'Price is not that matters, but value'

BANGALORE, INDIA: For companies aiming to be successful with new products in market, experts had a piece of advice: Introduce disruptive service and then work in the background to make it acceptable by the masses.

"More than price of a product it's the value that matters most. To be successful, an entrepreneur should constantly think of innovations, including billing and pricing innovations," opined Ashwin Mahesh, CEO, Mapunity, who moderated a panel discussion - 'Building a product eco-system that addresses the millions of India', during the second day of NASSCOM Product Conclave and Expo 2009 here on Wednesday.

There have been many good products that were introduced into the market but failed. They have just failed because they lacked good model to impress the customers, he reasoned.

Joining Mahesh, Krishna Durbha, head - Mobile VAS, Reliance Communications, noted that the consumption of VAS  has been almost the same in urban and rural areas of India with music and caller ring tones being the key drivers. Perhaps, it is the understanding of  customer preference and affordability that has made VAS service popular with rural subscribers.

"Moving further, the VAS industry needs to introduce more and more services to meet the customer expectation. One of the strong reasons for people looking at unique VAS services is, because of the still backward Internet ecosystem in the country and increasing penetration of mobile services in rural areas of India," Durbha felt.

Stressing on the need for creating a positive ecosystem for development in the country, Meenakshi Sundaram of IDG Venture Capital stressed on the need for the academia to take up real-life projects and broadband roll out in the country. Referring to the delay in the 3G actions he said that the government without any further delay in auction of 3G Services and leave the market  to decide the price.

Sundaram said that despite the constraints, a positive atmosphere has been created with the increasing penetration of mobile services and dip in prices of laptops and netbooks. Now there is a need to provide broadband connectivity and build the market further.

Another panelist, Sanjay Sinha, CEO, MCril, strongly advocated the need to make loans available at affordable interest rates.

“The interest rates for borrowing a few thousands of rupees in India is higher that borrowing big amounts due to the interest pattern of the banks. The higher interest rates is keeping the masses away from most products and thereby creating a negative eco system,” he opined.