VAS company OnMobile Global launches ONMO, its B2C sound-based communications brand

By Nandita Singh

BENGALURU: Onmobile Global, the telecom value-added-service (VAS) company, today launched ONMO – its new consumer brand setting future direction for Onmobile in the burgeoning app economy.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company has identified sound-based communication as its core USP, and its products under brand ONMO will reach directly to consumers with this value proposition.

” We have launched our own consumer brand, which will symbolize the sound of connection between billions of people across the globe. Under this new identity, our new generation of apps will enable consumers to express themselves, discover, and create new audio, using the power of sound in a manner never done before,” said Rajiv Pancholy, MD& CEO, OnMobile Global. He presented the sonic signature for ONMO and the new identity for OnMobile’s consumer business to a cross section of mediapersons and audience from industry verticals in a unique sound-based presentation.

The app available for download on Android and iPhone smartphones has many unique features. It literally sets the user free to discover, create and communicate using sounds. It allows sharing within popular apps lending expression to the creation. It even allows sharing just a part of the song in a jiffy, a feature that a number of users are bound to appreciate and which could make it hugely popular – speeding adoption.

OnMobile RBT (ring-back-tone) the company’s bread-and-butter paid subscriber-base is over 79 million, globally. The company has seen some tough times with contraction in VAS revenues and low performance after its top leadership stepped down in 2012 post corporate governance issues.

Pancholy, who took charge sometime in June 2014, had been working at steering the company in new direction. While he is yet to make public more on the ONMO strategy, going forward, he and OnMobile investors have placed their confidence in reaching out to consumers with a suite of apps based on sound, and expect the move to put OnMobile in top league in the app economy.

Making its new offering wholesome, OnMobile is also re-aligning its Corporate Social Responsibility program with its vision of sound as an important and essential form of communication. It will fund, directly and through an NGO, the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of children suffering from hearing impairments. The funding will cover the cost of free surgeries, cochlear implants, and hearing aids, to the underprivileged, with a special focus on children.

In its VAS business, at the beginning of 2016, OnMobile had bagged a three-year RBT deal from Indian telco RCom and its arrangement with BSNL was also renewed for three years. Recently, it bagged Airtel western circles as well to become Airtel’s largest RBT partner, almost doubling its Airtel subscriber reach from 60 million to 115 million.

However, the way telcos or enterprises fit into the OnMobile diversified model is yet to emerge. According to Pancholy, this particular ONMO offering is B2C focused.

The company delivers over 500 million music plays daily to its customers worldwide and has an addressable base of 1.5 billion mobile users, globally.