The Next Big Wave

At a time when the mobile industry is poised for the next big wave-Mobile
Value Added Services (MVAS)-and the revenue-sharing concern between operators
and VAS companies is becoming serious, the first international conference on
COMmunication Systems and NETworks (COMSNETS) Business 2009 along with Mobile
Monday (MoMo) Bangalore chapter provided a platform to discuss some issues. How
will the operators earn more revenue from VAS? What is in it for entrepreneurs
and software developers? Will the buzz on mobile VAS ever take off in India? And
much more.

The event brought together a set of entrepreneurs, operators, mobile VAS
providers and venture capitalists to address the important issues and nurture
ideas on the future of mobile VAS in India with the theme titled “Mobile Value
Added Services (VAS) in India and Everywhere”, at the Chancery Pavillion,
Bangalore, on January 6, 2009.

In his keynote speech, Marc Naddell, VP, partner and developer program,
NAVTEQ, Marc Naddell, highlighting the power of Location Based Services (LBS)
said, “LBS allows your mobile phone to find buddies near you in the mall; locate
and alert if your teenage son speeds the car at more than 125 kmph; and alerts
if your school going daughter does not return home from school on time.”

COMSNETS Business featured three sessions with well-known panelists. The
first session focused on 'Mobile VAS in Enterprise', in which experts discussed
the new types of enterprise services being ported on to mobile platforms. While
discussing the enterprise mobile platforms developed by firms such as Mobien
Technologies and SAP Labs (SAP NetWeaver platform), Ashish Gupta, the managing
director of Helion Ventures said, “It is important to separate the generic
platform for providing mobile VAS and the individual customized applications for
a specific type of mobile service. In both cases, it is important to remember
that larger the potential uses of the platform/application, more attractive it
will be for investors and venture funds to be interested in providing financial
support for their development”.

Deliberating on the Future of VAS: (L to R) Dippak Khurana, VP, content business, Mauj; Pratab Bernard, head of marketing and product management, OnMobile; Krishna Durbha, head, VAS, business and marketing application; and the moderator V Sridhar, visiting research fellow, Sasken Communication Technologies

Panelists in the second session discussed on the theme titled “Mobile VAS in
Entertainment.” Pratapa Bernard, head, marketing and products, OnMobile said,
“The telecom environment and customers in India are very different from other
countries. When voice SMS was launched in India by firms such as Kirusa, it was
a big hit while the same did not happen at all in the US and European
countries.”

Krishna Durbha, head, VAS, business and marketing application, Reliance
Communications elaborated on the huge opportunity for MVAS in India saying, “The
quality and amount of mobile VAS in India is comparable to the rest of the
world. It will certainly peak in the near future with appropriate revenue models
and deployment of sophisticated billing platforms.”

Dippak Khurana, vice president, content business, Mauj, discussed why piracy
is not a big issue for mobile music/video services as the users in India, even
in rural areas, are concerned about quality and are willing to pay for the wide
selection of content offered by the VAS provider.

The last session focused on “Mobile VAS in Location Based Services (LBS) and
Other Emerging Areas (OEA)” and started with Karthee Madasamy, director for
India investments, Qualcomm Ventures laying down the scope and evolution of LBS.
The panel included Srinivas Gopal, general manager, marketing VAS, Idea
Cellular; Rohan Verma, director, MapmyIndia; Ashwin Mahesh, founder member,
Mapunity; Mar Naddell, VP, partner and developer program, NAVTEQ; Raghu Srivthsa,
managing partner, Ojas Ventures; and Sumanth Vepa, business program manager,
Yahoo!

The Entrepreneurs' Demo Showcase was the highlight of the day, where young
entrepreneurs demonstrated their new products and services in the mobile VAS
space.

Kannan K

kannan@cybermedia.co.in