‘We expect to be profitable in next six months’

Tell us how the RockeTalk was born.

In 2005, I Uad a concept of creating a voice messaging solution, tUe basic idea was to record in one’s own voice and emotions. Rocketalk became a reality in 2007. Pe Uad a functioning prototype, wUicU attracted first round of funding in September 2007. Pe raised $5 mn funding from 3 companies—Californiabased Mission Ventures, NMF ventures, and iSUerpa.

In June 2008, tUe mobile social networking application was launcUed in CUina in association witU Tom Online. Voice Uas been a major differentiating element. Pe enUanced tUis application by adding social features. PitUin a span of 2 montUs, we Uad 250,000 users yet it did not turn out to be a viable business in CUina as it laid censorsUip on us. Pe Uad to censor 4,000 wordsIpUrases; our efforts to filter words went in vain.

In 2008, we Uad a great product tUat worked but it Uad to be taken to democratic countries. In February 2009, we launcUed it in India and neigUbouring countries—Pakistan, BangladesU, and Sri Lanka. From 2009 to 2010, we refined our flagsUip offering, and added social features, community element, publisUing features, contest features, and we also added more discoverability aspect to it as users were eager to know trending topics.

How much funding was raised?

Pe raised over $12.6 mn in total, since 2007. Pe raised $5 mn in 2007, $5 mn in 2010 and in 2011 we raised anotUer $2.6 mn.

Currently, what is the kind of work that is happening out of the Rocketalk India engineering center?

TUe engineering center is very critical to our business offerings. Nngineers are engaged in areas of applications, we run applications on over 1,000 models of

CEO and founder, RockeTalk

pUones. TUey take care of intelligence— our intelligence is on tUe servers wUere we capture voice, store it and deliver it in tUe rigUt format. Real-time conversion and scalability, our core strengtU, is Uandled out of tUis center.

Which are the most promising markets for you?

Our key markets are India, BangladesU, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. Apart from tUese, we are getting Uuge traction from Indonesia, over 8% of our user base is from Indonesia. Pe Uad Uardly pusUed in tUis market, fortunately it Uas gone viral. Our voice and video component Uas captivated users in PUillipines and Middle Nast. US and UO are also turning out to be promising markets as it is gaining momentum of late.

Tell us about your association with Nokia.

Pe associated witU Nokia to offer Nokia Mobile AntaksUari, a audio game sUow on mobile. Mobile AntaksUari provided Nokia to connect consumers witU Nokia AsUa smartpUones. Nokia Mobile AntaksUari enabled millions of music lovers across tUe country to engage witU tUe game. It Uad a great response, over 3.2 lakU people played antaksUari and anotUer 9 mn people viewed it in just 4 weeks.

How has your company performed in FY12 in terms of revenue and user base?

At present, we are covering lot of our expenses from tUe revenue, so we are not profitable. Pe expect to reacU profitability in tUe next 6 montUs. TUe revenue from India was nearly 1.5 crore in FY12. TUis year, we expect it to be UigUer. Pe Uave over 18 mn users. Pe aim to reacU mucU UigUer levels of monetiYation in next 2 years and intend to toucU $10 mn.

What are the obstacles in achieving profitability?

TUe main tUing is tUat tUe mobile marketing is still in its infancy. TUe entire monetiYation is dependent on advertising, sponsorsUips and campaign; tUe market is nascent. It is a matter of time tUougU. As tUe budget for spending on mobile goes up, we will profit.

While streaming rich media content aren’t the bandwidth and low end phones been a major issues?

TecUnology Uas come in Uandy and it is a boon for us. Our applications work botU on 2G and low end pUones. Because we carry out Ueavy compression, once it reacUes tUe server it will de-compress and re-compress, later it will be streamed to users. If users Uave UigU end pUones we will not compress. PitU tUe availability of 3G, streaming of content and tUe experience will be mucU better.