Mobile VAS in India is evolving

India, in spite of all these years is still a developing country! I guess that makes it OK for us to deem any other industry developing, even agriculture. Anyway, this is about Mobile VAS and the recent IAMAI (Internet And Mobile Association of India) conference threw some light on the evolving industry. Yes, Mobile VAS is also 'developing' and making up its mind on what to do next, with the kind of ecosystem thrown all around it.

The conference was a decent crowd…operators, technology companies, pure content players, short-codes etc. etc. but one question goes unanswered all the time…Revenue share with the Operators!! When is the industry going to reverse its equation where the content providers get more than the Operators?

Today, a simple SMS based Shayari created and promoted by a short-code when downloaded by a single user generates revenue for the content provider in terms of Paisa! The same SMS gets forwarded and circulated crazily generating say a hundred bucks for the operator, none of which benefits the original content provider. Visualize this scenario by thousands of plain text SMS everyday; you will know what I mean.
And this is just plain text SMS, the cheapest of all content.

We are told time and again about creation of localized content. Does the measly revenue share justify the time, effort and resources put in?

A single ringtone (MP3, True etc.) costs more than the song put in a CD; the high end phones can download the entire song and play it as a ringtone for free. If you have a Bluetooth enabled phone you can bully your friend or colleague to pass that cool tone to you via her Bluetooth. Yet the cost of procuring a ringtone remains as it was.

I can go on writing about the elusive GPRS user who is simply not transacting on phone in spite of some really cool applications available in the market. I can write about people voting for all kinds of idols and icons on SMS believing it to be the ultimate in mobile Value Added Service. I can write about Bollywood producers who believe that ringtones would recover the cost of the movie but then this dose of pessimism is enough for the day, I believe.

I am grappling for some answers here, generally thinking aloud. I am observing the water level in the glass, not really bothering to comment whether it is half empty or half full.