Mobile Market Report SMS Usage In Urban India Document Transcript

1. Mobile Market Report SMS Usage in Urban India http://www.pluggd.in/indiamobile-market-report-sms-as-a-vas-service-297/ SMS, the humble messaging service of the mobile world recently celebrated its 15th birthday, an accidental invention that has demonstrated remarkable resilience and is still at the top. SMS usage continues to grow every year with more and more new innovative ways of utilizing its potential coming to the forefront. Indians are using SMS as an extension of their lives more and more every year, an average Indian sends 29 SMS per month (TRAI data). Its being used not just to keep in touch with friends and family but to check bank balances, mobile bills, and status of train/flight to name a few. The following market report looks at SMS usage in Urban India to shed some light on its future and answer a critical question, Is SMS here to stay or will it be replaced? SMS VAS in India Perspective

2. SMS VAS Users City wise Distribution SMS is a popular medium for delivering Value Added Services (VAS); its a valuable revenue source for service providers, almost 5% of service provider revenue comes from SMS VAS services the highest revenue earning VAS. Almost 20% of Urban Indians or 1 in 5 have used a SMS VAS service over the quarter ending May 2009. On looking at the big 7 Indian cities, Delhities are the most avid users of SMS VAS services, accounting for 6% of all SMS VAS users in Urban India followed by Mumbai and Chennai at 5% each. SMS Usage - City wise

3. Most Popular SMS VAS Usage Receiving jokes via SMS on phones is the most popular SMS VAS service, subscribed by 1 in 2 SMS VAS subscribers followed by Astrology (47%), News alerts (44%) and Jobs (43%). SMS Usage in India - Most Popular Items Gender wise Distribution of VAS Usage Males are generally more active users of SMS VAS services compared to their counterparts. While males are more interested in getting sports updates females are interested in spiritual and astrology quotes. SMS Usage in India - Gender Difference

4. SMS VAS Usage Distribution by Age On looking at usage of SMS VAS services by age, SMS related to Stocks/Finance/Business are most popular among 55 years or older people while Jokes are the most popular SMS VAS service for 18 to 44 years old. SMS VAS Usage in India - Age Matters SMS as a Marketing Tool SMS is increasingly being

viewed by India Inc. as a source of getting in touch with their customers. This is evident from the fact that every second urban Indian acknowledged receiving

marketing/promotional SMS on their phone in quarter ending May 2009. India: SMS as a Marketing Tool The intensity of using SMS for marketing/promotions is quite high with almost 75% receiving a minimum of 4 such SMS.

5. SMS Whats in for companies to use the medium? Companies offering downloads for ringtones/wallpapers/games use SMS as a marketing tool a lot more frequently, 37% of Urban Indians have received a SMS offering such products, followed by entertainment/media companies i.e. movies, music etc, garnering a 36% recall rate. SMS Marketing in India Usage Efficiency of SMS as a Marketing Tool 1 in 3 of Urban Indians who receive a marketing/promotional SMS take some action while 2 out 3 deleted or ignore the message completely. Calling up to inquire (if number available) followed by forwarding message to others are the two most commonly cited actions taken on receipt of marketing/promotional SMS. While 11% also indicated they made a purchase on the basis of information received via SMS. India: Efficiency of SMS as a Marketing Tool

6. SMS Marketing Effectiveness The Battle of Sexes Females are less likely to ignore and/or delete the message compared to males and are more likely to enquire further i.e. by calling up customer service or walking into the store. However males are more involved when it comes to using the coupons/discounts offered in SMS. SMS Marketing Effectiveness The Battle of Sexes SMS Marketing Effectiveness Whats Age Got to with it? 35 to 44 year olds are most likely to purchase a product(s) and/or service(s) based on information received via SMS. SMS Marketing Effectiveness What's Age Gotta Do SMS as an Advertising medium SMS is so widely used in India that its now becoming a medium for advertising as well. Many companies are using this powerful medium to advertise their offerings. 8% of the urban Indians, approx 22 million have seen an ad in a SMS they have received, while 65% of those who have

7. seen have also read the advertisement message. Such high level of awareness indicates the importance of this medium for advertising. India: SMS as an Advertising medium SMS: Contests SMS is also widely used to get people involved in contests for products/services/games etc. 26% of urban Indians have participated in a SMS contest with males participating more compared to females.

8. India: SMS Contests Source of contests: TV is by far the most popular medium for spreading awareness about SMS contests, 87% of all those who participated in such contests found out about them via TV. India: SMS Contests - TV Rules SMS: Miscellaneous Uses 2% of urban Indians, approx 6 million have used SMS to get directions 7% have used SMS to get reminders for upcoming bill payments SMS was used as a tool for getting in touch with population by almost all national and regional political parties in recently concluded federal elections. 10% of urban Indians received SMS message(s) from one or more political parties.

