Is free online mobile recharging a safe trend setter?

By Juby Thomas, SiliconIndia   |   Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 23:15 IST   |    1 Comments
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Is free online mobile recharging a safe trend setter?
Bangalore: Are you fed up with going to shops for recharging your phone? Is there anyone who doesn't love to get their mobile recharged for free? All it takes is a few clicks. There are different trends that are coming up. They are like earning points, participating in online surveys for a free mobile recharge. The amount paid by the user for recharge is also returned in the form of discount coupons of some of the top retailers in India. All these make the recharge virtually free for any prepaid mobile phone in India. With over 600 million mobile phone subscribers, the country is regarded as a mobile hotspot globally. Online sites like BigMazaa, Amulyam and Freecharge has understood the blooming business and has set up an entirely different method for recharging. It is good to get free recharge. Since millions of individuals are subjected to online privacy threats it also create a tension whether the free online recharging a safe trend setter? "When I got into the homepage of Amulyam, I was asked to create an account to get free recharge, the page contained all kind of basic information like name, contact number, email id, password, occupation, basic income, marital status and so on to created log in id and there were some irritating procedures to be followed like inviting friends and relatives etc. I feel it's just all waste of time," said Nimmi a Bangalore University student. The organizers claim that recharge is done instantly and they also send confirmation SMS for the same. So far these trends exist only for prepaid connections and there are multiple reactions to it. "It's been a good experience with online surveys at Amulyam. It has provided a good platform for sponsors as well as the consumers in the field of marketing research and online surveys," said Mahesh Babu, Marketing Manager of an advertising agency. When siliconindia approached the three free recharging players to figure out their business strategies, they didn't respond. In regular recharge shops 30 percent of the total amount of recharge per month is considered as the profit. How can these organizations make it virtually free is a matter of question.

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