Mobile Vas In India

Slide 1: Future of Mobile VAS in India December 2007 Mohit S. Gundecha Prof. Tom Kosnik Kunal Bajaj Research Associate Fenwick & West Consulting Professor Director – India Stanford University STVP, Stanford University BDA © 2007 Stanford University & BDA

Slide 2: BDA Team: • Girish Trivedi – Principal Manager • Deepshikha Garg • Rahul Gupta • Smita Sharma Our special thanks to: • Eric Allen – Wireless Advisor • Veerchand Bothra – Author, MobilePundit • Nitin Brahmankar – Director, IDT © 2007 Stanford University & BDA

Slide 3: Executive Summary (1/3) India’s telecom market and VAS background • India’s telecom market is experiencing explosive growth – Crossed 217 mn subs by Oct 07 with net adds of nearly 8 mn subs / month over last 4 months – Despite continued record growth over last 12 months, only 23% of 1.1 bn population owns a phone – There are 6-7 telcos operating in each of 23 license areas. Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone & BSNL, who are “the Big 4” have 74% market share – Growth is expected to continue and even accelerate, reaching a projected 496 mn mobile subs by 2010 • Near term outlook shows a continuing focus on acquiring new low end customers – Improved regulatory structure has lead to increased competition, and operators aggressively tailoring strategies to acquire customers across all segments by making mobile services more affordable and increasing coverage – Prepaid users comprise over 85% of total subs and over 95% of net new additions, further adding to the impact of tariffs on falling ARPU – Almost half of Indian mobile subs use low cost handsets and this is expected to increase further with new additions – Further innovation in entry-level handsets and call tariffs will continue to drive growth – Operators will need to look at alternative revenue streams like VAS as they mature • Traditional VAS has been primarily SMS-based, with Bollywood and Cricket the largest content drivers – VAS services contribute approx 7% of total wireless telecom revenues for Indian operators – Total market size of VAS was USD 678 mn in 2006, projected to touch USD 926 mn at the end of 2007 – Most VAS services are provided over SMS, IVR and WAP. Revenue growth has been driven by SMS (including P2P, A2P, P2A), contributing over 55% of total VAS revenues in 2006 – Bollywood & cricket remain the killer content, whether for SMS alerts, ringtones / CRBT, games, wallpapers, etc. – Rural applications initiatives have launched in pilots, and are likely to grow quickly in less developed geographies because of the willingness to spend on services which enhance livelihood 3

Slide 4: Executive Summary (2/3) Hurdles to growth of VAS & future direction Current Challenges to Growth Overcoming These Challenges • Revenue share between telcos & content providers / • Advertisements can be a major new revenue avenue for VAS aggregators is 70:30, substantially more skewed in favor of players compensating for low rev share from operators telco than in other countries Revenue • Lack of payment mechanisms increases reliance on telcos, Challenge though VAS players are looking at advertising to support service. This is at a nascent stage given the unfamiliarity of advertisers with mobile as a medium • Awareness remains a major challenge as operators spend • Traditional VAS – SMS, CRBT & ringtones – will continue to more on subscriber acquisition than educating customers grow with increased awareness and larger low end user base User about VAS • Awareness will remain a problem for advanced VAS services Challenge • Users are also confused about tariff structures for premium unless marketing is done by VAS companies themselves SMS, IVR and data usage • Supporting VAS requires an increase in feature set at lower • Low-cost, feature-rich devices are being introduced more Device price points widely as GSM players have started adopting handset bundling Challenge • GPRS enabled low cost handsets are still in the making • Additionally, VAS players and handset vendors are forming partnerships to provide embedded applications • Bollywood and cricket works! Not much innovation is seen • IVR will be a quick solution to providing content / services in Content beyond these local language Challenge • Given diversity and literacy rates in India, providing content • But, creating locally relevant content (e.g. for directory listing, in the many local languages is a requirement maps) will still require substantial investments • Delay in spectrum policy has resulted in congested networks • Regulatory uncertainty around spectrum will continue to Operator leaving no bandwidth for data efficient applications hinder promotion of VAS Challenge • Higher end apps, including internet apps being ported to mobile will have more traction once 3G is introduced 4

Slide 5: Executive Summary (3/3) Applications & growth projections • Offerings like next generation SMS, IVR and mobile music will become more widespread, while others will still face a number of hurdles to growth – SMS: The next generation of SMS will offer users an enhanced messaging experience – Mobile Music: growth will increase with better bandwidth enabling full music download / streaming – IVR: In areas of low literacy rate, IVR will see large scale adoption due to ease of use and local language support – Internet Applications: Internet apps ported to mobile may have slow take-up at first, but will draw higher end users. IM on mobile will be driven by the youth. Enterprises will be the key driver for the adoption of mobile e-mail – Search: SMS based search and search on WAP portals will be popular applications as users can access requisite information of the move, but lack of local information will still remain a challenge to be overcome – UGC/SNC: User generated content & social networking communities will see limited adoption due to user experience and format of interactivity – mCommerce: Mobile Commerce also is not promising for mass markets given low levels of electronic transactions and vendors’ and consumers’ resistance to adopt combined with unfamiliarity of this platform • With overall CAGR of 44% (2007 – 2010), VAS revenues will reach USD 2,744 mn – In medium term most of the current challenges will be addressed by both operators and VAS players – But growth during near term will flatten as operators do not shift focus from customer acquisition to VAS promotion quickly enough, thus new low end users will drag down the per capita consumption – Growth can be impacted substantially in either direction depending on outcome of various major regulatory and non- regulatory factors, including MNP, 3G, advertiser uptake of mobile advertising – Growth acceleration will begin in 2009, as various challenges are overcome, size of mature user base increases, and telco focus on high end user VAS heightens – Share of traditional VAS declines to less than 50% in 2010. Mobile data / internet access, e-mail, and IVR based services will achieve the highest growth rates 5

Slide 6: Table of Contents • Indian Telecom Overview • Near Term Industry Outlook • Introduction to VAS in India – Current State – Telco Strategies • VAS Value Chain • Key Challenges & Hurdles Today • VAS Outlook for India – Addressing Challenges & Hurdles – Assessment of Applications & Services • Projections • Annexure – Key VAS Players 6

Slide 7: Indian telecom overview Operator Market Share (Oct 2007) Population 1.112 billion Others Idea 7.7% Airtel Fixed Subs 39.41 million (Oct 2007) 9.0% 23.4% Tata Mobile Subs 217.14 million (Oct 2007) Teleservices 9.3% Internet Subs 9.22 million (Jun 2007)