Telecom Lead India: Kirusa, a developer of mobile
social media and value added services, is planning to expand in Indian and
African telecom markets. Kirusa has continuously been driven by its motivation
to innovate in mobile applications with over 25 patents in the area of
multimodality and Voice SMS among others.
Inderpal Singh Mumick, founder, chairman& CEO, talks
about future plans and trends in the VAS industry.
What is the current global status of voice blogging
enabled by smart devices?
Affordability of smart phones, better connectivity and
the desire to be connected at all times will fuel voice micro-blogging in
future.
Kirusa gives its users the ability to post the messages
on social media in their own voice and at the same time it offers the ease to
listen, select and post pre-recorded messages. Kirusa is committed to empower
its consumers to make use of its innovations by simplifying the technology so
that those with physical hindrances like speech impairment may also be able to
use voice micro-blogging.
What will be your focus area in future? What are your
future investment and expansion plans?
Kirusa’s mobile services, including Voice SMS service,
mobile social media, and mobile infotainment, have fueled the company’s global
expansion to 30 countries across 4 continents.
With over 20 patents to its credit, Kirusa has
consistently kept pace with changing requirements of consumers’ needs, and the
high adoption of Kirusa services is an affirmation of the same. We shall
continue to consolidate our position in this space across the globe.
We will continue to invest in India & Africa while
expanding further into Latin America and South East Asia. The focus would
continue to be on our core strengths, i.e., mobile messaging and social media
applications powered by smart phones and data services.
What are your go-to-market strategies?
Our list of carriers spread across four continents,
robust platforms, millions of satisfied customers and global R&D footprint
do us apart from our competition. Partnering with the carriers help us reach
mobile subscribers around the world. Our application development partners are
able to offer mobile applications using Kirusa platform.
Share partnerships with service providers and third party
developers, if any.
Kirusa’s solutions include the Kirusa Voice SMS service,
which is being used by over 60 million mobile users around the world every
month. Only this month we registered the milestone of processing 1 billion
calls.
We also provide an open platform with APIs to enable
third parties to offer mobile applications services to mobile subscribers.
Kirusa solutions are built on its patented and patent pending technology and
its reliable and scalable open multimodal platform.
Our platforms deployed with over 30 carriers spread
across 4 continents processed more than 1 billion calls in July 2012. Our
operators include Airtel, Aircel, Bayan Telecom, Claro, ComCel, Eagle
Mobile, Etisalat, Globacom, Grameenphone, Idea Cellular, Loop Mobile, MTN,
Tata, Tigo, Uganda Telecom, Vinaphone, Visafone, VIVA, Vodafone,
Warid, Yu, and Zong.
Our partners, who are integral to our growth, include
Dialogic Corporation, Qualcomm, etc. helping us on the technology front while
SMS One, Starfish Mobile, txt Ghana and others help us with applications and
content.
What are the current trends in the VAS industry? What is
the future for the VAS industry?
The present is exciting and future is full of
possibilities. The telecom sector, which adds an estimated 15 million
subscribers every month in India, is among the most dynamic and VAS today plays
a critical role in it! VAS too has undergone major metamorphosis and today it
no longer only means SMS and 2G. Today it is data intensive and we see a slew
of applications ranging from voice SMS to social networking, multimedia
sharing, video, maps, location finders, news bytes, etc. This new breed of VAS
services would not have been possible but for the introduction of smartphones
and 3G. Application stores too have had major impact and it will continue to
accelerate. The opportunities going ahead are humongous and are driven by the
accelerating adoption of data services, 3G, and smartphones by the Indian
consumer. At the same time, the Telecom Regulatory authority of
India (TRAI) has introduced several regulations to limit the overcharging of
consumers.
Presently the VAS industry in India is estimated to be
around Rs 120-130 billion which is about 12 to 13 per cent of the operators’
total revenues. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that mobile VAS has the
potential to grow more than four times to generate Rs 555 billion by 2015.
While robust 3G and 4G platforms coupled with smarter phones will be key to
this growth, we shall see major uses in the areas of messaging, entertainment,
healthcare, agriculture, and banking. Video on demand too shall be a key
driver.
Also VAS will play a critical role in ARPU turnaround.
Though there has been a dramatic rise in number of subscribers in India,
competition has ensured that the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) remained on a
downward slide. Reports indicate ARPUs declined consistently for the top 15 GSM
circles between December 2009 till March 2011. Carriers pin their hope on VAS
and it shall play an important role.
Africa has seen rapid growth in infrastructure in recent
times. According to estimates, VAS industry is expected to double in value in
next five years. According to one report by Informa Telecoms & Media VAS
market in Africa will grow at a strong compound annual growth rate of around 22
percent and will be generating revenues of over USD 11.5 billion.
With mobile penetration in Africa crossing 60 percent,
mobile maturity will result in price wars in voice resulting in operators
looking for non-voice revenue generating aspects to drive profits.
Danish Khan
[email protected]
