New TRAI guidelines to affect VAS providers
- Category: VAS
- Monday, 12 September 2011 10:55
- Written by MobiGyaan Team
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had proposed directives to service providers on the procedure for providing Value Added Services (VAS) to users in a move to protect the interest of consumers in the month of July. According to the proposals, the service providers needed to obtain confirmation from the consumer through SMS or e-mail or in writing within 24-hours of activation of the VAS.
The service providers should charge the consumer only if they receive a confirmation from them. And in any case if a confirmation is not received then the service should be discontinued immediately. However, the service providers feel that such directives are not consumer friendly and this may also result in a loss of Rs.1,500 crore to the government, besides affecting a Rs. 10,000 crore industry that employs over 12,000 people.
Sources say that if this proposal is implemented, it will also deny the customers their right to consume entertainment as they wish to, as they’ll have to send a confirmation to the provider of a service every month.
Jatin Ahluwalia, the founder of vRock Mobile, a VAS provider said that this move will impact the mobile content industry adversely, as content providers invest to bring VAS and utility services to mobile users while on the move.
Source
IMImobile ties up with Krishcricket.com for global 'cricketainment' on mobile
- Category: VAS
- Friday, 04 February 2011 10:53
- Written by Puneet Jain
IMImobile announced its strategic partnership with krishcricket.com to provide cricketing services through operators across the globe. Founded by former Indian cricket team captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Krishcricket.com is a entertainment service provider in multiple platforms like mobile, web and IVR. Krishnamachari Srikkanth, said "Keeping in tune with modern trends and the panache of the youth to adhere to modern gadgets, we have made the Mobile as the primary tool to reach out to cricket lovers across the globe. We understand how strong the craze is and hence we decided to partner with IMImobile with their world class technology platforms having presence across the globe and primarily all cricketing countries during this cricket season. This gives us the platform through which we can offer our interesting mobile based entertainment services to all cricket lovers over SMS, USSD, IVR, WAP & 3G."
He added, "Cricket is a game of thrill and fun that has swayed the entire world. Youngsters are passionate about watching cricket matches. The hangover remains even after the match is over. Understanding the aura of the game, Krichcricket.com has been developing various innovative services for mobile users in the form of high adrenaline mobile games, Golden Moments of cricket simulations, video and audio clips, various SMS services, IVR services, contests and chat shows by Krishcricket."
“Krishnamachari Srikkanth is a respected authority, Former India Cricket Captain and a member of the 1983 World Cup Winning Team. He has brought in a lot of innovative and interesting web and mobile based services in cricket so that cricket lovers can remain glued to their passion,” said Vishwanath Alluri, Founder and Chairman, IMImobile “Mobile is one screen that remains with the user for the maximum time in a day and now with the advent of 3G the engagement is all set to leapfrog to a new level with various innovative services. IMImobile realises the potential in this genre of services and hence through this partnership we strengthen our sport credentials across the globe. This reflects our appetite to provide innovative and exciting services to our customers. I am sure operators will be immensely benefitted with Krishcricket.com’s exciting offerings to lure the cricket aficionados across the globe.”
IMImobile launches Make My Tunes service
- Category: VAS
- Monday, 24 January 2011 10:38
- Written by Puneet Jain
IMImobile has launched an innovative service ‘Make My Tunes’ on its industry leading RBT platform. The service has been launched by Aircel as ‘Dialer Tune – Song Edit’. Aircel customers in Chennai & Tamilnadu circle can dial 5300053 and select their favorite section of the song as their RBT.The same service can be made available to operators across the country. This service enables users to listen to a full song and choose any part of the song as their RBT. Additionally, this gives users the option to download the selected part of the song as Ringtone or dedicate the song to friends, providing a unified music experience to consumers. This service can replace the conventional IVR based music services like Music on Demand, RBT discovery portal & Ringtone portals.
This service can be offered to any operator as a stand-alone service connected to their existing RBT platform over standard integrations.
The market size for RBT in India is approximately Rs 2200 cr and growing at a fast pace. Further Mobile Radio and Music on Demand form another Rs 2000 cr of potential market. MVAS has witnessed unprecedented growth during these times of cut throat competition among telecom service providers and will continue its growth path.
IMIMobile CEO Vishwanath Alluri is one of the 50 most important people in Mobile content
- Category: VAS
- Monday, 17 January 2011 20:21
- Written by Ajit Pillai
The list of 50 most important people in Mobile Content is compiled every new year by Mobile Entertainment, it consists of all the people who make a difference in the mobile content space. Nomintations are done from hundreds of mobile influencers and industry figures and then this list finally comes down to fifty most important people . Alluri is listed among Steve Jobs and Andy Rubin from Google.Vishwanath Alluri and SS Bhat founded IMImobile in 1999 and have introduced ‘Managed Service Model ’ which offers end to end technology and operational solutions to that allows mobile operators to deliver innovation and generate additional revenues. ImImobile’s ESP powers a broad range of managed services to more than 100 operators and blue-chip enterprise customers in more than 70 countries around the world.
