 "$10 billion digital opportunities knocking, but are Indian telcos listening?")
As the Indian online market is set to explode, the telecom companies in the country are expected to generate $8-$10 billion in cumulative revenue over the next three years, according to a joint study by Google and AT Kearney. The study expects the country to see another mobile explosion by 2017 as the online community more than doubles to 480 million. By 2017, 385 million people will have smartphones, six times more than today, and the number of online transactors will explode to 160 million-eight times as many as today.
Data consumption will triple, and consumers will be buying five times as much content. This transformation will happen at an unprecedented pace. For Indian telcos, a world of value-creating opportunities is about to emerge, the study said.
[caption id=“attachment_78973” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Representational Image. Thinkstock[/caption]
“Indian telcos are poised to leapfrog directly into a digital play, since the shift from data to digital will happen much faster in India, as more digital content and services are adopted by users. By FY17, the Indian telecom industry is expected to reach $35 billion in revenues, with data revenues growing at over 70 per cent per year till then and new digital VAS streams emerging and growing exponentially,” Nikolai Dobberstein, a Partner at A.T. Kearney, and one of the authors of the report, said.
According to Kearney, the four priority areas that could unlock huge revenues for the Indian telecom operators are: e-store and e-care – online recharges for prepaid mobile phones, online customer services, and online acquisitions – could add cumulative revenues of $400 million; media content and services to create more than $6 billion in additional data and content revenues; mobile business apps (MBA) for SMEs have the potential to create $1 billion revenues for telcos; and M-payments enabled e-stores, paid content and app transactions which would create $180 million additional revenue streams for the telecos.
Google India MD Rajan Anandan said about 73 percent of mobile data consumers would be willing to spend more time online if more entertainment content were available in an engaging format. “Similarly, 70 percent of Internet users have not yet tried online recharges but are willing to try because of the inconvenience they face with traditional channels. We believe, Indian telcos have a great opportunity to proactively create tremendous value by driving a digital strategy aligned with consumer needs,” Anandan said.
“Forward-thinking players will develop their digital vision and determine their own position on the risk-reward curve of digital plays,” the study added.
“India is set to witness unparalleled Internet momentum, and telcos are uniquely positioned to take full advantage of it. It is time to get going and be digital.”