'We aim to bring more mobility and youth-centric programs to the world' - Jatin Ahluwalia CEO, vRock Mobile

What is the current market share of your company? How has your company performed with respect to your competitors in the last fiscal?

In the last two years of its existence, vRock Mobile has managed to bag a place amongst the top VAS companies in India and continues to enjoy an enviable market leadership especially in the content and media space. Our consistent efforts at building efficiencies and competencies have set a benchmark for the industry.

How has vRock grown in the Indian VAS space?

We have had a very good experience when it comes to delivering the sports updates on the mobile devices. We aim at bringing more mobility and youth-centric programs to the world. Along with bringing the sports on the mobile screens, we want the users to enjoy the same. We truly want to innovate and bring something new to the subscribers.

In terms of innovation, what are your key achievements?

Amongst several properties that vRock has built, celebrity fan engagement as a concept has been a key achievement. Allowing common people the once in a lifetime opportunity to interact with larger-than-life celebrities, the integrated program is extremely popular. Covering celebrities from all genres from sports to entertainment to television to faith and devotion, the service offers different strokes for different folks.

What kind of investments are you planning in India?

The contribution of voice VAS at vRock is currently large. The focus is to make the paradigm shift from voice to data.

vRock got the IPL rights this year. What was the user response?

vRock in partnership with IPL made out to huge global cross-section of its fans on a real-time basis and engage them in various activities including score and match-day updates, mobile SMS and MMS contests, live audio mobile commentary, and regular alerts. All of which marks a new chapter in terms of convergence of IPL content onto the mobile phone and to an enhanced fan experience.

The consumer response was overwhelming. We send lot many live score alerts (subscriptions & on-demand); SMS contests including daily contests and through the IPL 2010 season, not to mention live in-stadia SMS contests. Fans also experienced live mobile commentary with contests over an interactive voice response (IVR) system using the latest mobile telephony technology.

Also the fans were to get the latest IPL news through SMS subscriptions and also get post-match party gossip, match statistics, and loads of MMS pictures, exciting content.

The VAS players need to delink partially from the operator and start focusing on non-operator business in a big way. Have you planned any application on those lines?

We have been building competencies over the past several months to allow us to derisk revenues being solely dependant on operator billing. That said, operator billing plays a vital role in the current business scenario. However the business model is aptly set to change to a direct to consumer offering.

What are the challenges that the VAS industry is facing at large? Please elaborate.

The industry will witness a big shift thanks to the rollout of 3G services. In an intensely competitive market, with a big concern for operators being driving cost efficiencies, ensuring revenue growth, and building customer engagement. Consumers are demanding relevant, timely, and personalized VAS services with expectations of consistent levels of service.

What is your strategy to overcome the challenge of price sensitiveness in the Indian Market?

There are several models that can work here with the most effect and are consumer friendly being a free-to-consumer concept. This requires a huge shift in orientation from charging a consumer. We are also exploring several such opportunities that allow us to make this shift and are confident of building a robust revenue channel.