Advertisment

Marketing to Cell

author-image
DQI Bureau
New Update

Two people in a small kiosk at a local supermart want you to try out the new
breakfast cereal being launched by a popular food maker. There would be many
such stalls and people distributing samples across the country, and at some
point, across many countries around the globe. We have all been through such an
encounter, probably even till very recently. But can we ever imagine the same
thing happening over the mobile phone? Yes, we can.

Advertisment

In early this January, Kraft Foods tied up with YOC to create a mobile
campaign to promote the launch of its new instant coffee products, Jacobs 3in1
and Jacobs 2in1, in the USA. The aim was to minimize sampling wastage and
associated costs, and achieve accuracy in the research. The campaign is a mix of
traditional media with an intention to conveniently provide consumers a way of
ordering samples of the coffee via mobile. The campaign was launched across
print, TV and mobile. The results: 500,000 samples were placed directly among
the target group and more than 80,000 users registered their details for
permission-based marketing in the future. And thats just the beginning of the
success of the campaign.

Mobile marketing is here to stay.

At home, there is a strong and definite move toward mobile marketing. From
the use of technology, including the ubiquitous cell phone, to reach out to
vote-banks by political parties, campaigning for social causes, or even the
annual sale notifications by popular brands that fill our inboxesthe change is
visible and affecting us.

Advertisment

Hard to Ignore

Traditional forms of advertising continue to be where clients and
advertisers put maximum money. But the mobile is a powerful communications
device with respect to mobility, reach, and immediacy, and this is becoming hard
to ignore. The numbers also say that the scope is immense: with 2.4 bn mobile
phones sold around the world last year and 350 bn text messages exchanged across
the world mobile networks every month, promotion and branding through mobile to
soon become mainstream is topping future predictions.


Popular Mobile Marketing Trends
  • Search services through SMS: movie show
    timings, dictionary definitions, phone book listings, and product prices,
    etc
  • Ringtones, ringback tones, etc, of movies,
    music albums, television shows, etc
  • Instant news through SMS, RSS feed on the
    mobile phone
  • Election campaigns, governance-related
    surveys and polls
  • Public service ads, campaigns
  • Social networking meets mobile SMSes/WAP
  • In-game mobile marketing
  • Location based services
  • Bluetooth marketing

And with Internet reaching out to mobile handsets and networks, the impact
becomes manifold. PC Internet led the way to an interactive and instant medium.
The mobile Internet is all that along with instant gratification. Here lies its
strength and business proposition for advertisers.

Advertisment

Data Bytes
  • 2.4 bn mobile phones sold around the world
    last year
  • More mobile phones than PCs in the world
  • 350 bn text messages exchanged across the
    world mobile networks every month
  • 15% of mobile subscriber are on the GPRS
    platform
  • Integrating Web services on the mobile
    medium is the future of the mobile
  • Global mobile advertising revenue to grow
    from $4,586 mn in 2008 to $7,375 mn in 2009, with a forecast growth of up
    to $19,149 mn in 2012

Mobile marketing is very location-based and targeting is simpler. Revenue
sharing will happen because it is not an open ecosystem, but it may change with
the Internet. The faster the Internet penetration the sooner the revenue sharing
equation will change, says Vinay Goel, head of products, Google India.

It was not until now that we have started recommending the mobile as a
medium of communication, simply because people didnt know how to, says Nihar
Das, regional managing partner, Mediacom.

Advertisment

A study by eMarketer in 2008 shows a positive growth in global mobile
advertising revenue from $4,586 mn in 2008 to $7,375 mn in 2009, with a forecast
growth of up to $19,149 mn in 2012. Mobile search advertising, mobile display
advertising and mobile message advertising would be the three main pillars
driving industry growth.

Mobile Marketing is the most upcoming medium for advertisers and marketers
globally. The current technology is fully capable of adjusting to the connection
speeds and type on connectivity. The advertising engine adapts to basic GPRS,
Edge, 3G or 4G and displays advertisements accordingly. Most handsets in India
currently support basic mobile browsing and thus a large number of traffic
originates from India, says Sanjay G, founder, mobiSolv.

The Nike campaign
hoarding at Times Square, New York City
Advertisment

Having 300 mn mobile subscribers in India brings the opportunity for
advertisers to go where nothing else canthe rural belt. We have seen more
downloads happening from small towns and rural areas than in metros because in
the metros people are exposed to multiple medium. For promotion campaigns in
rural parts of the country, we have even used unicode which has had a great
impact, says Saurabh Vartikar, vice president, Mauj.

Integration is Key

Choosing mobile as a medium of advertising and marketing is mainly to
overcome the disconnect that lies in traditional advertising methods. So as
SMSes or even WAP portal ads result in providing anytime, anywhere information
to customers, Internet is taking that to the next level and enabling them to
take action with that information immediately. The growth of Web usage on the
mobile, and especially smartphones, has greatly given a fillip to mobile
marketing, and helped it come out of its pull-based SMS advertising image to a
certain extent.

Companies with a physical presence in the form of stores, catalogs, websites,
and even those related directly to people will be able to leverage mobile
marketing to extend their presence. With the coming of 3G, marketing through
location based servicespromotions and information based on the location of the
customerswill have a direct impact on the point of sales. To know about
discounts being offered by restaurants in the area that you are in would be of
more relevance than getting generic SMSes about sales and discount at
restaurants on the other side of the city!

