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SIs Enter Appstores

India’s app industry is rapidly growing and has entered into a high dynamic phase. For entrepreneurs, it is a time to open up new revenue streams by going beyond the traditional MVAS.

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Ishleen Kaur
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India’s app industry is rapidly growing and has entered into a high dynamic phase. For entrepreneurs, it is a time to open up new revenue streams by going beyond the traditional MVAS.

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The Indian app market is growing with the invention of new ideas and coming up of new-age entrepreneurs. It is estimated that the market is going to grow with fast pace in the coming time. Some reports say it will grow many folds in coming years. It is a medium that has the highest innovation possibilities and is something people will not be able to ignore.

Current Market

The current MVAS (Mobile Value Added Services) market in India stands at over $4 bn and is likely to be doubled in the next three years. As far as the mobile apps are concerned, market researches prove that the nearly 100 mn apps are downloaded by users in a month, and the number is increasing day by day with the adoption of smartphones. As per Gartner report, the Indian mobile apps market has now reached at around `750 crore, and there will be a steady growth in downloads across various platforms, including Blackberry, iOS, Android and Nokia. Sunil Jasuja, CEO and MD, Levitate Mobile Technologies, says, “Like several countries worldwide, Indian enterprises have also realised the importance of mobile app solutions to further business mobility.” A report published at the end of 2011 states that the enterprise mobile app development scenario of India will record a profit of more than $1 bn by the end of 2015. Ravi Sundararajan, chief revenue officer, Gupshup, says, “India has about eight times more mobile subscribers than Internet users. However, 95% of these mobile subscribers are still feature phone users which gives great opportunities to be  explored targeting both feature phone and smartphone users.” With an increasing mobile app demand, the app download is going to reach $180 bn by 2015, and the industry is likely to reach $25 bn by 2015, predicts IDC. The penetration of mobile and Internet in India is on the rise, and there is a huge scope for mobile apps.

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Need and Applicability

The key word for mobile apps is convenience. There are various factors that are driving this revolution. “Smartphones connected with the Internet have surpassed the number of home computers and this penetration continues to grow at a very rapid rate,” says Jasuja. He further says, “Today an average smartphone user spends over 2.5 hours per day using their phones which includes communication, entertainment, chatting, using social networking and gaming. The next level of usage is moving towards convenience commerce such as booking tickets, travel, ordering products and services.” He estimates that over the next two-three years, m-commerce shall be over 25% of the total electronic commerce. While Shabir Momiin, CTO and MD, Zenga TV, says, “Mobile apps make easy for people to watch any kind of entertaining and informative programmes on their power handheld devices.” Mobile apps are not only entertaining users, but are also a key need for most SMEs in India. Sundararajan adds, “Today, most small businesses in India do not have  websites. Also the sales force of these SMEs do not use laptops. So mobile apps, such as SMS sales reporting, SMS order tracking, group communication and conferencing, customer service and relationship management, become very important for successful small businesses in India.” Whereas Anshul Goyal, CEO, Guava Softs, says, “People have started adopting it in all forms and shapes. Nowadays, parents have started keeping their kids engaged in sharing live videos of emotional, happy, social and memorable moments through mobile phones.”

Opportunities to Explore

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It brings tremendous opportunities for entrepreneurs to make great products and take their share in the Indian app market. Today, both small and large entrepreneurs hold prominent place in mobile apps market in India. From Indian banks that allow customers to make financial transactions using mobile devices to retail stores that are trying to enhance their in-store experience in order to attract a larger number of customers, every type of enterprise in India now deploys mobile apps and other forms of mobile technology. Sunderrajan says, “Most entrepreneurs are targeting the music and sports category with apps that provide a richer user experience by focusing more on user permission and easy to navigate user interfaces. Also the apps that enable access to rich user content are getting more sophisticated in aggregating good and relevant content to improve the user experience.” Almost all industries are looking at and launching mobile applications for their consumers in a wide variety of areas essentially to enhance the consumer experience and to increase their business. As per Jasuja experience, “The applications range from entertainment to shopping to communicating offers and promotions, banking solutions, provision of services, such as movie ticket booking. Even businesses, such as home automation, are incorporating mobile technologies into their solutions.” In a highly competitive industry, app developers are now thinking out of the box. The newest trend in App Development is Freemium Apps, where the app is free to download, but offer additional features or add-free usage for a fee. Gandhi says, “Android in particular has a lot of these apps, and they have garnered a positive response from consumers.” Generally, app entrepreneurs are hugely improving the quality of their apps by making ads less intrusive, reducing load time and encouraging user involvement.

