Mobile VAS and ringback tone company OnMobile Global has signed a 3 year ringback tone and reverse ringback tone deal with Bangladesh-based telecom company Banglalink, the company informed BSE. Following this agreement, OnMobile will manage the platform, content and business operations of Banglalink’s Amar Tune (Ringback Tone) and Priyo Tune (Reverse Ringback Tone) for the next three years. Banglalink, which is a subsidiary of Netherlands-based company VEON Ltd., has 32 million customers in Bangladesh, but it’s not clear how many of them subscribe to Amar Tune and Priyo Tune.
Back in July 2014, OnMobile had signed a similar agreement with Bangladeshi telco Robi Axiata to deploy various Interactive Voice Response solutions and ringback tone services. The company had said that it was already managing the ringback tone service for Robi and will be using that partnership to deploy more features and introduce services like reverse ringback tones among others. At the time, the company had also claimed that it had similar tie-ups with all operators in Bangladesh, and with the addition of the Robi deal it claimed to be powering more than 68% of the ringback tone base in the country.
It’s worth noting that the Robi Axiata and Airtel Bangladesh merger received final approval in November last year.
Last year, OnMobile began shutting down non-core businesses and moving to new business models and developing products for the same. It also said it would be concentrating on markets in North America. In August 2016, the company entered into a deal with US-based carrier Sprint for their ringback tone service.
Towards the end of last year, the company renewed its contract with Vodafone for ring-back tones and other services for a further period of 2 years effective January 2017. It also renewed an agreement for providing SMS and WAP services to BSNL for a period of one year.
Financials: OnMobile Global posted a net loss of Rs 1 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016 (Q3 FY17), compared to the net loss of Rs 12.5 crore in the same quarter last year. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 4.1 crore in the preceding quarter. The mobile VAS company was back to profitability in Q1 FY17 after steadily narrowing losses. Revenues stood at Rs 180.5 crore, a decline of 12.7% from Rs 206.8 crore in the same quarter last year. Sequentially, revenues declined by 3.5% from Rs 187.1 crore. Revenue was down due to the demonetization in India, devaluation of the Egyptian Pound and poor performance in Brazil.