Advertisment

Advertisers have seen higher results through mobile advertising on WAP
portals than on the Internet. Explaining this, Asif Atif, CTO, Mobile Worx says,
The results through mobile marketing have been modest, though not a paradigm
shift. Click through rate on the mobile is much better than on the Internet.
Roughly, Internet has a click through rate of below 1% while mobile has
somewhere between 1-7%. He believes that thanks to the mobile and new and
innovative applications, consumers can have access to services for free because
someone else is paying for it (advertisers).

Prevailing Trends

A Nike hoarding on Times Square, New York City called people to SMS ideas of
shoes, that would then be customized, click and put-up at that very spot. The
designs selected were given free to the creator. The idea was compelling, easy,
and eye-catching, and all enabled by an SMS short-code and human creativity.
Needless to say, the mobile promotional activity was a sweeping success.

Major companies are taking up mobile marketing and coming closer to the
households. Retail giants, banks, insurance agencies, and even medicos are using
the mobile to club services with marketing. When customers SMS a balance query
to their banks, it is likely that the information is provided along with new
schemes. A GPRS connection will further enhance the experience and effect.

Advertisment

Mobile integrated events as a mobile marketing tool, where users write in
comments or send ideas about products, design or people are fast becoming
popular. Mobiles for election campaigns have also become popular. An NGO
recently used the mobile SMS mode to invite Mumbaikars to form a human chain to
show solidarity against the Mumbai terror attacks. Here the interpersonal,
intimate, and interactive traits of the mobile are being used to the
advertisers and campaigners advantage.

Nihar Das of Mediacom says that the growth of mobile marketing has just begun
for countries like India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. But since the PC
Internet penetration is so low in these countries, the only means to reach the
rural areas would be through mobile phones that now commonly come with GPRS
enabled in them.

Sunrise advertisers like insurance will drive the mobile marketing growth,
says Das. Traditional advertisers like FMGC will like to incorporate mobile into
cross-media marketing mix in order to differentiate themselves from competition.

Maujs Vartikar says that in the future a lot depends of 3G. We are really
waiting for 3G. While initially there wont be much activity, but gradually,
mobile commerce, mobile coupons and location based services are going to be the
next big things in mobile marketing.

Not there Yet, and Why

Mobile marketing is however fairly a newcomer in the mobile ecosystem driven
by its advantageous characteristics of high reach and personalization, yet
fumbling when it comes to how best to leverage those characteristics.

Though there is a shift toward mobile Internet-based marketing, the focus
remains on SMSes. Whether messages sent proactively to inform loyal/existing
customers on schemes that might benefit thempush-based, or messages that are
sent randomlypull-based, junk SMSes are as common. Though both push and
pull-based ads are found while navigating WAP portals as well, the user
perception differs greatly. For the success of mobile marketing, and to both
gain and retain user confidence, assuring them of their privacy should be
top-of-mind. Also, marketing that will improve their lifestyle and productivity
will be a success.

Unethical and un-solicited SMS sending has been providing a bad reputation
for the marketers, but mobile Internet browsing is totally user dependent with
no invasion of privacy. It works on the pull mode and displays advertisements
only when the users are browsing similar to Internet browsing. This is another
reason, mobile Internet-based advertising is more acceptable to advertisers and
marketers, says Sanjay of mobiSolv.

It is predicted that even as mobile Internet grows, mobile text messaging
will still play an important role in 2009, especially for a country like India
where 3G is yet to make a difference.

According to Vartikar, Mobile is a tactical media; it is supportive. So
branding is difficult. But because it is intimate and impulsive, it is very
effective for promotional activities. As of now, majority of brand names
jumping into the mobile marketing space are using SMS as the first and major
step toward mobile marketing.

For Das, effectiveness of mobile marketing is not in campaigns. Mobile
advertising will work best only when there is a chance for it to convert into
transactions. It is effective once it can be converted into a purchase.

Asif Ali, CTO, Mobile Worx says that the next three years are big for the
mobile marketing space. Mobile has been seen as an additional or supportive
medium, but in the three years companies would allot 20-25% of their advertising
to the mobile, predicts Ali.

As with all marketing tools and media, a profitable proposition is the one
that takes into account user privacy and relevance. User consent can work in
favor of the service provider and advertiser as they can bring them
personalized, timely and relevant information by means of ads and services
togethera reason that would eventually lead to mobile marketing and information
working hand-in-hand.

Shikha Das

shikhad@cybermedia.co.in

ACL Wireless

CEO: Sanjay Goyal

Year of Start-up: 2000

Target Customers: Telcos, consumers, agencies, enterprises

Address: ACL Wireless Limited, First Floor, Tower D, Logix Technopark,
5-Expressway, Sec-127 Noida - 201 301, India

Tel: 20 4069400

Fax: 120 4069599

Website: www.acl-wireless.com

Positioning: ACL Wireless is a
leading provider of mobile value added services. Headquartered in India, it
employs over 250 people and was founded in the year 2000. ACL offers a wide
range of SMS, IVR and GPRS-based applications and services to mobile
operators, enterprise and consumers. The company specializes in the
development of consumer centric mobile community applications and managed
mobility services. ACLs portfolio of products include mobile instant
messaging, mobile social networking, mobile chat, SMS broadcast and alerts,
SMS and voice short codes, carrier agnostic connectivity, ring-back-tones,
voice and WAP portals, and mobile content aggregation amongst others. These
products and services are deployed on more than 30 mobile networks in over
20 countries across India, Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and Latin
America.
Acision

