markets

RIM Quarterly Results Paint A Dismal Picture

by Paul Joseph September 19, 2011 Featured

Research In Motion reported a steep drop in profits due to lackluster sales of its aging Blackberry phone lineup and gloomy sales of it’s Playbook tablet. Despite the fact that analyst expected a dismal results, numbers managed to shock everyone from investors to experts alike since company’s adjusted net profit fell 47% to $419 million . The company, which issued a profit warning in June, earned $1.46 a share on sales of $4.62 billion in the year-ago period. RIM was beaten in the numbers game as it managed to ship out only 10.6 million smart-phones in the second quarter as opposed to expected 12 million and 200,000 Playbook pieces against an expected number of 600,000. However, markets estimate that RIM results will rebound as late in the quarter company replaced it’s old Blackberry line up with new and powerful additions to Bold and Torch lines while Curve line is slated to get new additions soon. While for the Playbook a software upgrade dubbed Playbook 2.0 is hinted to be available by the time RIM hosts its developer conference in October. So the markets are expecting to see RIM post sales between $5.3 billion and $5.6 billion in the three months to late November. While experts and consumers alike believe if RIM has to latch on to its current market share it will have to speed up the development of its QNX phones. QNX OS as of now is available only on Playbook and has garnered decent reviews, hence it is believed that RIM should push the development of new phones in order to fend off Android and iOS. Will the strategy of new phones help the sinking ship of RIM? What do you think?

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Wireless Broadband Penetration can Unleash $80 billion GDP Growth

by Paul Joseph August 12, 2011 Featured

GSMA , the association of mobile phone operators in the country, believe a 10-per cent growth in mobile broadband will add Rs3,50,600 crore ($80 billion) to India’s GDP by 2015. Analysys Mason has prepared this report for GSMA to assess the direct and indirect economic impact of wireless broadband in India. The exclusive findings of the Analysys Mason report reveal that allocating just 5MHz of additional 3G spectrum per licensee could increase mobile broadband penetration by more than 35%, which would increase the number of 3G users to almost 160 million by 2015. This would also increase national broadband penetration by 3.3%, resulting in an INR538 billion increase to India’s GDP by 2015. By this time, mobile broadband could contribute a total of INR2190 billion to the Indian economy. India lags fellow Emerging BRIC Peers due to a weak infrastructure base for wireline based broadband deployment. This is due to various reasons like lack of adequate investment, excessive bureaucracy, a far too dispersed population outside the main cities and an absence of marginal profitability. This has resulted in a dearth of content, applications, service models and device categories which can address the up-and-coming mass market requirement. We see that the total cost for a fixed broadband connection accounts for 20% of the per-capita consumption basket for Indian consumers. The deployment further faces challenges like time-to-market, operator economics and the nascent ecosystem. Mobile broadband delivers the cost-effective scalability that India needs to overcome these issues. Local mobile brands are the key to unlocking the huge Wireless Broadband Devices potential across the hinterland. Micromax, Spice and Videocon now have a 22% market share in QE-Mar2010 from 7% in QE-Mar2009. The report suggests these players are expected to increase investments in local manufacturing and expand their markets globally. Local brands are priced competitively, and the average mass market customer is increasingly opting for something cheap which gets the job done, as implied by the rising market share. A larger reach of mobiles compared to PC / laptops will be the key driver for growth of retail consumption on mobile in India. Users of mobile banking and related services globally is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 59.2 % to reach 894 million users in 2015. A Government Roadmap is vital to transform this potential into reality, and the benefits are clear for everyone to see. Very often, we as a country lose out on developmental projects due to unnecessary snags, but this time, we are at a major crossroads which can see an increase in economic productivity of the work force as a result of access to wireless broadband services. India is the second largest mobile market in the world (behind China, obviously) and the Government should speed up the enactment of the proposed National Spectrum Act to transform our Industry through a thriving export market, with the power of Mobile Broadband.

