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March - 2010 - issue > Top 25 Most Promising Internet Companies

MobiKwik Aiming to Lead Online Recharge Market

Sikta Samantaray
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Sikta Samantaray
Since mobiles have come to occupy an integral part of one’s life – from facilitating communication to providing entertainment and even becoming a useful work tool – several people use prepaid services to control their mobile bills. But, it is excruciating when the prepaid users run out of balance in the mobile phones at the middle of some important discussions or while at office or even at night times, needing a quick way to recharge the mobile. MobiKwik.com, an e-commerce startup, which is in the business of aggregating and selling mobile apps, mobile content, and mobile transactional services under one platform – independent of any mobile operator or device manufacturer or specific platform or OS – came up to meet this consumer need.

It is not only that the customers can recharge mobiles for themselves and their family, but they can also find latest plans and offers and even search and download the latest mobile applications. Founded in 2009, the Delhi based MobiKwik.com is the brainchild of a technology entrepreneur, Bipin Preet Singh.

“To meet all the needs of mobile owners, our portal includes three major verticals: voice, data, and applications. And I believe these would be the three pillars around which customer touch points would evolve in the next 4-5 years. Internet is the best platform for creating these touch points,” explains Singh. Through MobiKwik, the users can pay a bulk amount at one go, which gets translated into MobiKwik balance. According to the company, the users can also subscribe to MobiKwik’s ‘KwikRecharge’, which allows users schedule the next recharge to a future date. Its customers use one of the many online payment methods – credit card, debit card, or net banking to create an e-wallet that can be used to avail services from the Web or mobile. At the backend, MobiKwik ties up with third party service providers and application developers and charges a 20 percent commission from them for every sale or lead. MobiKwik does not charge any developer fee for selling applications on the MobiKwik platform. MobiKwik’s retail customers primarily fall into four categories: college students, IT and ITES professionals, home users, and Indian expats (recharge family prepaid phones to call back). “With this e-wallet, micro payments for things like Rs. 5 application or Rs. 10 mobile recharge become possible,” says Singh.
“Our approach to deliver what the public wants is among the plus points that will make us succeed,” affirms Singh. Recently, the company has started its voice services (prepaid recharge for all locations for all operators across India) and will soon be launching data services (GPRS/3G top-ups) and plug-n-play mobile applications. MobiKwik attempts to start a new ‘pull’ model in the Indian telecom space. Whether the users want mobile recharge, check out a new plan or a cool offer, or want to find premium apps for their handsets, they can do it all at MobiKwik.com. “We currently offer a lot of intuitive services around mobile recharge. For instance, a majority of our population does not have access to the Internet. Therefore, we introduced SMS recharge based on the users’ available MobiKwik balance.”

Singh explains the market trend saying, “While only a small fraction of this is currently through the Internet channel; but google search trends for ‘mobile recharge’ and ‘online recharge’ show that the trend of using the Internet for this purpose is growing very fast.” The prepaid mobile user who also uses the Internet is currently a 25 million strong (that is, Rs. 500 crore monthly) market. MobiKwik has created an API, which is being used for marketing campaigns as well as specific channel sales. “The strength of the company lies in the customer service, user experience, and smart services.”

However, crossing several hurdles and stumbling blocks in his entrepreneurial journey, Singh managed to establish a convincing technology in the market. Further, with his well chalked out plans, MobiKwik aims to position itself as the e-commerce ‘platform of choice’ for mobile apps and mobile services.
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