CEO: Rory Buckley

Year of Start-up: 2007

Target Customer: Telcos

Address: Vatika Tower, Ground Floor, Block B, Sector 54, Golf Course Road,
Gurgaon122 002, Haryana, India

Tel: 124 4646100

Website: www.acision.com
Positioning: Acision is the
worlds leading messaging company, providing communication solutions for
over 300 network operators and service providers globally. The company
enables more than 300 customers to serve over 1.5 bn consumers in 135
countries across six continents. It delivers more than half of the worlds
text and multimedia messages and serves three quarters of all videomail
users. Acision was the first company to enable management decision making
based on real time analysis of subscriber behavior. Its mobile payment
systems have enabled global customers to secure more than $100 bn of
revenues.
AccelTree

CEO: Vivek Mannige

Target Customer: Enterprises

Address: 305, Pride Kumar Senate,Senapati Bapat Road, Pune - 411 016

Tel: 020-6603-3122 / 2565-2550

Website: www.acceltree.com

Positioning: AccelTree Software
focuses on delivering quality software which enables customers run their
business with maximum efficiency. AccelTrees core specialization is in
mobile enterprise applications. AccelTrees team of technologists comprises
software architects, engineers, localization consultants and domain experts.

AccelTree uses its expertise in the mobility and
Java space to build bespoke solutions using its FRED Mobile Framework. It is
a rapid application platform for building and deploying cell phone-based
applications that can be used enterprise-wide. It helps build applications
that are Web-based, involve workflows and interact with multiple back-end
systems.

Active Media Technology

MD India: Raj Singh

Target Customers: Telcos, enterprises, agencies

Address: A-61, Sector - 57, Noida-201301, UP, India

Tel: 120 4078000

Website: www.activemediatech.com

Positioning: Active Media
Technology is involved in deploying mobile coupons, vouchers, loyalty
solution, tickets and m-CRM solutions. They have the credit of delivering
and redeeming the most number of mobile coupons in the world. Their mobile
marketing technology and campaign solutions enable clients to target brand
messages and content, improving the effectiveness of marketing spend through
the mobile medium.Their patent pending RAPOS (Redemption at POS) technology
is a scalable product suite that is already powering the entire UK cinema
industry, leading operators, media companies, global brands and retailers.
Atom Technologies

CEO: Jignesh Shah, CEO

(Financial Technologies)

Year of Start-up: 2006

Target Customers:

Telocs/Consumers/Enterprises

Address: Dipti Classic, 6th floor, Suren Road, Chakala, Andheri East, Mumbai
- 400093. India.

Tel: 91 22 67698300

Website: www.atomtech.com

Positioning: Atom Technologies
is a mobile payments service provider. Focusing on innovative use of
technology in the mobile transactions ecosystem, Atom Technologies has
created multiple patent pending products and services for mobile payments,
mobile banking for the unbanked, IVR-based payments and mobile based service
distribution framework. Atom Technologies is an initiative of The Financial
Technologies Group. A group that pioneered the creation of high transaction
density backbone and solutions for financial intermediaries and digital
marketplaces globally.
Bharti Telesoft

CEO: Manoranjan Mohapatra

Year of Start-up: 1999

Target Customers: Telcos, handset manufactures

Address (HO/India HO): F-13, Okhla Phase-1, New Delhi- 110 020, India.

Tel: 11 41611666

Website: www.bhartitelesoft.com

Positioning: Bharti Telesoft is
the leading provider of integrated VAS solutions for mobile operators in
emerging markets. Its broad portfolio of offerings reflect the demands and
opportunities of the growing mobile marketplace: mLifestyle and mCommerce
solutions, core VAS applications that differentiate the operator in
increasingly competitive markets. With the recent acquisition of Jataayu, a
leading provider of mobile Internet applications, Bharti Telesoft now
supports operator differentiation via its Jataayu Mobile Device Solutions
portfolio of applications, working with handset manufacturers to create
interfaces and services that deliver a competitive edge. Among the top 3
global providers of integrated VAS solutions in rapidly growing markets,
Bharti Telesoft has deployed solutions for over 100 mobile operators in over
70 countries worldwide. Its solutions help power services to over 500 mn
mobile subscribers globally.
Buzzcity Technologies

CEO: Dr Lai Kok Fung

Year of Start-up: 1999 (Singapore HQ)

Target Customers: Enterprises, consumers, telcos, ad agencies

Address (India HO): 04, Makani Centre, Off Linking Road, Bandra (W),
Mumbai-50

Website: www.buzzcity.com

Positioning: BuzzCity runs a
community-based mobile advertising network, and owns and builds myGamma.comthe
worlds largest mobile social networking community. The advertising network
has over 2,200 most popular WAP sites of the world and myGamma.com has over
3.1 mn users across the globe. The advertising network provides advertisers
an exclusive opportunity to reach out to a huge unwired population across
the globe and manage/control their advertising campaign with targeting
parameters as Country, Time Zone, Telco/Operator, Region, Handsetmake,
device and patform along with a day budget and a completely DIY advertiser
interface.
CanvasM Technologies

