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Follow UsMUMBAI, INDIA: The Mobile VAS market has a potential to generate over Rs. 55,000 crore, says a recent PwC report titled Value Added Service: The Next Wave.
With BWA and 3G network roll outs, speed that so long has been a deterrent for overall VAS adoption, is now a key enabler that will drive adoption of VAS. It is now time for India to evolve from the well established Mobile Messaging and commoditised voice play to focus on customer segmentation based data play.
On the potential of VAS, Sivarama Krishnan, Executive Director — Consulting, PwC India said “India has very diverse consumer segment based on socio, economic, cultural and linguistic diversity. The diversity, coupled with a young and increasingly affluent population and the fact that India is yet to reach its potential when it comes to broadband penetration are all strong indicators that Mobile VAS has a huge potential. We expect India to set benchmarks on VAS just as it did in the pure voice segment.”
The key findings of the report are as highlighted below:
Communication VAS Services: Video Calls, MMS and Email will be the key drivers for the communication VAS services. The total revenue from communication services is expected to cross Rs. 20,000 crore by 2015. SMS will contribute 72 per cent of this revenue.
Entertainment VAS Services: There is a growing demand for entertainment services which will be adopted by masses. The users are willing to pay most for entertainment services as compared to all other categories of VAS. The total revenues from entertainment services is expected to reach 25,000 crore by 2015
Information based VAS: News updates and medical services over mobile, etc would also see uptake in the next 3-5 years. The total revenue from information services is expected to cross 7,900 crore by 2015.
Transactional VAS Services: Appetite for transactional services is going to remain low. Average awareness of transaction services is 69 per cent with future adoption levels of 39 per cent. Transactional VAS services have the potential to contribute nearly Rs 1,600 crore as revenue by 2015 provided operators and banks successfully respond to challenges of concerns of users around data privacy, usability and language independence of the applications.
PwC undertook a detailed and wide scale market research with the objective of understanding the behaviour of Indian mobile subscribers towards VAS and off take of services in future. The research focused on urban India (wherein respondents were spread across different Socio Economic Classes (SEC), age groups, education, backgrounds, working status) and it covers 1050 respondents across 10 cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Kolkata.