VAS business to touch $2 Bn this year: PwC

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 22:56 IST
Printer Print Email Email
New Delhi: With Indian youth largely going mobile, music and gaming is fetching a big pie to telecom companies. According to an estimate by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) value added services (VAS) are poised to reach about $2 billion this year. That India has one of the youngest tech-savvy populations with a willingness to adopt services, gives a fillip to the VAS, says the study. Music and revenue is going to top the VAS list, which includes SMS, ring-back tone, content download, caller line identification, ringtones and GPRS among others. As per 2007 figures, SMS contributed 44 percent to the total revenue generated by VAS business followed by ringtones, GPRS and others. Among other VAS, the report said, mobile smart card is another feature which promises to replace plastic cards and fulfill the gap in rural banking infrastructure by remitting funds through mobile phones. PWC said growth in VAS has been fueled by the improving quality of handsets and their reducing prices, lowering age profile of handset owners and innovation in content and packaging. Handsets with colour-screen, polyphonic tones and GPRS, provide greater opportunities for offering innovative VAS services. India has a huge potential in VAS as the mobile penetration is still comparatively low, the report added. The firm said worldwide mobile gaming end user revenue is expected to grow to $9.6 billion by 2011 and expenditure on music received on mobile handsets is likely to increase to $32.2 billion by 2010 from $13.7 billion in 2007.