CEO: Jagdish Mitra

Year of Start-up: 2006

Target Customers: Enterprise, consumer, telcos, ad agencies

Address: A-20 Sector-60 Noida 201 301 UP, India

Tel: 120-400-8920

Website: www.canvasm.com

Positioning: A player in the
mobile VAS space, CanvasM is focused on developing and deploying VAS
solutions, applications and platforms for its clients. It specializes in
end-to-end enabling of solutions with managed services which bring together
content, technology and device expertise to ensure an enhanced digital
experience to customers of telcos, media houses and enterprises. CanvasM
leverages the telecom expertise of Motorola with the system integration
capability of Tech Mahindra. CanvasMs offerings are spread across the
domains of entertainment, digital promotion, network and utility VAS. It
also houses an innovation center and testing lab which enables hosting and
rapid prototyping of applications helping companies take their products to
market faster.
Cellcast Interactive

CEO: Pankaj Thakar

Target Customers: Media/agencies, consumers

Address: PO Box No 16338, Delisle Road Post Office, Mumbai-400 013

Website: www.cellcast.in
Positioning: Cellcast
Interactive India is into developing integrated participation content in the
fast-growing Indian mobile and interactive TV market. Its primary product is
Bid2Win, which has already received 30 mn responses from 2.5 mn individuals
in a span of one year. Cellcasts content is distributed on new as well as
traditional media with real-time participation enabled through SMS, IVRs,
Web, WAP & 3G. With TV as mass medium and Print, Internet & Radio too used
extensively. Cellcasts content has strong revenue generating capabilities.
Cellcast India has already created a strong track record in this arena, and
has rapidly growing operations in several countries like Sri Lanka, and
Malaysia.
Cellebrum Tech

CEO: Saket Agarwal

Target Customers: Enterprises, telcos

Address: Sector-1, Parwanoo, Distt Solan (HP) 173 220

Tel: 01792-232368; 01792-232369

Website: www.cellebrum.com

Positioning: Cellebrum
Technologies is into the business of operating in the Wireless Applications
space, developing innovative applications and also wireless-enabling the
existing ones. They are involved and focused in two major areas: wireless
applications development and wireless applications. Uniquely positioned as
one of the foremost company in Asia Cellebrum provides a complete set of
services and implementation skills for converging technologies, such as
telecommunications, mobile phones and the Internet (e-commerce). They have
the capability and competency to provide end-to-end solution for diverse
technological setups.
Cellnext Solutions

CEO: Aspy D Mehta

Year of Start-up: 2001

Target Customers: Enterprises, telcos, media agencies

Address: Cellnext Solutions A-186, Okhla Phase-I, New Delhi-110020, India

Tel: 011 26818445

Website: www.cellnext.com

Positioning: Cellnext is a
next-generation end-to-end enabler of mobile value added services for mobile
operators, media companies, content providers, enterprises and others. A
subsidiary of the $500 mn Escorts Group and a leading provider for mobile
connectivity, applications, solutions, content and services, Cellnext was
established in year 2000-01 and works with all major telecom operators and
large enterprises like Airtel, Idea, Reliance, American Express, LIC, UTI
Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank enabling all the players in the value chain to
deploy value added services quickly and cost effectively. Cellnext has
expertise across telecom connectivity bearers like SMS, IVR, MMS,GPRS and
has available a range of mobile applications to be deployed on such bearers.
Four Interactive

Co-Founders: Kiran Konduri and Shriram Adukoorie

Year of Start-up: 2006

Target Customers: Enterprise, consumer

Address (India HO): #1132, 4th Floor, 100ft Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar,
Bangalore-Tel: 91 80 4040 7777

Website: www.asklaila.com

Positioning: Four Interactive is
focused on building easy-to-use services that are at the intersection of the
mobile, content and the online world for Indian consumers. Asklaila is
Indias local information service, launched by the Bangalore-based start-up.
Asklaila provides accurate local information along with user-generated
content that presents interesting perspectives. Asklaila allows users to
search, discover and evaluate local services and businesses. Their service
is present in six cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata,
Hyderabad and Bangalore. Asklaila launched its mobile service via both SMS
(58989) and WAP (m.asklaila.com) to make local information easily accessible
the customers on the move. Asklaila entered into a strategic partnership
with Airtel to provide multi modal and multi platform local search service
to all Airtel customers.
Flytxt

CEO: Dr Vinod Vasudevan

Target Customer: Brands, telcos, agencies, consumers

Address: 2nd Floor, Amstor Building Technopark, Trivandrum - 695 581, Kerala,
India

Tel: 471 270 0101

Website: www.flytxt.com

Positioning: Flytxt is the
leading technology provider for Mobile Marketing 2.0. Neon, the
carrier-class integrated mobile marketing platform from Flytxt enables
mobile operators and service providers to unlock the huge potential of
mobile as a customer engagement channel.

Flytxt was founded by mobile marketing
experts with over nine years of domain experience. They pioneered the mobile
marketing agency business with many successful projects like Orange
Wednesdays and Cadbury Txt n Wins. Flytxt has won several awards from
reputed industry forums including MMA Global for its path breaking
innovations and mobile marketing campaigns.