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Stock Market Jitters Push One97 On The PE Path

by Paul Joseph August 9, 2011 Featured

One97 , one of India’s pioneers in cloud platforms, has dropped plans for an IPO and will seek private equity funding given the current uncertainty in the markets following the US debt downgrade. The Noida-based company now plans to raise around Rs 100 crore in PE funding instead of the Rs 120 crore IPO initially planned and might even push for an international listing. In the year 2009, it was reported that One97 was planning to go for IPO. One97 ended FY10 with revenues of Rs 112 crore, with a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 26 crore. Q1FY11 numbers show revenues stood at Rs 36 crore and PBT at Rs 10 crore. The company has been very successful in posting robust year-on-year growth, with reported revenue doubling to Rs 81.4 crore in FY09 from Rs 40.7 core in FY08. Starting off as a mobile messaging company, One97 has evolved to focus on mobile content and mobile commerce, and it is now seeking to become a “significant mobile internet company.” Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chairman and managing director looks to have a Rs 100 crore war chest for further expansion plans , without divulging information on stake sale or the valuation that the firm is seeking. This will be mainly used for acquisitions across content, sales and commerce verticals. One97 has consistently invested in early-stage mobile companies. It is jointly controlled by private equity firm SAIF Partners and also Intel Capital , the corporate venture capital arm of US giants Intel Corporation. In July, the company invested S$ 1 million in The Mobile Gamer (TMG) of Singapore.  And the company also tied-up with NetworkPlay for mobile ads, sms, voice & WAP. One97 is making major in-roads in the Telecom space and in December 2010, bagged the prestigious IndiaMART Leader of Tomorrow Award in IT/ITES/Telecom category and was also declared the Company of the Year at IndiaMART Leaders of Tomorrow Awards 2010 Ceremony held in New Delhi. Why postponing the IPO is a Smart move: One97 cannot afford to pit the miniscule investor confidence left in the market against the bloodbath that will ensue over the next few weeks. The Sensex is falling an average of 2% a day since Monday, which means the best stocks to hold in the country are down an average of 6% today. The last thing the company needs is getting stuck in a sharp correction rally. Poor performance in the market leads to further challenges the Board will have to be answerable to. What Next? A private placement ensures the company does not face too many disclosures, and the promoters can pick and choose investors with compatible goals and interests. This will help the company to structure newer confidential transactions, as One97 seeks newer avenues.

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In India, 3G Services Are Projected To Touch 50Million Subscribers By 2012

