Idea Cellular, the third largest telecom company in the country, said that it would be launching its mobile games app in the third quarter of this fiscal year. While chat, music and movie streaming apps would be launched in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, according to the company’s presentation to investors.
Readers will note that Idea Cellular CEO, Himanshu Kapania had said that the “4G era will be about building an ecosystem of digital services” and that it was not the best way to treat the Internet as a dumb pipe. At the time, he also made a mention of Reliance Jio and said “only telecom players with an ability to sustain an integrated offering including Voice, High speed mobile broadband services, Digital Sales and Service channel, Digital content and Payments services on a nationwide basis will thrive.”
Earlier this month, Reliance Jio offered a bouquet of apps which includes video and music streaming, magazines, news, chat and TV streaming for Rs 1250.
Idea Money growth
Over the past year, Idea has been building up its mobile wallet user base. At the end of the June quarter, Idea Money, Idea Cellular’s mobile wallet service, had 3.4 million customers growing 66% quarter-on-quarter from 2.05 million customers. Idea had launched the service in August 2014, after eight months of receiving a wallet service from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Idea Money had 590,000 customers in the the Q3FY16. The average transaction value increased 51.1% to Rs 334 from Rs 221 in the preceding quarter. The total transaction value increased 18.5% q-o-q to Rs 9.16 crore. The transaction count however declined 21.6% to 2.75 million from 3.5 million in the previous quarter.
Eros Now partnership
Idea Cellular signed a partnership with Eros Now for a platform and content deal in January. The partnership would enable Idea 4G customers to watch movies, originals and short form videos at Rs 49 per month. Essentially, Idea will provide Eros’ app for around half its usual price of Rs 99 per month to its customers.