Greycell Mobile

CEO: Siddhart Vyas

Target Customer: Telcos, enterprises

Address: 30, Ambica Society, Usmanpura, Ahmedabad 380015, Gujarat

Tel: 9898441122

Website: www.greycellmobile.com

Positioning: Greycells business
model features the development and marketing of products and services for
the mobile VAS space. The company aims to offer applications, products and
services that will help establish a goal of convenient, affordable, reliable
and effective communication services that can be accessed any time, any
place and just in time. Whether it be music, video, information, news or
value added services, the services are offered across platforms. Expertise
involve content managed services, gateways, SMSC, mobile alerts engine,
integrated communication services, mobile video delivery, etc.
JiGrahak Mobility Solutions (ngpay)

CEO: Sourabh Jain

Year of Start-up: 2008

Target Customer: Telcos, brands, agencies, consumers

Address: JiGrahak Mobility Solutions No 10, Ozone 2nd Floor, 3rd Main
Road,

Ashwini Layout, Ejipura (Off Koramangala Ring Road), Bangalore - 560 047,
India

Tel: 91-80-67004000

Website: www.ngpay.com

Positioning: ngpay is the brand
name of the mobile commerce service provided by JiGrahak Mobility Solutions.
It is Indias largest mall on the mobile. Through ngpay, consumers anywhere
across India can shop, buy tickets, bank, order food, pay bills and
moreeasily and securelyfrom their mobile handset. ngpay offers a range of
mobile services from its fast-growing network of partners. In a simple,
consolidated menu, users can transact with over 65 partners across 10
sectors, and this number is increasing every month. Since its launch in
February 2008, ngpay has become the fastest growing end-to-end mobile
commerce service in India. It has over 200,000 registered users and is
already the largest mobile channel for Indian Railways and Fame Cinemas.
July Systems

CEO: Rajesh Reddy

Year of Start-up: 2001

Target Customers: Brands/ad agencies/consumers

Address (HO/India HO): 4th Floor, Maruthi Chambers, Roopena Agrahara, Hosur
Road, Bangalore - 560 068

Tel: 80 41105859

Website: www.julysystems.com

Positioning : July Systems is a
leading mobile media company. A Mobile 2.0 pioneer with several major media
houses and sports leagues among its customers. Julys Mi Channel, the
industrys first mobile 2.0 platform, powers direct to mobile channels for
media, sports, business, and entertainment brands. These user-centric mobile
Internet channels result in significantly increased usage, advertising
inventory for publishers, and an engaged opportunity for advertisers. For
consumers, Mi Channel provides live, personalized, interactive and
multi-media experiences. Mi RevCentral is a comprehensive monetization
program for mobile portals that comprises the technology platform,
management tools and business relationships required to maximize revenues
from mobile inventory.
mChek

CEO: Sanjay Swami

Target Customer: Telcos, enterprises, banks

Address: No 27, SV Towers, 3rd Floor, 80 Feet Road, 6th Block, Koramangala,
Bangalore - 560 095

Tel: 80 4179 5900

Website: www.mchek.com

Positioning: mChek is an
exciting new payment system that marries your credit card to your mobile
phone, allowing you to make payments from your mobile phone. Currently any
valid Visa/MasterCard Credit Card issued by any bank in India can be used
with mChek. In the future, mChek will also enable debit cards and other
payment methods. The vision of the company and its founders was to augment
everyones financial universe by creating a mobile payment platform that
could make and receive payments securely and instantly over any distance.

One of the key design imperatives of the team
was to conceive a product that is in keeping with the times, and one that
does not change but rather works with and integrates into the existing
infrastructure.

mGinger

CEO: Chaitanya Nallan

Target Customer: Telcos, ad agencies, brands, consumers

Address: 1st floor, #573, 20th main, Koramangala 8th Block, Bangalore - 560
095

Tel: 080 41650489

Website: www.mginger.com

Positioning: mGinger is a
service providing targeted advertisements on mobile phones. The consumer
base is built through a registration process in which the consumers specify
their commercial interests, maximum number of ads they would like to receive
in a day, convenient time-slots and their demographic information. Apart
from getting information related to their particular interests, the
consumers also receive monetary incentives for every ad they themselves
receive and for each ad received in their network up to two levels of
referrals.

The mGinger platform solves
critical problems like content composition, cost of campaign and return on
investment measurability for advertisers.

mKhoj Solutions

CEO: Naveen Tewari

Year of Start-up: 2006

Target Customer: Ad agencies, brands, consumers

Address: Suite No 35, 1st floor, Ratna Jyot Industrial Premises, Off SV
Road, Vile Parle (W), Mumbai - 400 056 India

Tel: 22 - 26717772/3/4

Website: www.mkhoj.com

Positioning: mKhoj is a Mobile
Advertising marketplace that gives advertisers a targeted way to reach out
to consumers directly on their cell phones around the globe, and has given
mobile publishers a way to monetize their traffic. Advertisers can use the
vast reach and precision of the mobile medium to create a strong brand and
generate leads. Publishers can use mKhoj to get contextual ads for its
customers to increase the value of their mobile property.

mKhoj has been rapidly evolving with the
efforts of a young team of experienced and highly qualified entrepreneurs
who believe that mobile is the future of marketing and has the potential
even larger than Web-based advertising.

Mast Mobile Media

CEO: Nimish Shrivastava

Target Audience: Telcos, brands

Address: B-2/1B, Nidhi House, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi - 110 029

Tel: 11 46029800

Website: www.mastmobilemedia.com

Positioning: Mast Mobile is a
mobile media, advertisement and technology company based in India and the
US. They target operators and brands, helping them realize significant RoI
via versatile, turnkey, end-to-end VAS platform and integrated ad ecosystem.
Their portfolio includes aggregating advertisements and content, managing
the portal and ad ecosystem, and advising on technology strategy. They have
products focused on mobile ads and music portals, etc. From hosting,
deployment to program and product management, they provide end-to-end
services . They also work closely with many content providers to bring
popular as well as differentiated content to operators.
MobiSolv

CEO: Sanjay Gupta

Year of Start-up: 2006

Target Customer: Brands, ad agencies, consumers, telcos

Address: 105 Model Basti, Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi 11005

Tel: 91 11 23670685

Website: mobiSolv.com

Positioning: MobiSolv operates a
targeted mobile advertising network for advertising and marketing activities
on the mobile Internet ecosystem. The company currently has hundreds of
publishers which provide multi million impressions per month, and increasing
rapidly. Their USP is a highly targeted and localized mobile ad-serving
engine with strong IP potential.