by Paul Joseph June 27, 2011 Featured

Research and Markets from Dublin, Ireland conducted a survey and the firm declared this Friday a report on “ 3G in India: Technology and Market Analysis “. This elucidated that by 2012, India will have a hike in the 3G services which will pull in almost 50 million subscribers from the nation . With the view that Indians love to talk, Indian telecom firms had bet for almost 102.7 crores in the latest 3G and BWA (Bradband Wireless Access) auctions . There has been a significant growth in the Indian telecom market and the average growth rate is 30% . The recent graph shows almost a steady user base of almost 600 million of the population in India. It is estimated that by 2012, 3G will spread like wildfire to almost 50 million subscribers. The most sought after telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel , Reliance Communications , Idea Cellular , Tata Teleservices, Aircel and Vodafone Essar are getting ready with their 3G services for next gen’ communications and give them a better experience altogether. Reliance Communications has already rolled out its new 3G plans, MobileNet Plan – providing unlimited Internet access , multimedia content download , instant messaging , chat services , and access to social networking sites and email to pre-paid and post-paid subscribers at an affordable Rs. 99 per month . It is also been added that VAS (value added services) is also emerging out as a savour for telecom players. We had also reported earlier effect and penetration 3G technology is going to cause in India. It was also estimated that by the year 2015, around  30% of Indian population will be using the technology. But with this recent development we need to wait and watch how farther the 3G service penetrates itself  into the country. It has been in news that Facebook is now penalising a lot of brand pages and one such sensation was the shutting down of the Pizza Hut’s India Facebook page for guidelines violation. Facebook has again took a strict decision to ban Indian pages for sought after brands viz chocolate giant Cadbury’s Bournville and fashion house French Connection UK (FCUK) this week! There are certain guidelines termed as “promotion guidelines” that Facebook issues irrespective of the brand value or its entity. While these brands are using Facebook as a social media platform, they will have to keep in mind several restrictions while publishing offers, contests to induce fans. It goes like this “govern your communication about or administration of any contest, competition, sweepstakes or other similar offering (each, a “promotion”) using Facebook”. The violation in this case was more of a breach of what Facebook echoes, “promotions on Facebook must must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab” Here is a sneak peak into Facebook’s promotional guidelines: “You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion. You must not notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages”. This handcuffing of Facebook fan pages was just added to another sensational incident wherein Pizza Hut Facebook page for India was barred. So this violation will not be tolerated. To this Pizza Hut official even went on to say they were not intimidated about this change. However bands are now kind of getting severe breakdowns due to the frequent changes of Facebook’s promotional guidelines each year. Definitely the question arises as to whether brands are facing a lot of trouble in socialising with the world’s biggest connecting platform. Time will tell! Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts 30% Of India To Use 3G Services By 2015 Idea Cellular To Roll Out 3G Services Next Month? Tata DoCoMo Announces 3G Tariff Airtel 3G to Launch By December Bailout Alert – Govt. May Reduce Failing Telcos’ Pain

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Global Online Digital Content Market To Cross $150 Billion By 2012:Tavess

by Paul Joseph June 10, 2011 Featured

Tavess , a research firm has come out with a report that says the global online digital content market would cross the $150 billion mark by 2012 . Almost all computers have persistent internet connections, in many cases even cell phones do. Broadband rates are getting cheaper and the adoption rate of 3G is going up. Devices like tablets and smart phones enable users to consume content anywhere. This has obviously led to an increase in the quantity and quality of content available online. A lot of magazines have launched editions for the web , tablets and mobile phones . Companies like Netflix , Airtel , hulu , Bigflix and others are making TV content available on the web. The app development scene is so hot right now, that it has led people to speculate the arrival of a bubble similar to the one we saw in the dot com era . Everyday loads of new startups are launched that try to make app discovery better. Bit Torrent the widely shunned model of distribution is being used to deliver content exclusively made for the internet. There have been many services that act as an archive for a content. For instance, Instapaper is an app that lets you store articles you find on the web to read it later. Radbox , an Indian startup does the same but for videos. News sites have erected paywalls, they charge a subscription fee exclusively for accessing content through the web and mobile devices. GigaOm a Web 2.0 blog has a section called GigaOm Pro which gives users accesst to premium content like articles, researches, reports etc. They are going so strong that they recently raised six million dollars to fuel their research wing. While in developed markets there are a lot of people who won’t mind to pay in return of quality content, the situation is somewhat different in developing markets like India. People do like quality content but their likelihood to shell out money for it is very low. Hence here, the advertising supported model flourishes. Instead of charging a fee for the content companies deliver, they choose to recover their costs and even earn profits through ads. Unlike their western counterparts, Indian news sites have still not raised any sort of paywall. They are infested with ads everywhere. Even though this may not provide a good experience, users don’t mind the it as long as they don’t have to pay. Another example is youtube, which recently launched ‘ Box Office ‘ where users can watch bollywood movies in High Definition for free. They have roped in Intel as a sponsor. Over the past year or two content owners are also including the social angle to increase the level of engagement of users. Most video and music sites allow users to share their play lists, their favourite songs and videos. iTunes for example allows users to tweet what song they bought. This in turn increases the chances of the users’ followers buying the same song. The growth of storage space hasn’t kept up with the increasing content available. Users right now have at least two devices on which they want to consume their content. This has led to the rise of the importance of the cloud .  The cloud is nothing but the internet which is used to deliver content to users on-the-go on any device. Amazon , Google , Apple and many others have jumped on the cloud bandwagon. Services like Pandora , Grooveshark , Spotify allow users to stream an unlimited number of songs. DropBox , SugarSync , Box Net give users a certain amount of space on the web, which they can use for uploading anything at all. It is like a hard disk which can be accessed from anywhere. As internet users increase, so does the content and hence its market. India will contribute a major chunk to this 150 billion dollar figure . Whether this content will be ad supported or paid is something we will closely observe. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Airtel partners with BigFlix to launch Online Video Service Will You Pay to Download YouTube Videos? Zoom and YouTube Join Hands – Begins a Bollywood Talent Hunt Competition Online Lunch Hour Is The Peak Time For Internet Usage:IMRB Google Global Market Finder To Help Indian Businesses Find Markets Overseas