Momiin says, “Yes the applications and video services are really growing very fast and the adoption of the same is going to keep growing for at least next two-three years. India as a market is nowhere close to saturation now and it will take few years before it reaches that stage.”

These apps and the ones that are focusing on a rich private and public communication experience are gaining in popularity.

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Success Mantra

The app market is exploding in India, and to be a successful app developer, innovation is a must. Goyal says, “Good market research can only result in the development of user-friendly services or apps and helps entrepreneur to cover needs of the market.” Momiin says, “Research properly on the target market and users, and then build something which is unique, which solves some existing problem, only then will your service or app be successful.” Whereas Gandhi says, “A regular update programme must be in place, and user feedback must be implemented in future updates. App developers should try and make apps interactive.” That mean users like to be involved, and not just remain spectators. A nice user experience with the applications promises success for entrepreneurs.

Operator-Dominated Ecosystem

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Operators play a vital role for the promotion and cultivation of apps while being equally important for industry and entrepreneurs’ growth. Gandhi says, “We have a dedicated team that makes sure we build a relationship with them keeping a value system in place till there is clarity and transparency in relationship. If any issues come up are routed to the team and taken care of on an urgent protocol with the intervention of a senior member from the management with a minimum turn around time.” Sunderrajan says, “We have good relations with all mobile operators in India and continue to work with all of them and believe that they do play an important part in the evolution of the mobile ecosystem in India.” Jasuja says, “All our applications are operator and network focused. So, as long as the user phone has the Internet connectivity whether it is 2G, 3G, or wireless, applications will work.”

Leaders’ Advice

Mobile entrepreneurs, who focus on creating an app that satisfies a small market gap, may not be able to create a successful venture as several existing organisations that have similar market data with better access to capital and human resources can easily do that. So to be successful, one needs to pull together a set of stakeholders with similar beliefs and passion rather than just using market data to address a short-term gap. Sunderrajan says, “To be a successful mobile entrepreneur, one should believe in following his/her passion and beliefs about how the mobile market will evolve and in delivering a product or service that is consistent with this world view.” Today’s successful business models are not based on high revenue but on low cost operations. As Gandhi suggests, “Priority should always be given to user experience. With over 700,000 apps available on the Play Store, users are spoilt for choice. They will only be loyal to an app if it provides an interactive, fun and superior user experience.” Before developing an app ensure that the application should be easy to use, interactive and has a pleasant look. Jasuja advises that the applications should be on high availability and reliable platforms with back end services committed to be delivered seamlessly. Besides, there should be constant additions and updation so that the users are encouraged to use the applications over and over again.

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Future Ahead

India’s demography, lifestyles and culture have created several opportunities for app providers. Momiin adds, “As user habits are changing towards the consumption of video on mobile, tabs and PCs this market is the future for advertisers, and engagement.” The experts have predicted this to grow from `150 crore to `3,000 crore in two years. Sundararajan says, “Even if the cost of phones goes down, the ubiquity of data access, cost of data plans and smartphone support and service networks will inhibit the uptake.” We can conclude that the market is moving ahead from the traditional SMS-based services to Internet-based and application-based services. Education, health, shopping, money transfers, finance and entertainment services would be most liked categories by Indian customer in MVAS over traditional SMS-based services.

Anushri Mondal

(anushrim@cybermedia.co.in)

gartner idc nokia blackberry android ios zenga-tv levitate-mobile-technologies mobile-value-added-services
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