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Mobile services next growth frontier is rural India
Vishwanath Alluri
Rural India brings with it many peculiarities and uniqueness. Undoubtedly the rural sector of India’s population is unlike its counterparts in the urban areas. In the urban areas cricket and Bollywood forms the major part of VAS consumption coming mainly from the youth segment. In the rural areas, with limited discretionary spending at their disposal, they are looking at critical information about weather, markets, government policies, schemes, healthcare and education
Riding on India’s growth story, the Indian telecom penetration continues to grow at a phenomenal rate of +15 million subscriber additions per month totaling to + 600 million mobile phone connections. In addition to near saturation in urban centres, mobiles have penetrated steadily the remotest corners of India giving the population a critical connect with the rest of India. This has brought their near and dear ones working in the urban centres closer to them and critically made accessible in times of any emergency. However, in spite of this phenomenal growth, there still exists a huge gap in terms of rural India’s information needs. We are now trying to bridge this gap by empowering them with information that improves their living conditions.
The opportunity that rural India presents is huge and all the companies in the VAS (Value Added Services) ecosystem clearly know that their future is here in the heart of India. 70 percent of India’s population lives in the rural areas and importantly, 64 percent of the nation’s expenditure and 56 percent of its income comes from the villages. Mobile Services next growth frontier is definitely rural India, which is triple the size of Urban Market. India’s rural tele-density currently stands at 13 percent and is expected to grow multi-fold. Working in tandem with telecom operators, MVAS (Mobile VAS) providers are also ready to explore rural India. The increasing rural penetration of telecom players is going to drive a jump in ARPU (Average Revenue per User) once past the tipping point. However, for this windfall to happen the VAS industry needs to be given a bigger play by the telecom operators. This will help them drive innovations in applications and content catering to the specific needs of the rural masses.
Rural India brings with it many peculiarities and uniqueness. Undoubtedly the rural sector of India’s population is unlike its counterparts in the urban areas. In the urban areas cricket and Bollywood forms the major part of VAS consumption coming mainly from the youth segment. In the rural areas, with limited discretionary spending at their disposal, they are looking at critical information about weather, markets, government policies, schemes, healthcare and education. This category of information can be termed utility services for rural India as it helps them improve their living conditions. The VAS industry should understand this unique need and deliver in a medium which is easily reachable and usable.
We can look forward to a healthy and empowered rural population which in turn helps build a stronger economy.
Vishwanath Alluri is Founder & CEO of IMImobile. He can be reached at vish@imimobile.com
The opportunity that rural India presents is huge and all the companies in the VAS (Value Added Services) ecosystem clearly know that their future is here in the heart of India
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