The
buyers are advertisers like brands, advertising agencies, media buyers,
institutions, WAP/mobile portals, etc, who have chosen mobile as a medium in
their marketing mix. There are very standardized models for selling of
inventory. These are impression- based CPM, click-based CPC or
acquisition-based CPL.

Mobile Mantra

CEO: KJ Singh (Director)

Year of Start-up: 2000

Target Audience: Enterprise, telcos

Tel: 91 9810065988

Website: www.mobilemantra.com

Positioning: From just mobile
messaging needs to enterprise level applications, Mobile Mantra connects
multi retail outlets having multiple database to one single platform and
enables communication with customers on their mobile. The company provides
ready to use product for all customer communication needs. Mobile mantra is
a digital cross media agency providing integrated branding, promotion and
distribution solutions.

Mobile Mantra
builds digital media on which enterprises can use connected and interactive
services targeting their audiences, consumers and potential customers. They
also create loyalty programs.

MosPay Info Tech India

CEO: Shantanu Dash

Year of Start-up: 2007

Target Customers: Enterprises, consumers, telcos, ad agencies

Address: 237,1st Floor, Satya Niketan, Moti Bagh II, New Delhi - 110 021

Tel: 11-32717833

Website: www.mospay.com

Positioning: MosPay focuses on
mobile applications based on Learn, Work and Play. The objective being to
use mobile phones as a tool for learning, backup, finding locations, hotel
bookings, ticketing, payments, remote control, email, IM, etc. MosPays
experience in platforms like J2ME, Symbian, BREW, Windows Mobile, Mobile
Linux, etc and work on MMI, systems/devices, etc. It has strong experience
in system testing of various mobile handset applications and platforms. It
also has strong experience with data synchronization technology (push and
pull based), Sync ML, Experience with Bluetooth development/integration,
Security and Trust Services API.
MyScreen Mobile

CEO: Raghu Kilambi

Year of Start-up: 2007

Target Customers: Brands, agencies

Website: www.myscreen.com

Positioning : MyScreen is a
patent-pending innovative marketing and advertising solution within the
mobile communications industry. It enables advertisers to communicate with
the consumer, and establishes direct dialog between the two. MyScreens
technology is both a permission and incentive-based marketing model that
allows mobile subscribers to be compensated for receiving targeted rich-full
screen, contextual advertisements which appear at end-of-call, when
subscribers are most receptive to view communications.
Nazara Technologies

CEO: Nitish Mittersain

Year of Start-up: 2000

Target Customers: Enterprise, consumer,

Address: 601, Dalamal House, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400 021 India

Tel: 022-22810303

Website: www.nazara.com

Positioning: Nazara Technologies
is a mobile entertainment company and content provider to all mobile
operatorsfrom Archie comics to high-end games, wallpapers to songs, games
to puzzles, and entertainment to sacred mantras. Nazara claims to be the
one-stop solution to all entertainment needs. Nazara exclusively licenses
many well known brands such as world famous Sanjay B Jummani, Sachin
Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virendra Sehwag, Archie Comics, GM Vishwanathan Anand,
Sameera Reddy and Stardust Gossips and develops mobile contents based on
these iconic brands. Some of campaigns like SachinNazara with Reliance have
been very successful and Nazara will shortly launch Vishwanathan Anand chess
club on mobile. Nazara has become the first Indian player to launch a 2D
mythological game based on Mahabharata called Gurubhakta Eklavya, also
available on iphones. It will soon launch a series of mythological games
based on Indian epics and including Mahabharata, Ramayana, Panchtantra and
Akbar Birbal, etc. It is also working on games based on Marathi and Bengali
movies.
Netcore Solutions

CEO: Abhijit Saxena

Year of Start-up: 1999

Target Customer: Enterprises, consumers, telcos, ad agencies

Address: 02 Peninsula Chambers, Peninsula Corporate Park, GK Marg, Lower
Parel, Mumbai 400013

Tel: 22 6662 8000

Website: www.netcore.co.in

Positioning: Rajesh Jain
launched Netcore Solutions in 1998 to focus on affordable software solutions
for Indian corporates. Netcores mission is to develop products and services
for consumers and enterprises. Netcore has built an impressive client base
of more than 1,000 corporates across 800 locations in India and abroad using
its messaging and mobility products. Netcores mobility division has been
creating benchmark permission based mobile products and services. Created
under the umbrella brand of MyTodayMyToday mobi, MyTodaySMS and MyTodayMOBS
provides an array of services to millions of users across the length and
breadth of the country.
NetXcel

CEO: Debasis Chatterji

Year of Start-up: 2000

Target Customers: Enterprise, consumer, telcos, ad agencies

Address: 3-5-798, Prathima Schalass, Basheerbagh, Opp Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,
Hyderabad-29

