Interview: 'We aim to bring value to all the micro segments'

In which regions do you plan to expand your services other than Singapore
and Australia?

Outside India, we have already launched our services in Indonesia. It will
be followed by the launch in Pakistan. We are also in discussion with four other
countries including those in the Middle East, Europe and the US, which will be
initiated when deals would be signed for the same. But our focus is to grow
internationally. Secondly, in India we have signed up with every operator except
Aircel.

What services do you plan to provide?

We had started voice services that involve voice portal and ring back tones
as our main product line. We would now be expanding into WAP. Then we have a
long line of products including m-advertising, direct marketing. We will also
launch voice chat. Voice SMS has been launched recently in India, so we are
expanding our bouquet of services.

Having received funding of $30 mn, what are your plans now?

We would continue with the expansion. Importantly, we invest in research and
development, more than any other company in our space. So we invest very heavily
because we are not looking at it as a one year thing, but we look at it as
growth in the next three to four years.

Onmobile is a value added services company that spun out of Infosys Technologies in 2000. OnMobile offers MMP2500 multimodal platform that provides an integrated mobile applications environment integrating SMS, WAP and voice interactivity. In an interview with VOICE&DATA, Arvind Rao, CEO and co-founder of the company, talks about his expansion plans and the services on offer

You have ventured in the field of m-commerce. How do you see this service
fairing in the regions you operate in, including India?

I feel that m-commerce in the coming five years will be a big market but not
now. It is one of those services, which you need to plant and develop into a
market, just the same way we launched voice portal in 2000-01, and till 2004-05
it was a negligible component. Whereas today, most of the large operators are
making around Rs 15-20 crore a month from it. We need to educate the market
about m-commerce, as it has huge potential. For this we will go in a phased
manner. Initially, we have launched some basic services like ticketing or gifts
on the phone. Later, we can launch complicated transactions and use mobile as a
direct marketing channel. To provide the best price to our consumers, we will
introduce sophisticated payment models based on reverse auction, demand
aggregation.

Why do you focus more on voice, rather than other methods such as SMS?

Couple of reasons! One, the Indian market will touch a figure of 250-300 mn
subscribers in the next two-three years. We are looking for mass-market
services. We are not interested in high-end services that cater to 5-10 mn
people. We want service, which go right down to an auto rickshaw driver or a
farmer. So for these people, talking into the phone is the easiest. Secondly,
around 200 companies in India are playing in the SMS space. It is a pure
commodity. Compared to SMS, voice requires sophisticated technology and a large
amount of capex.

You have a number of multi-modal services. How will multi-modality cater
to the 3G environment?

Multi-modal services will always be a superset of our voice services. We
will open up our services and give the user a choice of medium, be it voice, SMS
or WAP. All our new services are being launched in multi-modal format. 3G is
just going to upgrade these services.

How is mobile content shaping up in India? Do you see it as a channel for
dissemination of information and revenue generation?

Mobile content is a very large segment, the biggest one being music. Music
alone forms 75-80% of the mobile content market. The rest of it is like news,
jokes, horoscope, but these are not very big. In the content space, we are
launching services based on user, generated content etc. Revenues are generally
higher in this area.

What is OnMobile's vision for the future?

We have a vision for India and the rest of the world. As far as India goes,
we want to provide value to as many people as possible through mobile. Our aim
is to bring value to all the micro segments in the country and be a leading
company. We are not here to be number two or number three; we aim to be the
number one VAS company in India.

Sonia Sharma

sonias@cybermedia.co.in