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Friday, November 30, 2012

Future of VAS in India

Since so long had feeling of transformation for value added services! VAS is dead? Answer: Yes. But in the form we know it now. There will be transformation. And this will be accelerated now post TDSAT’s ruling about vas subscription in favor of TRAI.

Was it bad for industry? - yes; some of the things are very harsh. But industry as whole should do retrospection about how we reached to this level where stern guidelines been forced. What history goes behind it? Which are the known secretes and so called accepted  norms of vas business? But was it so rampant that TRAI has to deal with it so heavy handedly… Or is someone else lobbying for such stringent guidelines to enter into lucrative Indian vas business…
Personally I found harshest thing and much against vas industry is: post all kind of acceptance also need to get written consent (ok. user initiated sms also do). And stringency does not stop here such consent has to be taken on every renewal.
Let me understand meaning of subscription. News paper ask you to subscribe and continues to deliver until you say thank you. Hence this direction does not fit in with general business convention. Even in telecom, does every time rental renewal been explicitly confirmed by user or he request for churn? At the max  TRAI should have proposed post every 6 month, take fresh mandate on any subscription services from customer. With lighter note, we are democratic nation and people sitting in temple of democracy does take re-mandate only after 5 years.

Over long run directives shall lead in improving QoS in VAS. More enriched services and richer contents to follow to ensure greater ‘pull’ rather than old fashioned ‘push’ business. I do believe mass marketing of vas should have stopped long back for creating better business value. Now with this vas ruling and regulation about commercial communication customer preferences micro-segmentation is the way of life! Then vas shall able to reveal potential beyond direct vas revenue stream and assisting to profile your customer better.

Very interesting to see how non-operator billed vas perform, in the time of inconvenience added with changed regulation and overpowering of high speed wireless data with supporting devices. Will there be level playing field or with current directives confirmed by TRAI will make such application-stores like Google-play more convenient. Thinking cap out… Happy to receive your comments!