Insights on mobile gamers in urban India Thursday, Apr 30 2009

Lets us take a look at some real statistics on mobile games in India. A survey was conducted in february 2009 taking into consideration, the urban mobile users in India.There are 392 million mobile users in India out of which 27 million users (urban India) play games on their phones almost on a daily basis with men accounting for 59% of the frequent players.    In general games are popular among urban women as much as with urban men in India. However women play games less frequency than men. Almost 60% of those who play games almost on a daily basis are men.

Games statistics - Indian urban mobile game players

There are several ways in which games are accessable to mobile users. Some of them are downloadble, trail versions, purchased, transferred and free. Mobile phone gamers continue to prefer “free games” over paid when it comes to downloading. Out of the 16.76 million urban Indians who downloaded games on their phone in february, 2009 89% or 14.94 million downloaded a free game while almost half also did make a purchase.

Accessible methods for mobile game

These statistics shows that today mobile gaming has become very popular (mobile VAS application), specially among the youth. We see good potential growth in revenues for mobile game developers and providers in India. Do let us know what you think?

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Mobile gaming and game providers in India Friday, Apr 24 2009

Games have gone beyond their fundamental role of entertainment and have graduated into branding tools. The player gets addicted to playing games and subconsciously absorbs the brandname. Games are most popular among the youth today. Mobile games is not just simple to play, but available in variety, multi-dimensional, competitive gaming with cutting-edge technology.  Some of Indian Games developers which is also mentioned in the previous article are smackall, Icreon communication, Nextware Multimedia, DevelopmentIndia etc and Indian content (games) aggregators  are Indiagames, Mauj, Hungama, rediff Mobile, Zapak etc. Almost all device manufacturers have games inbuilt on mobile phones.

Table below provides a competitive matrix of the games provided by content aggregators.

Mobile games and providers in India

By observing and analyzing the list of games provided, it is noticed that Puzzle, action, sports and adventure games are the most wanted games by mobile users (game player) and provided by all games provider mentioned in the matrix. It is also known that java is the most popular platform for developing games. These are just a few mentioned, there are many more game  providers in the market today. All games are handset dependent, so compatibility should be checked before downloading the game.

It is also observed in a survey conducted (see previous article) that women like playing games more than men but only for short duration of time. Men play for longer hours.

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Mobile Gaming: Great source of entertainment Tuesday, Apr 21 2009

With invention of cell phones, users were very much impressed with the fact that it could be used to make phone calls from anywhere. But very soon mobile phones started to modernize, and people wanted more out of their cell phones than just for phone conversation. Various Mobile VAS applications came into existence. Mobile games is also one of them.

What is Mobile game?

Mobile game is a video game played on a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA,or portable media player. Mainly refered to, games played using cell phones. One of the first game which was pre-installed on the mobile phone (almost all phones) is the snake game.

How can one access Mobile games?

Mobile games are usually downloaded via the mobile operator’s radio network, but in most cases are also loaded into the mobile handsets when purchased, or via infrared connection, Bluetooth or memory card. For downloaded able games, service request happens through SMS, MMS, GPRS technologies.  There are four main service discovery channels:

1. Over the Air (OTA) – Game is delivered to the mobile device via wireless carrier networks
2. Sideloaded – Game is loaded onto the mobile phone while connected to a PC, either via USB cable or Bluetooth
3. Pre-installed – Game is preloaded onto the device by the original device manufacturer
4. Mobile browser download – Game is downloaded directly from a mobile website

Mobile games are platform and handset dependent and are mostly developed based on technologies such as Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian OS, Adobe’s Flash Lite, DoCoMo’s DoJa, J2ME, BREW, WIPI, iPhone OS or Google Android platforms. Java (J2ME) being the most popular platform amongst the above.

How popular are Mobile games in India?

Based on a survey conducted early 2009. These are the responses which were collected and based on observations and analysis it was found that men play games on their phones more often (57% play at least once a week) and for longer duration, as compared to Women. 55% of men play for an hour or longer every week.

