Search Results for: The Next Generation of Mobile VAS

One point to note about India is the huge base of feature phones. These are not the smartphone variety with Android, iOS or Blackberry’s operating systems and app stores.  It will take some time before the smartphones reach critical mass. So, in the near-term, the opportunity is not as much on apps but on delivering … Continue reading The Next Generation of Mobile VAS – Part 5

What will this new generation of MVAS look like? What can enable this world faster? To answer these questions, it is instructive to look at what happened in Japan’s mobile space in 1999. That was when NTT Docomo, the largest mobile operator, launched i-mode. It did three things: opened up its platform to all software … Continue reading The Next Generation of Mobile VAS – Part 3

For the next-generation of MVAS to flourish in India, it is important to add a capability of micro-billing of consumers. This removes the dependency on advertising as the only source of revenue for content and service creators. As we have seen from the first generation of MVAS, users have no problems in paying anywhere from … Continue reading The Next Generation of Mobile VAS – Part 4

A new world of mobile data is emerging. It is being driven by the rise of better phones, faster networks and an increasing variety of content applications and mobile internet portals. While India is not the first country to experience this new world, it is unique because it is one of the few countries where … Continue reading The Next Generation of Mobile VAS – Part 1

Given the mobile base of 100 million, the natural question to ask is: what are these users doing? From anecdotal evidence speaking to people, the answer comes down to search, consuming media (songs, videos), and social network use (primarily Facebook). The top sites in India are similar to those elsewhere in the world, if one … Continue reading The Next Generation of Mobile VAS – Part 2

On Friday (August 1), I was part of a panel at an event organized by afaqs – “The Future of News.” My panel’s topic was “Who will subsidise Digital Content?” Here is a gist of what spoke: It’s not about subsidising but about monetisation: Thinking subsidies necessarily implies that the primary source of revenue is … Continue reading News and Content in a Digital World

I wrote a 5-part series earlier in the week. I have put all five articles together in a single post for easier reading. The Shift from Internet 1 (Portals) to Internet 2 (Search) The early days of the Internet were all eyeballs and monetisation via banner (graphical) advertising. The business was about creating portals and … Continue reading Next Mobile Opportunities

One way to think about the opportunities in the mobile space is to think of the mobile as magic lamp. If you could rub it and a genie showed up, what would you ask for? Out of this thinking can emerge ideas for the next-generation of services. Think of moments in our daily lives where … Continue reading Mobile as Magic Lamp

I will be on as a “High Order Bit” on November 5 (Wed) afternoon at the Web 2.0 Summit. Here’s what I’d like to talk/discuss in my 15 minutes: how the digital infra in emerging markets is different from the developed markets,and why I believe the next generation of innovations can come out of countries … Continue reading Web 2.0 Summit and San Francisco in November