Mobile VAS subscribers in India – Insights/Prediction

April 21, 2009

By sinha

[Guest article contributed by Vital Analytics, Bangalore based market research firm focused on telecom space.]

Invention of cellular technologies and its evolution is the biggest boon to mankind. Telecommunication industry is growing at a rapid rate. There are 3.3 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, out of which ~ 375 million mobile subscribers are Indian. Over 350 billion text messages are exchanged across the world every month.
Ever since cellular world came into existence, there has been continuous innovation around cellular services. Today, mobile phones have moved beyond their primary role of voice communications and have graduated to become an essential entertaining device for mobile users. We are in an era where users purchase mobile phones not just to be in touch with people, but use it to express their thoughts, for social networking, to show their interests, send photos, download images, play games, read news, surf on the Internet, listen to music, chat instantly with friends & families and even check their bank balances. Thanks to new and innovative services been offered by Mobile VAS providers on continuous basis.

What is Mobile VAS?

Mobile value-added services (m-VAS) is the ability for cellular operators and service providers to charge a premium price for the services (beyond voice conversation) they offer to their subscribers (mobile users). Some of the services include: SMS (text messages), MMS (multimedia messages) , USSD (interactive menu based services) ,CRBT (caller ring back tone), video streaming , mobile advertisements, participation in polls and contests, location based services, mCommerce (financial transactions), Instant messaging, Infotainment services (news, weather reports, songs, recipes ), content downloads (wallpapers, screen savers, games, ring tones), down loadable mobile applications.

These are just a few of them which one can imagine at immediate contemplation. List is inexhaustible based on handset compatibilities and customer demands.

Mobile VAS statistics based on demographic and geographic

Early 2009, survey was conducted for mobile users based on various demographics (gender, age, education, income ). Mobile users are spread across all parts of India. Take a look at the summary (statistical reports) of the survey results of two popular services in Mobile VAS: Internet usage and SMS (Voting for TV contests).

Mobile Vas in India - Statistics and Trends

Almost 63 million urban Indians accessed Internet using their phone in February, 2009.
Checking emails and searching information using search engines are the two most popular reason cited by almost 3 in 4 urban Indians.
16 million urban Indians access Internet on their phone almost on a daily basis.

Another report discussed here is ‘SMS voting for TV contests’. Voting in reality TV shows is the most popular contest type urban Indians participate in by sending SMS to preserved short code. 45 million urban Indians mentioned voting in reality TV shows, the most popular SMS contest/vote type followed by voting in news polls (31.64 million).

mobile vas in India - gaming works

Based on many other surveys conducted on various topics, it is noticed that Mobile VAS including services such as music, playing games, surfing Internet for reading news, sports, stocks are more popular amongst men, where as women prefer using their mobile phones for checking emails, downloading ringtones,wallpapers, browsing Internet through search engines for food services. It is the younger group .i.e. between 20-25 age group of mobile users who like downloading games and ringtones most.

Regular surveys and market research provide service providers, insight about the group of mobile users to target before launching any campaign.

Prediction of mobile VAS in India

Mobile interconnected industries are every day coming up with fresh and ground – breaking mobile technologies. Mobile VAS accounts to 10-12% of the total telecom revenues. Over 375 million mobile subscribers in India, out of which 8-10% of the total mobile subscribers are expected to be GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) subscribers as well.
At present CRBT download and SMS (A2P) mobile VAS seems most popular amongst mobile users. With the launch of 3G services (faster data speed) in India, games download, video streaming, mCommerce, mobile blogs and mobile chat is expected to grow in future. As per TRAI predictions, mobile VAS revenue growth contributing to telecommunication industry is expected to grow to 30% in next 5-7 years, which is way beyond the current contribution of 10-12%. Many experts are predicting mobile VAS in India to be 1 billion USD market by 2010. Let us wait to watch, what is there for Mobile VAS service providers in 2010.

Do you agree with the above finding? Share your opinion.

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Tags: hot, Indian Telecom Industry, indian telecom market, market report, mobile vas in india, mobile vas industry india

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Author

akshat on April 21, 2009 at 1:38 pm

some interesting stats – thanks to the author

lets hope these numbers stick

Saurabh Garg on April 21, 2009 at 4:49 pm

Mails to their contact person (nmenon@vitalanlytics.in) are bouncing!

Kavya on April 21, 2009 at 9:26 pm

Hi Saurabh,

Its is nmenon@vitalanalytics.net

regards,
-Kavya

Ankesh Kothari on May 12, 2009 at 2:03 pm

I hate prediction notices. Hate them with a passion. Because as far as I know – not a single prediction notice by a research agency has come up to be entirely correct.

The world doesn’t run on linear statistics.

I recently heard that one of the co-founders of Twitter is working on an app which makes mobile banking very easy. Something similar to PayPal – but for iphones and mobiles.

Something like that comes into the picture and the data the research company used is valueless. Its similar to going through a prediction written by someone in 1901 that says how many horse buggies will sell in the next 100 years. He was off by a lot.

The future can be built on the past. But it can’t be predicted on the past.

Anyways I’ll stop my rant. And just leave with a recommendation: all the agencies and companies that write prediction reports – please read the book “Black Swan”

Conversations with Dina » links for 2009-05-12 on May 12, 2009 at 11:37 pm

[...] Mobile VAS subscribers in India – Insights/Prediction | link via @asfaq "Mobile VAS Statistics : India * Almost 63 million urban Indians accessed Internet using their phone in February, 2009. * Checking emails and searching information using search engines are the two most popular reason cited by almost 3 in 4 urban Indians. * 16 million urban Indians access Internet on their phone almost on a daily basis. [...]

alekhya on May 25, 2009 at 4:54 pm

one simple fact that finds resonance with the thoughts portrayed in this article is the minute observation of Zoo Zoo ad-s.

The ad series is by now a phenomenon-but a closer look will reveal that 80% of the ad-s of the series focus on Vodafone’s VAS services.This shows how the player is focusing on the VAS aspect of its business.

Facty on May 25, 2009 at 6:48 pm

alekhya

you say that a closer look will reveal that 80% of zoozoo ads are VAS oriented, but let me correct you, all zoozoo ads on air these days are aimed at promoting VAS services.

One more thing, if it took a highly knowledgeable tech savvy person like you (which i assume you must be), to have a closer look in order to figure out that these ads are VAS oriented, then God save the vodafone guys, who must have spent millions of dollars on these ads and still a greater portion of direct TG must not be knowing what these ads promote, even though they may have liked the ads.