Mobile Games statistics in India

 

 

Duration of Play

 

 

 

Mobile game providers in India

There are several players (includes device manufacturer, service providers and content aggregators) in India providing mobile games. Some of the  mobile game developers in India are smackall, Icreon communication, Nextware Multimedia, DevelopmentIndia etc and content (games) aggregators  are Indiagames, Mauj, Hungama, rediff Mobile, Zapak etc. Almost all device manufacturers have games inbuilt on mobile phones.

More details on what games are hosted by these players will be discussed in the next blog.  So please stay connected to learn more on mobile games and mobile gaming industries in India.

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Mobile VAS and Statistics: SMS and Internet Usage in India Tuesday, Apr 14 2009

Today mobile phones have moved beyond their primary role of voice communications and have graduated to become an essential entertaining device for mobile users. Today’s youth use phones more to express their thoughts, for social networking, to show their interests, play games, read news, surf on the internet, listen to music, chat instantly with friends & families and even check their bank balances. 

Currently there are ~ 376 million of mobile subscribers in India (TRAI Feb 2009 report). Over 350 billion text messages are exchanged across the world every month.  India is amongst the highest in SMS sent and received. At present in India~ 8-10% of the total mobile subscribers are expected to be GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) subscribers as well. Mobile related industries are every day coming up with fresh and ground – breaking mobile technologies and enjoyable services such as Mobile VAS because of which the world has come close together.

What is Mobile VAS?

Mobile value-added services (m-VAS) are services, which offer differentiation and the ability for mobile operators and/or service providers to charge a premium price for the services offered. In simple terms it is anything but the regular phone voice conversation we make over the mobile network. Mobile VAS includes services such as:

1. SMS (short messaging services) – Text messages of 160 characters : P2P (peer-to peer) and A2P (Application to peer)
2. MMS (Multimedia messaging services) – Send photos, images, screen savers, videos, wallpapers etc.
3. USSD (Unstructured supplementary Service Data) – Interactive menu based services
4. CRBT (Caller Ring Back Tone) – Plays pleasant music for the callers
   Video streaming – Watch on demand movies, TV serials, live sports matches
5. Mobile advertisements – Post banners, promotions, sales discounts
   Polls and contests– Voting for your favorite contestants by sending SMS to the given short code
6. Location based services – Friend finder, restaurants, malls etc
7. Bulk SMS – Send greetings, compose one sms to multiple end-users simultaneously based on festivals, occasions, promote retail sales etc.
8. m-commerce – Banking and secure financial transactions
   Social networking – Instant messaging (Mobile 2.0), sharing video, pictures, presence services, blogging
9. IN services (Intelligent Network) – Call divert, call forward, televoting etc.
10. Infotainment services – Sports news, current affairs, weather reports etc
11. Surfing the Internet  – browsing and content download through WAP portals

These are just a few of them which one can imagine at immediate contemplation. There are many more services available in Mobile VAS.

Let us observe and analyze two very popular m-VAS services in India i.e. Internet and SMS.

Internet usage based on demographics

In India, SMS (A2P and P2A) and VAS content download is very popular amongst the mobile users.  Let us take a look at some real numbers, which is collected, analyzed by surveying ~10K consumers (mobile users).  In our previous article we talked about  “Significance of Market research based on demographics and geographics“,  it can be noticed (refer chart),  men use their mobile phones more than women for browsing the Internet  (54:46 – Male: Female).  Amongst the various services available on the Internet, men and women both use Internet mainly for searching information through search engine or for email purpose. 

SMS  statistics based on demographics

Another popular service in Mobile VAS is SMS.  Take a look at the SMS report, SMS related to downloading of ringtones, wallpapers are the most popular category cite to have received.

   9 out of 10 females recall receiving SMS related to downloading wallpapers compared to around 8 out of 10 males. Categories that males recall include things related to contests or financials products (loans, investments etc).  The above report includes subscribers of all cellular operators in India and mobile users are spread across various parts of  India.

Prediction of Mobile VAS

With the launch of 3G services in India, video streaming, m-commerce, mobile blogs and mobile chat is expected to grow well. As per TRAI predictions, mobile VAS revenue growth contributing to telecom industry is expected to grow to 30% in next 5-7 years. Which is way beyond the current contribution of 10-12%. By 2010 Mobile VAS in India is expected to be 10 billion USD market. Let us wait to see what happens in 2010. Mean while, what do you feel, the potential of other services in Mobile VAS  (CRBT, ringtones, games  etc) going to be by 2010 in comparison to Internet and SMS services.  Do let us know your thoughts.