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WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 31st May – 5th June

by Paul Joseph June 6, 2011 Featured

Here is last weeks wrapup.. Posts via WATBlog.com Friday Feature: Thought-Provoking Tweets Knowing The Online Behaviour Of Indian Users – Living With Internet Report Top 5 Destination To Travel In Summer Season, According To Yahoo Komli Media Acquires Singapore-Based Aktiv Digital Microsoft Officially Unveils Windows 8 Indian Postal Dept. Launches Mobile Money Orders Groupon India Ties Up With Ginger Hotels, Launches Travel Deals E-Challans Coming To Delhi Google Global Market Finder To Help Indian Businesses Find Markets Overseas Google +1 Button For Websites Has Arrived Press Releases via WATPr.com DNA Sequencing Data Reveals New Hybrid E. coli Strain is Cause of German Outbreak ET NOW – IndiaMART Leaders of Tomorrow Awards 2011 in Full Swing Ramco sees Steady Growth for Cloud ERP in India MediAngels Commences World’s first Specialized Global eHospital Award Confirms SITA as Leading Airport IT Solutions Provider in Asia Pacific Kootol Software Limited Sends Caution Notice to Twitter Inc., USA Taaza.com Relaunches it’s ‘News’ section Juniper Networks Named Network Security Vendor of the Year in India Wipro Technologies Wins engagement with Chaucer Syndicates, Specialist Insurer at Lloyd’s Thyme Park – The First Residential Apartment in Jigani, Bangalore Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 10th April – 17th April 2011 WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 3rd April – 10th April 2011 WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 27th Mar – 3rd April 2011 WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 21st – 27th March 2011 WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 14th – 20th March 2011

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Havas Media’s MPG Launches Mobext In India

by Paul Joseph May 5, 2011 Featured

Havas Media’s flagship brand, MPG just announced its Mobile Marketing Division, Mobext . It will roll out this year in India, China, Indonesia and the Philipines. It is already in eight markets around the world. Mobext will offer a range of services  such as messaging services like SMS and download. It will also offer mobile internet services like WAP Developement and consulting, Proximity Based Services and search. From the Mobext Website:  Mobile is extending the Consumer Relationship which enables consumers to find the information they need whenever and wherever they are via mobile. Says Vishnu Mohan, CEO, MPG and Havas Media, Asia Pacific, “ Asia presents an enormous potential in the mobile space with high levels of penetration, installed base and growth rates. All our clients have needs in this space and we want to ensure that as a media agency we are not neglecting such an important medium and one that will gain even more prominence in the future. Mobext brand has been doing very well in other markets and we have been waiting for the right time and the right people to launch it in Asia. What better market to launch than India, which has whopping 790 million mobile users currently and is also a key market for the group in Asia Pacific region .” The company has a solid backing, with clients like Nike, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Fanta, Kia, Volvo, BMW, Peugeot, Citroen, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, BBC, Dell, and Sears. With other players in the market offering rural VAS , we think Mobext launching in India will just up the ante and increase competition. This can only be good for the common man as he gets more variety. However, the fact that Mobext is not also a service provider can make it harder for them to get a user base. Only time will tell. What do you think? Check the Winners Of WATAwards Here Related Posts Make Your Own Hatke Caller Tunes Videocon Partners With BuzzCity To Provide Mobile Content IMImobile Announces Strategic Partnership With Srikanth’s KrishCricket.com Reliance Launches ‘Job Search On Voice’ Apalya Raises $7.5 Million In Series-B Funding