IMImoblie’s technology enables the customers to quickly launch compelling new services the result of this technology decreases the cost of the customers.
You can check out the full list of Mobile Entertainment Website at http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/the-top-50-top-execs-in-mobile-content-2
Mauj Mobile acquires Mobango social mobile application store
- Category: VAS
- Monday, 16 August 2010 14:10
- Written by Puneet Jain
Mauj Mobile, People Group's Mobile VAS company has announced that it has acquired UK based Mobango, one of the world’s largest independent mobile application and User Generated content store.With the advent of 3G and availability of feature rich smart phones at low prices in India Mauj expects consumption of data-based services to increase significantly. This deal will allow Mauj to provide its partners, in India and abroad, a wider array of applications and content for their customers whilst further consolidating its foothold in the telecom managed services space.
Mobango has customers worldwide across all geographies with a big proportion of customers also from India. All downloads on Mobango are free for its end consumers. Mobango has served over 750 million downloads and currently generates in excess of 300 million downloads per annum to their customers. Mobango has one of the largest developer communities in the world who upload a large number of mobile applications to its store every single day.
Commenting on this development, Mr. Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO, People Group said, “Mauj was founded with a vision of providing compelling content and applications over the mobile internet. Mobango's acquisition is another step in that direction. Mobango is a pioneer of the rapidly growing Pay Per Download (PPD) business model and is one of the world's largest independent app-store, so we are obviously very excited to round off our Applications, Content & Communities offering.”
Mr. Fabio Pezzoti, Founder Mobango said, "We are delighted to have concluded the transaction with Mauj Mobile, a leading Mobile VAS company in the fastest growing telecom market in the world. With Mauj and Mobango coming together, customers and partners of both the companies will benefit through a broader choice of products and services.”
Muzicall and IMImobile entered into strategic partnership
- Category: VAS
- Friday, 09 July 2010 09:48
- Written by Puneet Jain
Muzicall, one of the provider of Ringback Tone (RBT) services in Europe, has announced a new strategic partnership with IMImobile. Muzicall and IMImobile will join forces to foster new Ringback Tone business opportunities and accelerate the growth of RBT consumer services throughout Europe. The partnership will draw upon the two companies’ expertise to provide a fully managed service to mobile operators through a mix of innovative technology and marketing. The aim will be to maximise consumer adoption as well as facilitate improved discovery through new channels such as enabling off-deck sales of Ringback Tones.“In many ways Muzicall and IMImobile offer complementary RBT services so it makes sense for the two companies to work together to grow the European Ringback Tone market,” said Patrick Allainguillaume, CEO of Muzicall. “IMImobile has excellent experience in developing successful Ringback Tone technology. There is a huge opportunity in Europe, with only two percent of mobile phone users owning Ringback Tones whereas in regions such as India that number is above 25 percent.”
“We look forward to partnering with Muzicall to repeat the success in Europe that RBT services have had across the rest of the world. With the right focus, IMImobile believes RBT services can be a valuable revenue generator for European operators as a standalone service or as part of a complete music lifestyle solution encompassing full-track music, social networking and personalisation content,” said Vishwanth Alluri. CEO and Chairman of IMImobile. “IMImobile’s flexible technology and experience, gained from over 21 RBT deployments, alongside Muzicall’s fully managed RBT service expertise and marketing knowledge, will prove a compelling proposition for operators keen to explore new revenue sources.”
Netcore launches MyToday, India's Biggest SMS SuperStore
- Category: VAS
- Tuesday, 29 June 2010 12:48
- Written by Puneet Jain
Netcore, the company behind MyToday Free SMS alerts today announced the launch of India's Biggest SMS SuperStore. There are about 200 SMS Channels for the users to choose from. Unlike, MyToday's Free SMS Alerts these premium channels are completely ad free.The price of these premium channels is as low as Rs. 5/month.The Premium SMS channels are divided into various categories like News, Astrology, Bollywood, Sports, Health, Business, Jokes etc. As a promotional offer MyToday SMS SuperStore is offering 30 Free Credits worth Rs. 30. To get these Free Credits SMS 'PAL' TO 09212-012345
Mr. Rajesh Jain, Founder and Managing Director of Netcore Solutions Pvt Ltd said, "Today, we have launched MyToday, our direct-to-consumer store for great SMS content. Think of MyToday as an SMS Store, where you can browse, search and subscribe to premium SMS updates on topics spanning the spectrum. At nearly 200 SMS channels, it is already the biggest in the market.