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Significance of Market research based on demographics and geographies Thursday, Apr 9 2009

Today, India is one amongst the fastest growing mobile market in the world. Telecommunication industry is growing at a rapid pace. Currently, there are ~ 413 million (mobile + landline) subscribers in India and every month ~ 10-12 million users are added to the mobile subscriber base  (Source: TRAI report Feb 2009). This encourages  market research firms to explore the Indian mobile users for primary research purpose and to assit service providers such as telecom players,  specially mobile VAS service providers with increase in their revenue growth.

If we take a look at the high level, the main services offered in market research are:

1. Conduct market research (primary, secondary)
2. Look into market insights and trends
3. Analyze the data/facts
4. Prepare competitive analysis
5. Create reports and finally circulate (sale)

The ultimate goal of any service provider is to provide customer satisfaction and in return improve their ROIs. To achieve customer satisfaction, regular feedback from customers will be beneficial to service providers. This will help service providers retain their existing customers and add new ones to their subscriber base. The main questions which come into market researchers mind is what to ask while taking feedback from consumers (mobile users) and which is usually achieved in the form of surveys. Questions are :

1. Who is the right person to be contacted?
2. What parameters should be measured?
3. How should one analyze the results?
4. How to make the best out of the survey results?

To answers these questions, performing surveys at specific levels is important. It could be either base on demographics or/and geographies . This could be quite rewarding. Demographics could include ( Gender, Age, Income, education etc.) and geographies could include parameters such as City,  State, pincode etc.

Below is sample snaps shot provided for illustration:

Statistics on Internet Access via mobile phone based on gender

More snapshots available at Vital Analytics website

By identifying which market segment to target would definately help service providers increase their revenue growth in short period of time.

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How can service providers know consumer behaviour well? Tuesday, Apr 7 2009

Invention of mobile technologies and its evolution is the biggest blessing to mankind.  Ever since the existence of cellular technologies, there has been continuous innovation in mobile space, adding immense value to  telecom industry.

Today it is not just the adults who use mobile phones, but it is popular amongst the younger generations too, such as teenagers. Consequently, there exists an infinite world who use mobile phones beyond voice conversation and SMS in order to stay in touch with their friends and family. Various mobile services such as Internet (GPRS), Instant messaging, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services), emails etc. has made the world  come together.
 
Who are the Consumers and Service providers?

Before moving further ahead, let us take a look at who are the consumers and service provider I am addressing to. To answer this question, ‘Consumers’ are the mobile users I am referring to and ’service providers’ could be cellular operators, handset manufacturers, content aggregators, VASP (Value Added Service Provider), media and advertising firms, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), government and independent organizations in telecom industry, travel and tourism etc.

What consumer look for in a service/product?

Every consumer has different preferences in a product/services offered by the service provider and their requirement might vary from one another for several reasons based on user interests. Inspite of having different preferences, typically some requirements which almost all mobile users look for are :

1. Excellent quality of product  – bug free, clear and good resolution images
2. Cost effective – Not too expensive
3. High Speed – GPRS connectivity
4. User-friendliness – Simple and easy to use
5. Safe and secure – Specially for transactional services
6. Good customer service – prompt response, high availability, quick turn around time

How can service provider ensure customer satisfaction?

In order for service providers to improve their ROI (Return On Investments),  it is important that they try to address mobile users concerns. This way service providers can retain their exisiting customers and can add new customers to their subscriber/consumer base. Some of the methodologies which service providers could use to know their consumers well are:

1. Conduct surveys to get consumers feedbacks
2. Collect and study consumer data/facts
3. Observe and analyze the statistical reports
4. Frequenty monitor the usage behaviour and attitudinal behaviour
5. Prepare competitive analysis and try to look for where one can improve
6. Target the right market segment based on location and demographics
7. Perform market research regularly to explore new opportunities

The parameters discussed above need to be  performed before service providers launch any of their campaigns. These are some of the key factors to be considered by service providers, in order to take advantage over their competitors and increase their revenue growth.

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