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VAS TOP 10: #10 ACL Mobile - Reborn for Action

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

The forethought on the mobile technology particularly data and innovation at the heart of two tech-entrepreneurs, Sanjay K Goyal and Vineet Jain made a mobile VAS company, ACL Wireless to sprout in 2000 in Noida, India. The company was started with an initial investment of `75 lakh. A decade later, in May 2012 the company rebranded as ACL Mobile to further leapfrog. It unveiled a new logo, tagline, 'Think, Innovate, Lead' and a website as part of its Vision 2020.

The company's innovations bore fruits in October 2001, it got venture capital funding from international investors such as Naspers/MIH Group and Inter-Asia Venture Management. ACL received its first shot of funding from Inter Asia Capital of Hong Kong. A year ago, it received $12.5 mn from MIH Naspers.

Any business or an individual prospers multi-fold only when they open up and move away from the comfort zone. So has been the situation for ACL Mobile also. It has been betting big in the international markets and consequently, it is gaining better margins from there. As of now, it is associated with 26 operators and has over 40 mn registered users internationally. Its key international markets include where Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, and Qatar in the Middle East. India is also one of the potential markets for ACL.

India is contributing 60% of the revenue—the company mentioned that the entire enterprise business is from India and it contributes 10% revenue to its operator business (which is of 50%). As on May 2012, ACL Mobile has over 800 enterprises. It works with bigwigs such as airtel, Reliance, BSNL, Tata, and Idea in India.



MVAS Services

ACL Mobile caters to the needs of both consumers and enterprises. It has 3 prominent business units, viz, telecom operator business, enterprise, and consumers. Operator business aims to increase network usage and operator revenues. For operators it provides services such as SMS chat, messenger, voice chat music on demand, voice portals, mobile social networking, and WAP portals. ACL Mobile helps enterprises to reach out to their target audience through messaging services, bulk SMS, shortcodes/longcodes, out dial, and in dial.

The company provides mobile community applications including SMS chat, voice chat, mobile social networking for consumers. For enterprises, it offers enterprise mobility solutions such as bulk SMS service. In January 2011, it offered Frenzo, mobile social networking application in UAE market. It also unveiled J2ME application named MobApp which virtually ensures bulk message pushing from anyplace, anywhere, anytime, through your cellphone along with mNatives.com.

In March 2011, it joined hands with HDFC bank to offer 'Lead Management Tools'. This service helped to create leads with the help of bank's database using mobile phone. In April 2011, it launched multi-religious portal called 'Shradha Sangrah' in association with airtel. After the rebranding, it launched a new, interactive and informative service, 'Naukri Bazaar', a human-assisted mobile platform for recruitment.



Future Outlook

As part of its Vision 2020, the company intends to invest more on new mobile technologies. It plans to further diversify offerings for each customer segments. It is ambitious to create blockbuster products which can enhance the productivity and profitability of its customers. It is motivating its team to be though leaders in the mobile space. The company is betting big on mobile internet and mobile data as the SMS based services are heading towards saturation.

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