News, cricket and sports scores, market and stock alerts, Bollywood news, astrology and other updates start at just Rs. 5 per month - these are unmatched prices today.
And that’s not all: MyToday features dozens of other SMS channels you won’t find anywhere else - industry sector-wise alerts, leadership lessons, daily muhurta alerts, world affairs, politics, how to live green, among many others. All of these are via our best-in-class content partners: Rajshri Media, MyIris, The Economist, Knowledge@Wharton, AstroCAMP. We will introduce more over the next few weeks."
Check out MyToday SMS SuperStore at http://mytoday.com. Read FAQs here.
If you are intrested in receiving Mobile related content visit http://mytoday.com/store/products/MTDY-MOBILE
The subscription rate of these SMS channels is very low as compared to the similar services offered by providers of premium SMS channles. What do you think about Netcore's MyToday SMS SuperStore? Share your views.
IMImobile launches 'Cell Shakti' for Rural India
- Category: VAS
- Friday, 25 June 2010 14:05
- Written by Puneet Jain
IMImobile has launched “Cell Shakti”, a specialized mobile VAS offering for Rural India. Cell Shakti helps overcome the information constraints of rural India and strives to contribute towards empowering people with the right tools on the mobile device thus enabling them to make informed decisions. It provides information primarily on IVR based services which include Weather Info, Health Care, Mandi Bhav, Educational Info and Information . for the benefit of the rural mass in India. As of now this service is available only for Airtel (Andhra Pradesh) subscribers at a charge of Re. 1 per day. Airtel (Andhra Pradesh )Subscribers can call 52345006 to subscribe to Cell Shakti. User can also listen to the live updates in Telugu on their mobile by dialing 52345006.
IMImobile is planning to work with other operators and in others circles as well.
Madhavan Iyer, Vice President Managed Services of IMImobile, speaking on the launch of Cell Shakti said, “Through Cell Shakti we plan to inform, empower and help bridge the digital divide in the rural markets. By giving reliable and comprehensive information on mobile on the key aspects of rural life, we aim to improve lifestyle productivity and earnings of the rural people. We strongly believe that with Cell Shakti services, we would be contributing in a small way towards empowerment of the rural population in India. Through our rural initiative we are in the plans to roll-out various other segmented services very soon”
vRock Mobile bags exclusive “Mobile Rights” for the Asia Cup
- Category: VAS
- Tuesday, 15 June 2010 16:18
- Written by Puneet Jain
vRock Mobile Communication has bagged the mobile rights for the Asia Cup Cricket Tournament scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka from June 15th to June 24th 2010, comprising seven international one day cricket matches between India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. A long term partner for IPL, vRock bags the rights for Asia Cup till 2014.vRock Mobile has acquired the rights from Nimbus Sports via Offspin Sports & Entertainment thus further strengthening its mobile cricket portfolio in addition to IPL. The rights are applicable across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
vRock will provide live score alerts through multiple delivery channels like USSD and SMS, Live Video Streaming, Video Clips, IVR with English commentary from Nimbus Sports, Mobile Games, WAP and Mobile Internet etc. These rights are conferred across CDMA/GSM/WAP/EDGE/3G and all other standards of mobile/wireless communications along with engagement through mobile contest.
vRock has partnered with following technology companies
- Vuclip to power mobile video search
- India Games for WAP deployment and Mobile Games based on Asia Cup
Mr Jatin Ahluwalia, CEO, vRock Mobile Communications said, “Through partnering with Asia Cup, we have taken our association with mobile cricket to the next level. Beginning with a long association with IPL we are now excited to be associated with Asia Cup till 2014. This is an excellent platform for vRock Mobile to offer some truly unique services to the cricket fans around the subcontinent. We promise to deliver to Cricket and Asia Cup fans an exhilarating, enhanced and rich user experience on their mobile handsets anytime, anywhere, on the move.”
Nazara brings Archie Comic Strips in Indian languages on mobiles
- Category: VAS
- Friday, 05 March 2010 16:47
- Written by Puneet Jain
Millions of Archie comics fans have a reason to smile extra as Nazara Technologies is introducing the all time favorite Archie comic strips in vernacular languages, for mobile users in India.You can download Archie comic strips in their choice of language by using your GPRS connection at varied price points from Re.1 per day, Rs.10 per week and Rs.30 per month depending on your operator.
Commenting on the release of Archie’s Comic games, Mr. Nitish Mittersain, CEO, Nazara Technologies said, “Archie comics has not lost its popularity in the last sixty years.Even today there are about a million copies of the Archie comic sold every month. With Archie comic strips being made available on mobile the reader will not have to wait for months to see what happens next. We are adding value to the comic’s portfolio by bringing their much-loved Archie comics out in regional Indian languages”.