Tel: 40-66636600

Website: www.netxcell.com

Positioning: NetXcell provides a
platform for developing mobile value added services. The company focuses on
development of a specific product based on the operators needs and also
moves along with the operator in understanding the behavior of the products
in the market and enable correction in the process. NetXcells solutions
integrate enterprise IT and wireless environments enabling the deployment of
value added services. NetXcells value added services include information
services on mobile like news, business news, stock updates, horoscopes,
movie reviews, jokes and downloading of ringtones, picture messages,
operator logos, etc. NetXcell introduced Cricket on Mobile, Advertising
on Mobile and Exam Results on Mobile in Indiasome of the most popular
value added services accessed by the mobile users. In addition, the company
also hosts various kinds of value added services.
Nimbuzz

CEO: Evert Jaap Lugt

Year of Start-up: 2007

Target Customers: Enterprises, consumers, telcos

Website: www.nimbuzz.com

Address: Vatika Towers, GF, Block A, DLF Golf Course Road, Sector 54, GGN


Tel: 91 124 3054000

Positioning: Nimbuzz offers an
all-in-one solution on the mobile, PC and Web for calling, conference
calling, instant messaging, group chat and chat rooms, and photo and file
sending by aggregating popular social and IM communities to deliver VoIP,
(geo) presence and Instant Messaging (IM) to the mobile, PC and Web. They
use the capabilities of mobile Internet to reduce customers communications
costs and encourage the sale of data for operators. Nimbuzz has positioned
itself to become the largest global communications platform for seamless
IP-based communication among mobile devices and social media platforms.
Nuevo Telesoft

CEO: Vinay Bhartia (director)

Target Customer: Enterprise, telcos

Address: 5/6 Rushabh Complex, Dalia Industrial Estate, Off New Link Road,
Andheri (West),Mumbai - 400 053

Tel: 26731207

Website: www.nuevotelesoft.com

Positioning: Nuevo Telesoft
provides mobile and IT solutions to enterprises, facilitating them to mobile
and SMS enable their businesses. They provide complete end-to-end solutions
for setting up SMS short codes, SMS broadcast tools, SMS integration with
databases and mobile advertising and marketing services. They boast of
clients like Puma, Baskin Robins and Provogue.
Obopay

CEO: Carol L Realini

Year of Start-up: 2005

Target Customer: Enterprises, Consumers

Address: The Estate, 801-808, 8th floor,121, Dickenson Road, Bangalore - 560
042

Website: www.obopay.in

Positioning: Obopay is a
pioneering service that lets consumers and businesses purchase, pay, and
transfer money through any mobile phone using Obopays mobile application,
text message or phone Web browser in real time. As the first comprehensive
mobile payment service created exclusively for the mobile phone, Obopay
works on any phone and with any cellular operator to empower consumers and
businesses with the convenience of secure, speedy and convenient mobile
payments.

The concept for Obopay
happened while Carol Realini, Obopays founder and CEO, was doing volunteer
work in Africa.

One97 Comms

CEO: Vijay Shekhar Sharma (MD)

Year of Start-up: 2000

Target Audience: Telcos, enterprises, consumers

Address: 1st Floor, Devika Tower, Nehru Place, New Delhi 110 019, India

Tel: 11- 4650 0197

Website: www.one97wold.com

Positioning: One97
Communications provides localized content, robust platforms for network
services and is the perfect partner to take a message to the market via the
telecom media. Launched in December 2000, One97 Communications very quickly
grew to be a company that Business Today profiled and predicted as one of
the hottest companies in India. Today One97 is setting benchmarks in telecom
VAS innovation, creating applications that are unique and relevant in the
domestic and international markets.

It has recently formed many strategic
alliances like Express Network and Osho International.

OnMobile

CEO: Arvind Rao

Year of Start-up: 2000

Target Customer: Telcos, enterprises, agencies

Address: #26, Bannerghatta Road, JP Nagar, Phase III, Bangalore - 560 076

Tel: 080-41802500

Website: www.onmobile.com

Positioning: OnMobile is Indias
largest white labeled VAS company for mobile, a landline and media service
providers. The company offers telecom value added services, voice portals,
ringback tones, mobile content aggregation and distribution, interactive
media portals, mobile advertising, 1-to-1 direct marketing on mobiles and
m-commerce. It provides services like ring back tones, WAP, voice portals,
TV programming, mobile marketing, etc.


The acquisition of French data products company Voxmobili has further
strengthened the product portfolio with products like Phone Backup, Network
Address Book & Mobile Paparazzideployed with many global carriers like
Orange, AT&T, France Telecom, T-Mobile, Wanadoo, and Turkcell.

Paymate (India)

CEO: Ajay Adiseshann

Year of Start-up: 2006

Target Customers: Enterprises, consumers, telcos

Address: 7, Ramjanki, 356 Linking Road, Khar (W), Mumbai 400 052

Tel: 22 724 26 626

Website: www.paymate.in

Positioning: PayMate enables
instant transfer and reciept of money, payment for retail purchases, monthly
utility bills, flight and movie tickets, etc, with speed and safety.
PayMates mobile payment solutions link the mobile phone to any financial
instrument of the customers choice, whether its an existing bank account,
credit card or a prepaid accountturning the mobile phone into a secure
payment tool to be used anytime, anywhere.
Phoneytunes

