabled for GPRS

    4 Lack of killer apps as yet
    (well again changing at fast pace with just a blackberry email app)

    5. Consumer awareness and low internet penetration (while this finally would cause high usage in the end state)

    There are no weightage for thes points and they vary from operator to operator & region too!

    Slightly complex, but fairly good subject for deliberation.

    Regards

    Saket

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Saket,

    Yes this of course requires a debate involving one and all. Taking a leaf out of your book, I have set a common platform for the discussion here

    http://sumitramani.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/vas-gprs-vs-sms/

    I intend to spread the word through various forums but to make the discussion fruitful, one will require your help!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Saket,
    This is Money Sharma from AnimationXpress.com, wish to do a nes story on your advergaming project.

    Plz call Money Sharma, AnimationXpress.com on 022-40666777

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Saket,

    I am an analyst with a business research orgainization in Gurgaon and I am currently researching the mobile content market (excluding SMS).

    There is a very informatiove report on mobile VAS in India by IAMAI and IMRB, complied with data as on December 2006. However, I could not find the mention of full-track downloads in this report. I know full track song services started in India somewhere around Aril-May 2006. Could you please share some insights on the state of this market? If mobile music comprises ringtones and full-track songs, what would be the rough percentage market share of each of these?

    Thanks,
    Sutithi

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Saket

    Have been building an GPRS based chat application with embedded AI and NLP.

    Due to the low penetration of gprs in india currently we have had to port it to an sms gateway as well. Thus it spans both the verticals.

    what is a good way to touch base with you if i want to expand on the application

    cheers

    akshat

    www.alabot.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Saket

    Cool blog. I am working for a VAS company in Bangalore.I am doing a study on the VAS scenario in India in 2007.Please share any relevant information with me- especially the companies which are value added service providers(not the operators).It would also be great if you could let me know the services they provide(eg- voice , web based, graphics etc.my id is parmitaborah@rediffmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Saket,

    This is Neeraj , I am working with one of the leading MVas service provider.

    It is a nice blog, here we can also share some new sevice and product which is really attracting customers and opertors.

    My email: neeraj.kt@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am working for a software company in Bangalore.I am doing a study on the mobile services and its application in health care.Please share any relevant information with me- .my id is jyoti.bvp@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Varun said....
    Hi Saket,
    I m Varun Agarwal from mumbai m doing my PGDBM course from Rizvis' I m working on a project called Comparative analysis on VAS provided by Airtel, Hutch and Vodafone. If you any information related to this topic please mail me at a.varunrocks@gmail.com

    Thanks and Regards,
    Varun Agarwal

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Saket,

    I mworking with mobile application devolopment company as graphics designer. Let me know about the future of mobile application or as a part of graphics designer what's the future for me againest WEB.

    I mean WEP vs WEB.

    gopal_sim75@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi! It was nice blog. I am working on a project on m-VAS. Seeing the structure of m-VAS it can be easily observed that the service providers take out a major chunk of revenue while in China the situation is completely opposite since the onus of marketing is taken over by the content provider. It is understood that due to this reason MVNOs are not allowed in India as they can lead to intense market fragmentation. Despite that fact it does not remain disguised that many of the companies do practice commoditization of talktime which is what an MVNO does. Also the government plans to formulate norm s for organising the m-VAS industry which still operates under the auspices of mobile operators. Please place your coments as to what can the changes be after the regulations come to effect.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am presently working in a venture into the education sector. The service is similar to a poll that we wan to conduct on students for research based purpose, thereby we need a two way communication. Since the poll is in the form of a rating scale the reply that we get from the respondent is essentially a single character wasting message space and increasing cost.For e.g. if we are sending 5 questions over a duration of 4 hrs, then we want the answers as a single assorted message.From the perspective of cost minimization please advise on the possibilities of enabling this kind of setup.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi Saket:

    What is the total market Size of India for A2P Messaging?

    Kind regards
    Renni

    ReplyDelete
  17. Dear Saket

    I would like to know the kind of jobs that are available currently in the VAS space for a marketing guy. I am interested in the telecom industry and exploring options.

    Regards,
    Ameya

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi Saket,
    I am a Telecom Manger from Pune. I am working under a brand name called LOOP TELECOM. I want to know about recent trends of MVAS in Indian telecom Industry. plz send me appt data on this .
    my id:- rakeshs_ictm@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete