The Indian Telecom scenario abuzz and considered an example in the world where over 5 million subscribers being added every month. There are more operators joining the bandwagon with crazy valuations of 20-30 K INR per subscriber. I had a trip to the Airtel Customer care today and was waiting for an hour (why is a seperate story for another blog) and what i encoutered there kind off raises doubts on the hype and hoopla around both the mobile story and especially the "Value added services driven growth" that everyone seems to be betting.
I atelast saw 12 people coming with a single complaint -
"I didnt activate this XYZ (Jokes, news etc) service and you have deducted 15 Rs from my account"
Most people were being placated by the customer care and by the call to hotline by saying that "YOU" may have activated it "By Mistake". However of these 12 people there were about 10 of them who seem to be the educated category and some of them wielding Ipod Touch screens who clearly werent the kind who would activate it by mistake. Also the process of activating a VAS is to send an SMS to a specific number with a short message like "ACTBWD" ... seems unlikely to happen by mistake.
While 12 people in 1 service center may not be a sample I smell a rat in the consistency of the complaints. Could it be that these services get activated with a "negative consent" meaning a message stating "Activated by default unless u send a NO message"??
Two observations --
One - This could potentially be a way for pushing VAS by letting customer get a flavor hoping that of the million odd activations atleast 10% would continue/ not notice it and hence continue to pay the 15-30 Rs. Good revenue generation idea but purely unethical I say.
Two - The market for VAS seems to be hardly moving -- apart from ringback tones. Given that the cost of these VAS is so low the issue is NOT price but content.
Some time back i had similarly got "mistakenly" subscribed to News alerts and the level of "News" was pathetic. So the issue seems to be lack of "Magnetism of Content".
The VAS content goes down the std. path of bollywood, jokes, Astrology etc. Please note all ye content providers "Yes Indians like ALL of above" but dont like to pay for it and surely NOT the pre-paid customers.
So let me put the thinking cap for some applications for which people wouldnt actually mind paying 30 rs -
For the old people/ technologically handicap who basically use phone ONLY to receive and make calls -- Any continuous stream of SMS would surely BUG them but this wouldn't.
A voice message from Ramdeo Baba to explain them the aasans to be done in morning evening and afternoon "personalized" based on there profile. And how do we do that? Heres how it could work....
Go to any of the common hangouts of the Old people like parks and set up a desk of free healthy juices. Ask them to fill up a form in return profiling there lifestyle ailments etc.
Get these analyzed and set up a Ramdeo baba schedule -- there are enough Yoga masters out there who would do this for a consideration. Approach these Senior citizens again in some time at same place and explain them the concept that for 30 rs a Month they will get a call on health tips "personalized" for them .... 1 month free trial.
Market Potential -- IMMENSE. HIT rate -- High
Possibility of charging even 50 RS a month -- no issues they spend more than that on medicines.
Bottom line - Its world of personalization and thinking different - run of the mill SMS based VAS may not work any longer.
Yes yes i know there are some things to be sorted out in the above but i am sure there is enough talent in the VAS teams of Telcos to do that.
There are more ideas but i think i should be charging consulting charges for my IP :-)
Vodafone, Airtel, Aircel -- i am waiting
I atelast saw 12 people coming with a single complaint -
"I didnt activate this XYZ (Jokes, news etc) service and you have deducted 15 Rs from my account"
Most people were being placated by the customer care and by the call to hotline by saying that "YOU" may have activated it "By Mistake". However of these 12 people there were about 10 of them who seem to be the educated category and some of them wielding Ipod Touch screens who clearly werent the kind who would activate it by mistake. Also the process of activating a VAS is to send an SMS to a specific number with a short message like "ACTBWD" ... seems unlikely to happen by mistake.
While 12 people in 1 service center may not be a sample I smell a rat in the consistency of the complaints. Could it be that these services get activated with a "negative consent" meaning a message stating "Activated by default unless u send a NO message"??
Two observations --
One - This could potentially be a way for pushing VAS by letting customer get a flavor hoping that of the million odd activations atleast 10% would continue/ not notice it and hence continue to pay the 15-30 Rs. Good revenue generation idea but purely unethical I say.
Two - The market for VAS seems to be hardly moving -- apart from ringback tones. Given that the cost of these VAS is so low the issue is NOT price but content.
Some time back i had similarly got "mistakenly" subscribed to News alerts and the level of "News" was pathetic. So the issue seems to be lack of "Magnetism of Content".
The VAS content goes down the std. path of bollywood, jokes, Astrology etc. Please note all ye content providers "Yes Indians like ALL of above" but dont like to pay for it and surely NOT the pre-paid customers.
So let me put the thinking cap for some applications for which people wouldnt actually mind paying 30 rs -
For the old people/ technologically handicap who basically use phone ONLY to receive and make calls -- Any continuous stream of SMS would surely BUG them but this wouldn't.
A voice message from Ramdeo Baba to explain them the aasans to be done in morning evening and afternoon "personalized" based on there profile. And how do we do that? Heres how it could work....
Go to any of the common hangouts of the Old people like parks and set up a desk of free healthy juices. Ask them to fill up a form in return profiling there lifestyle ailments etc.
Get these analyzed and set up a Ramdeo baba schedule -- there are enough Yoga masters out there who would do this for a consideration. Approach these Senior citizens again in some time at same place and explain them the concept that for 30 rs a Month they will get a call on health tips "personalized" for them .... 1 month free trial.
Market Potential -- IMMENSE. HIT rate -- High
Possibility of charging even 50 RS a month -- no issues they spend more than that on medicines.
Bottom line - Its world of personalization and thinking different - run of the mill SMS based VAS may not work any longer.
Yes yes i know there are some things to be sorted out in the above but i am sure there is enough talent in the VAS teams of Telcos to do that.
There are more ideas but i think i should be charging consulting charges for my IP :-)
Vodafone, Airtel, Aircel -- i am waiting
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