9.

How

&

What

Mobile

Phone

Services

does

India

use

Report

http://trak.in/tags/business/2009/06/23/report-onhow-what-indian-mobile-phone-servicesvas/ India is currently the 2nd largest Mobile Market in the world after China, adding nearly 10-12 million subscribers on average monthly. At the end of April 2009, Indian Mobile subscriber base was pegged at 403.66 million, as per recent TRAI number. Most of the Metros and big cities have nearly come to a saturation point, however, the current phase of growth in Indian Mobile Market is in Rural areas that is now accounting for majority of growth in mobile space. Having said that, I thought it would be interesting for our readers to know how 270 million odd Urban subscribers use their mobile phone So here you go, some of the numbers may surprise you, while some may disappoint, but it sure makes a good reading. Which Indian City Uses Social Networking maximum through its mobile phones? Nearly 10% Delhi Mobile subscribers use Social Networking services on their mobile phones, followed by Mumbai & Chennai. No doubt, I see hoards of Delhites, tweeting from their mobile phones !

10. Which Social networking site is most favoured by Indian Urban Mobile Subscribers? Okay, we know Orkut is the king in India be it web or Mobile, but what in the world is Mycantos, which accounts for nearly 4% of urban India using it?. I am also surprised that twitter does not find any mention here Isnt it part of a Social Networking Phenomenon? Which is the most favoured Mobile Search Engine by Indians? Nearly 18.5 million Indian Urban Mobile subscribers used their mobile phones for searches, with Google taking the numero-uno position with 5.76 million followed by yahoo with 4.58 million.

11. Which mobile site is used daily by Indian Urban Mobile Subscribers? Again, no surprised here the winner is Google followed by Yahoo. Nearly half of Urban India uses Google daily on their mobile phones. Which IM application does Urban India use on its Mobile phones? A quarter (25%) of all urban Indians who use IM over their phone do so from an application that came preloaded in the phone. o Pre-Loaded IM Application 25.7% o Web Browser for IM 19.1% o Third party downloaded IM app 16.8% Which is the most popular IM service used by Urban Indian Mobile Subscribers? Ahasurprises here Yahoo! Messenger has narrowly edged Googles Gtalk to become most popular messenger service with urban Indian mobile users, with a 18.3% market share followed closely by Google Talk (17.8%). Nice to see Yahoo beating Google, atleast somewhere :). I am sure though next few months will see Google coming to No.1.

12. Which Indian Mobile service provider offers the most reasonable prices, Reliable Customer Support and diver range of Products? The state and Government run companies seem to score well in reasonable offerings column, while MTNL and Vodafone score in the reliable customer support offering. Aircel followed by Airtel top when it comes to offering its subscribers diverse range of mobile products. Do Indian Mobiles subscribers participate in Mobile Contests? Offcourse they do, that too in large numbers! Almost 60% of Females have participated in 1 to3 SMS contests and though this is higher than their male counterparts, in frequency of participation males outshine females. And what is the source of these SMS Contest? offcourse, it is dominated with TV. all reality TVs, song and dance shows choose their winners via some or the other SMS contest and India just loves it. have a look

13. 86% of all SMS contest originate from TV, followed by Newspapers and Internet. Mobile VAS services report Here are some numbers on how Urban India uses the Mobile Value Added Services offered by Telecom providers. SMS Based Value Added Services

14. Nearly 56 Million urban Indians used a VAS related SMS subscription service in March/April 2009 out of which Reliance Mobile CDMA accounted for a quarter of all subscribers to VAS SMS subscription service, followed by Bharti Airtel (18%) and Vodafone (14%). Which is the most popular SMS service used by Urban India? This number actually surprised me I had thought News and probably Jobs would garner most votes, but NO it is Jokes that used by 52% of Urban Indian Mobile users followed by

Astrology. Once conclusion I can definitely make from these numbers is that majority of mobile users in India fall into Age group of 16-25 years ! Which are the popular VAS options that Urban India likes? No surprises here Unlimited Internet Access & better offers on SMS bundles are the two VAS options that Indian urban mobile phone users look at while deciding on a service.

15. Which is the most popular M-Commerce Activity for Urban Indian Mobile phone users Nearly 98 million of all mobile users have used mobile phones to recharge their card or pay their phone bill The second most popular M-Commerce activity is buying movie tickets (39.67 million) Which is the most popular VAS service used by Urban Indian Mobile Phone User? Finding out who called and informing people when busy are the two other most popular Value added services used by Urban India. Missed call alerts is used by almost 110 million urban Indians while Talk/Voice SMS is used by almost 80 million. Note: The above graphs / numbers are created by

www.vitalanalytics.in. (let us know if you have any questions on these numbers)