VAS and APPs: Are We There Yet?

The mobile now commands two out of every three minutes that we spend on digital media. The last three years witnessed a growth of 53 percent of the digital time spent on our mobile phones, thanks to the proliferation of the mobile apps and easy access to mobile data. The usage is steeper for youngsters in the age bracket of 18-24 years, who on an average are spending nearly 93 hours a month on their smartphones – which is almost 20 percent of their waking hours!

From consumers wary of making a phone call on their mobile phone due to high cost, to consumers today, who are inseparable from their mobile phones at all times. What started as an alternate revenue stream called VAS with a simple texting feature of SMS has today become full blown communication, interaction and commerce on Apps.

Fast mobile broadband networks, well-designed mobile devices and the increasing supply of content, applications and services have unleashed an unprecedented consumer demand for more. The ever-increasing data subscribers have led operators to unearth new opportunities to increase their monetization levels through innovative provisioning of this new Value Added Services (VAS).

Telecom operators are rushing to meet the growing data demand that is almost doubling every year. 4G is now available in over 100 + networks around the world and is expected has overtaken 3G subscriptions in 2016. Revenue from 4G is expected to be almost 80% of overall access revenue.

The heart of this is the consumer and his hunger to demand and absorb it all – faster access speed, intuitive applications, content, seeking information and services that makes his digital life simple, connected and available at fingertips. They value convenience in content services – readily accessible across devices, easy to pay for and easy to find and they prefer to pay for access than for premium services. They have therefore moved to