Amatra Paper on Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) Landscape in India

Bangalore, June 25, 2007: Amatra a consulting company focusing on strategic and business innovation consulting for hi-tech hi-growth markets today released a paper titled 'Growth of Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) in India’.

While customer expectations and demand for services including data services and The Indian telecommunications industry, particularly the mobile sector has today emerged as one of the most dynamic business segments in the country. At the same time, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of data, voice and video services, and the use of new, highly capable mobile communications devices. Consequently, service providers are focusing on raising Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) by introducing new composite services as well as reducing costs. Due to this, telecom and cable executives have now started considering the creation of new, high-value services as their primary source of increase in revenue.

other bandwidth hungry applications like video clip, mobile TV, etc are increasing, the service providers are competing with each other to be the first to offer these services. This Amatra paper highlights the ways in which the service providers can overcome this challenge and maximize the revenues.

The paper provides a deep insight into the trends in the mobile Value Added Services (VAS) market in the world, as well as in India. It projects a clear increase in revenues and decrease in customer churn with the growth of VAS. It talks about the surging 3G (third generation technology) markets and the fact that the availability of SMS on all mobile handsets provides a ready platform from which the operators can derive further growth, without the need for added investment in promotion and user education. The paper then talks about the phenomenal growth in the Indian telecom industry and the emergence of VAS.

The paper then discussed how VAS works in India. It highlights challenges such as price wars, decreased Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), developing and marketing the continuity of services and content across different devices like television, computer, telephone and wireless models and challenges faced by service providers in trying to position themselves as both data networks and providers of aggregated content. It explains the current Indian value chain of VAS and points out that a VAS provider can become successful, not necessarily by looking at the mobile VAS market as a whole, but by focusing substantially on the value chain of the content and methods of delivery of the same. It also lists the key elements of this value chain i.e. Network, Individuals, Content Generators and Enterprises.

The next section of the paper delves in detail about the drivers for the growth of VAS in India like the fact that most of the mobile usage is voice-based which encourages even those people to use the service, who are not literate. Other factors such as the entertainment centric content, network services being provided, the untapped rural market and emergence of new avenues like mCommerce are also discussed. The paper also projects content-based services, voice-based services and mobile gaming centric services as the trends in the growth of VAS. It then goes on to categorize the current service providers into Voice Service Providers, Content providers, SMS/Data content providers, Network service providers and Technology providers. This will help the new players in the field to analyze and determine the field they would like to specialize in.

Finally the paper discusses the growth opportunities and challenges to be overcome by the service providers, in order to reap the maximum benefits from the exponentially growing VAS market.

The white paper on ' Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) Landscape in India’ will help service providers identify the revenue potential of value added content services in India. There is unison in the opinion that in a demographic setup like India, the need for greater customer choice and customization is highly critical; in fact regional content is considered as key to the growth of the market. This is highlighted clearly in the white paper.

Please visit the Amatra website www.amatra.in to request a copy of the white paper.

About Amatra:

Amatra provides business design solutions across strategic marketing. Amatra Business Consulting (Amatra) is a consulting company for the hi-tech hi-growth markets. While our customers innovate on technologies, we help them realize the market by catalyzing Business Model Innovation, align Strategy Development & Planning, with Strategic Marketing, Market Planning, Market Communication and by helping manage Customer Buy Cycles. Customers in India are technology innovators that are seeking to be successful in the market and cut market clutter with their products and services; customers in US and Europe use Amatra for market analysis and research. More information about Amatra can be found on www.amatra.in

Contact:
Lillian D’Costa
+91.80.41256367
info@amatra.in


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