"Don't compare the US Market (for Mobile VAS) to the Indian Market," said Viren Popli, SVP & Head of Mobile Entertainment For STAR India, responding to a question at Mobile Monday Mumbai (MoMo Mumbai). "The US market is built on a $3 ringtone, while the Indian market is built on a Rs. 7 ringtone. When you are told in the US that you've got a 100,000 ringtone downloads, you are paid for a 100,000 ringtone downloads after 1 month. In India, if you have 700,000 ringtone downloads, you're told you've got 100,000, and you get paid for 30,000, one year after its done." Popli rubbished claims of India being a competitive market, saying that while in the US, there are only 3 mobile operators, the revenue shares are much higher, despite their being at least three times as many mobile operators in India. A rather shocking revelation - "If you have ever dealt with mobile operator, you will know that after your meeting ends with one operator, every mobile operator knows what you're talking about." I don't know about you, but the word CARTEL comes to mind. No wonder some VAS players are pushing for standardization and transparency in this space. So is the solution in going off-deck and allowing advertising to pay for the content? Says Popli: "In telecom, operators have actively discouraged free content. If you put your content up for free - the amount of money I make off advertising on a per-click basis, is equal to…
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@ MoMo Mumbai: “Don’t Compare The US Market For VAS To The Indian Market”, Says Viren Popli, SVP & Head (Mobile Ent), STAR India
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