'NexGTV has 30-40% growth on a month-on-month basis' - GD Singh executive director, Digivive Services India

Why did Media Matrix Worldwide venture into mobile value added service. How did Digivive emerge?
We anticipated tremendous opportunities to emerge in the data VAS space, as telecom operators had been investing heavily on 2G and 3G spectrum auction though it was high priced. And Media Matrix intended to tap this data space, we launched Digivive which purely focuses on data VAS ecosystem 2 years back. Entertainment is big in India and people showed great interest; it made us ponder on that entertainment would generate huge traffic. In line with it, we started working on video aggregation platform and created a wonderful user interface. We refer to it as a pocket DTH. We invested nearly $20 to 25 mn to set up a network operation center in Gurgaon. We launched our flagship product, NexGTV.

What is your comment on financial stability in the Indian VAS market vis-a-vis global?
As known, Indian VAS market has 80:20 revenue share between operators and VAS players. While in several other markets, there is 50:50 revenue sharing model. Indian operators are picking higher shares of revenue, to sustain their growth, due to the dwindling ARPUs. There has been an auto adjustment with VAS players. Huge volumes are helping them to survive in the Indian market despite the low ARPUs.

If we consider the absolute revenue terms, the scenario looks decent but the percentage is lopsided. While the prominent players like YouTube, iPhone tunes, and Google offer 70:30 revenue share if an app generates traffic. I believe things will change in India over a period of time as operators are bound to offer better revenue share for VAS players. At present, we are in talks with a large operator and they will provide us a very good revenue share and it is drastically different from the present model. But now, we cannot disclose anything about the deal.

Currently, entertainment is driving the VAS market, will this trend continue in the future? What is your perspective on utility based VAS offerings?
In India entertainment related value added services has created huge volumes and low ARPUs. With data pipes getting robust, other utility based services will emerge slowly. But unfortunately it is bound to generate low volumes, while it will generate high ARPUs. In developed markets like US and Europe, utility apps are gaining traction; it would take some more time in India.

The Indian VAS market is over relying on texting and ringtones...what is your view?
Ringback tone is something that clicked in India. This is quite prevalent in South East Asian markets but not in European and the US markets; we do not see these VAS as dominant there. Going forward when 3G and 4G stabilizes, lot of data based VAS like gaming, commerce and health will be topline to the operators and VAS companies. Europe had 3G networks in 2005-06. Unlike India which postponed 3G to 2010. If we study those markets, other data VAS are playing a major role in supplementing their voice revenues.

How is the response for your flagship product NexGTV; what is its USP?
Our flagship application, NexGTV is very user friendly. It is not just a mobile application; it is an experience which lets the user experience the power of mobile in hand. The app has crossed over a million downloads and it offers high-quality Live TV and video viewing for both 2G and 3G networks. This includes channels like Star TV, AajTak, NDTV, Pogo, Cartoon Network, BBC and many others with features like full viewing, on-screen controls, Picture in Picture mode, etc.
The app works perfectly well on legacy networks. We also have a service center to support our consumers. We offer email option as well. And we have been rated very high. We have received fairly decent responses—currently, we have got 3.7 mn downloads. We see 19,000 downloads every day. There is a growth of 30 to 40% on a month-on-month basis. It is really a positive trend.

What are your plans for the next 2 years?
We are planning to foray into other areas of data VAS ecosystem. We will announce a utility based service in the next couple of months.