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WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 7th – 13th March 2011

by Paul Joseph March 14, 2011 Featured

Posts via WATBlog.com Warner Bros. Using Facebook For Movie Rental Service; Sony To Follow Online Video & Video Ads Metrics In India – Comscore & Nielsen Reports LinkedIn Releases Social News Product for Professionals – LinkedIn Today Opera Launches Its Own Mobile App Store Rockmelt Moves Into Public Beta; Mozilla Releases Firefox 4 RC Gmail Introduces Smart Labels To Help You Organise Your Inbox Microsoft Paying Nokia A Billion Dollars To Seal Smartphone Deal? MNP Requests Cross 38 Lakh – But Are Operators Cooperating? Travel Updates: Yatra – Cash On Delivery | Vamoose – Group Buying | Makemytrip – Blackberry App DealsandYou Claims 1 Million Members – Active? Buyers? Posts via WATPr.com India’s E-Mail Archival Industry Potential Valued at $5 Million HP Pledges US$1 Million to Improve Science, Technology and Math Education in India RockeTalk is the only Social Networking Application amongst the Top Finalists at the NDTV Gadget Guru Awards 2011 30% of India 3G by 2015, says new study Deals and You: 200 Days – 1 Million Members strong! Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360 enters the Guinness Book of World Records! Smartphone App Market Outperformes Other Booming Markets – 3 Years Benchmark BigRock.com launches its “Affiliate Program” – India’s largest online marketing program for aspiring web entrepreneurs Panasonic Launches New Series of Laser Multi-function Printer SITA Enables India’s Air Traffic Control to Move to Safer Digital Data Communications Looking For A Social Media Agency? CLICK HERE! Related Posts WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 28th Feb – 6th March WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 20th – 27th Feb WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 17th – 23rd January WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 1st – 7th November 2010 WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 17th – 24th October 2010

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Online Video & Video Ads Metrics In India – Comscore & Nielsen Reports