CEO: Taron Mohan

Target Customer: Telcos, enterprises

Address: E-46/8, Okhla Industrial area, Phase II, New Delhi - 110 020

Tel: 011-40503737

Website: www.phoneytunes.com

Positioning: Phoneytunes.com is
among the most respected players in the telecom VAS domain with a series of
revenue generating services and platforms helping carriers and operators
globally with powerful technological solutions. With over seven years of
experience of working with various telecom operators and technologies,
Phoneytunes has delivered some best-of-breed and carrier grade VAS platforms
helping operators with generating incremental revenues with significant
increase in ARPU. Phoneytunes has a development center in New Delhi, India.
The key values while designing solutions include helping operators with
increase in revenues and reduction in costs.
ProtonDreams

CEO: Vunay Bhide (founder)

Target Customer: Enterprises

Address: 5, Gharonda, Gulmohar Path, Off Law College Road, Pune, India - 411
004

Website: www.protondreams.com

Positioning: ProtonDreams is a
leading provider of Web and mobile enabled workforce management solution
which is tightly integrated with Microsoft Project and Excel; allowing
automated task scheduling and anywhere-anytime response capturing using Web
and SMS technology. Their main area of operation is remote workforce
management. Their focus is on organizations whose revenues are tightly
coupled with productivity and performance of field personnel. ProtonDreams
solutions are targeted at sectors such as; retail, logistic and
distribution, construction, energy and utilities; off-shore exploration and
post sale customer service.
SMSCountry Networks

CEO: Satya Kalyan Yerramsetti

Year of Start-up: 2003

Target Customers: Enterprises/ad agencies/consumers

Address: # 408, Aditya Trade Center, Ameerpet, Hyderabad-500038
Bangalore-560 068

Website: 160by2.com, www.smscountry.com

Positioning: SMSCountry provides
enterprise mobility solutions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of
enterprise communications. Alongwith enterprise mobility solutions
SMSCountry is a leading provider of targeted mobile advertising on SMS and
WAP through its product called 160by2. Rated amongst top 25 fastest growing
technology companies in India in 2008 by Deloitte, SMSCountry was also
identified as one of top 10 innovative companies in India by Microsoft in
2007. Leading corporates in India and globally use SMSCountrys services to
integrate their CRM and sales systems for real time delivery of information
through SMS. SMSCountry handles accounts of bluechip companies like Cadbury,
Coca Cola India, Hindustan Unilever, Max New York Life, NIIT, Frito Lays,
Virgin Mobile, etc amongst its customers.
Sunsilica Solutions

CEO: Venkam Raju

Target Customer: Enterprises, agencies, telcos

Address: B20, Journalist Colony, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad

Website: www.sunsilica.com

Positioning: Sunsilica is an
emerging player in the wireless and electronic messaging market. Having
worked with major industry players, the company helps its customers achieve
mobile marketing, wireless messaging and content distribution goals.
Sunsilica develops and markets wireless applications and cross-platform
solutions for clients in various business sectors. Sunsilica was among the
first few companies in mobile computing.

Sunsilica has its development center in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. It
is engaged in the business of providing wireless messaging solutions.
ValueFirst Messaging

Country Head and Co-Founder: Vijay Shukla

Year of Start-up: 2003

Target Customers: SOHO, SME, Corporate, Govt

Address (HO/India HO): B-17, Institutional Area, Sector - 32, Gurgaon,
Haryana, 122 002 India

Tel: +91 124 4632000

Website: www.vfirst.com

Positioning: ValueFirst is a
provider of enterprise mobile messaging services with a clear focus on SMS
mobile messaging. It allows its customers to communicate between varied IT
back-end systems and mobile phones using SMS services. The company provides
an end-to-end, carrier-grade mobile messaging services platform that
includes configurable software applications, custom development and
application hosting, as well as connectivity with over 500 mobile operators
worldwide. As part of its offerings ValueFirst provides access to an
intelligent mobile messaging middleware, products and service support. The
companys mobile messaging platform supports both CDMA and GSM handsets.
Webaroo

CEO: Beerud Sheth

Year of Start-up: 2004

Target Customer: Enterprises, consumers, telcos

Address: 3rd Floor, Unit No CM-1 SINE/CSRE Building, IIT Bombay, Powai,
Mumbai - 400 076

Website: www.webaroo.com

Positioning: Webaroo was founded
in June 2004 with the vision of developing innovative mobile solutions for
the consumer market. Over the last three years, Webaroo has developed
several market leading products. Some have already achieved a significant
market traction, while others are well on their way to getting there.
SmsGupShup is perhaps the most popular product of Webaroo. It is a mobile
group SMS service that allows users to create mobile communities and
broadcast messages to them. GupShup is growing rapidly with thousands of
groups on topics such as finance, entertainment, lifestyle, health, sports
and technology.
Ziva Software

CEO: Ajay Sethi

Target Customer: Telcos, agencies, consumers

Address: Building 817, 2nd Floor, 20th Main, Near 80 Feet Road, 8th Block,
Koramangala,

Bangalore - 560 095

Tel: 080 25704510

Website: www.zivasoftware.com

Positioning: Ziva provides
products and services in the Mobile Search domain. They have taken a leading
step in the next generation of integrated mobile search and social
networking with platforms built to fundamentally change the way people
access and interact with information from a mobile phone.

To meet highly specific industry and application
requirements, they also offer a range of business solutions, targeted at
different members in the mobile industry, each designed to return the right
information with minimal clicks and maximize their return. The companys
suite of search products aligns search with the interests of different
players in the mobile value chain and creates a value proposition to all its
members.

Advertisment