by Paul Joseph March 11, 2011 Featured

Its seems like a week wherein online video consumption in under the scanner from the research agencies. Here is a chart from comscore on the top video destinations form India. Top Video Properties in India**Based on Total Unique Viewers January 2011 Total India Audience, Age 15+ Home & Work Locations* Source: comScore Video Metrix Total Unique Viewers (000) Videos (000) Minutes per Viewer Total Internet : Total Audience 30,155 1,755,186 302.8 Google Sites 23,563 785,417 101.0 Facebook.com 6,637 30,091 12.4 Metacafe 3,937 33,808 35.3 Yahoo! Sites 2,843 10,960 13.0 Dailymotion.com 2,720 24,128 56.5 VEVO 1,374 4,010 30.1 Network 18 1,229 5,525 109.0 Rediff.com India Ltd 861 2,930 5.0 Microsoft Sites 845 4,890 20.2 MIPS.TV 782 3,414 49.8 *Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. **Video Properties include all sites under that parent company. For example, Google Sites includes YouTube.com. No surprises to see that Youtube which is one of Google’s sites leads the pack but social networking is right next with facebook leading as a no.2 player for video consumption in India! Followed by other video sharing sites like Metacafe , Yahoo, Daily motion and others. Network18 with its sites like ibnlive.com and in.com ranks ahead of Rediff.com which has iShare. One of the interesting aspects in favour of video advertising is that India ranks 4th in the world when it comes to unique viewers of video content. Check the table below: Online Video Overview Across Select Markets January 2011 Total Audience, Age 15+ Home & Work Locations* Source: comScore Video Metrix Total Unique Viewers (000) Hours per Viewer % Reach Web Pop United States 154,292 15.8 85.2% Brazil 34,378 7.7 84.8% United Kingdom 31,914 18.3 82.5% India 30,155 5.1 71.8% Australia 10,580 7.7 78.6% Singapore 2,344 10.7 81.4% *Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. Though the hours per viewer is the least from India at 5.1 hours per month only the unique viewers is ranked at 4th position just a shade below UK. These are encouraging signs for the video advertising startups like Vdopia and Jivox. Infact Vdopia along with Nielsen has also launched a report on the effectiveness of pre roll ads on video in India. Here are some of the results of that survey: Key findings • 58 percent of respondents recall seeing pre-load video ads. • Among respondents who recall seeing pre-load video ads: • 83 percent clicked at least once on a pre-load ad • 54 percent clicked more than once on a pre-load ad • 78 percent have replayed a video ad at least once • 69 percent think video ad is interesting • 87 percent have no aversion to seeing pre-load video ads Among online video viewers surveyed: • 65 percent browse internet for more than an hour • 45 percent spend more than 30 minutes on online videos Entertainment and movie videos are most popular As the above statistics tell you pre roll ads seem to be working when it comes to online advertising. Though with onlu 424 visitors surveyed from online sources this may not be a fair picture as most of those surveyed seem heavy online users with affinity towards video consumption. Though its still an indicative report. Why Online Video Can Make Internet Mass Media? Video is one format that can cut across culture, language, literacy and a lot of other issues to plague the distribution of digital content. The aspect which is a barrier is bandwidth which slowly but surely has been improving with the advent of 3G and wireless broadband coming into the picture. All in all we are quite bullish on the prospects of video content via digital in the future. Looking For A Social Media Agency? CLICK HERE! Related Posts 3G Adoption Will Be Slow : Nielsen Study Discovery And Apalya Partner To Launch 5 Mobile TV Channels Popular Articles Do Not Bring In Ad Clicks, Revenue – Survey Mckinsey-Nielsen Join Hands For Social Media Marketing – Launch NM Incite The Verdict – Facebook Overtakes Orkut In India

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MoneyControl.com Launches Free Apps For iPhone And Nokia Touch Phones

by Paul Joseph January 7, 2011 Featured

Moneycontrol.com , one of the most well known financial portals in India, has launched new versions of its Markets on Mobile app  for Apple’s iPhone and Nokia’s touch phones. The mobile app keeps Moneycontrol up to date with what’s going on in the market. Here’s what the app offers : A real time stock ticker and the ability to receive quotes for any stock. Portfolio Management : If you’re a moneycontrol.com user, you can keep an eye on how your portfolio is doing. A News section – pretty much self explanatory. Messages – Which lets you see MessageBoard that is on their website. Live TV lets you watch CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz. It also has a video on demand section which seems to have clips from these channels. I spent about 5 – 10 minutes with it. Seems to have all the basic features you’d expect. Various Indian Indices as well as foreign markets. Market movers across various categories such as Top Gainers, Top Losers, Most Active and 52 week highs and lows. As well as data for commodities and currencies. Here are a few screenshots from the iOS version. I’m a little surprised there seems to be no BlackBerry version. Can we expect an Android and a BlackBerry app anytime soon? Have you used the Markets on Mobile app? Try it out and let us know how useful it is. REGISTER FOR WATSUMMIT – INDIA’S FLAGSHIP SUMMIT ON DIGITAL MEDIA REGISTER NOW! Related Posts India Is The Largest Mobile Advertising Market In APAC : Inmobi Android Users Are The Biggest Network Hogs Indians Most Receptive To Mobile Ads : Inmobi Survey Mobile Advertising On A High Google Acquires BlindType – Android Users To Benefit From Technology

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