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Mobile commerce is expected to experience the highest adoption rates and grow at a CAGR of 55.9 percent , followed by the mobile healthcare and education services .
Despite telecom operators ’ eagerness to create RoI , the adoption of utility-based mobile VAS has been very low .
What is impacting telecom operators ? Operators are struggling to package these services in a format which will make them accessible to all . Telecom companies are also concerned about return on investments for services tailored for the Bottom of the Pyramid ( BOP ) consumers . High cost of the services and lack of vernacular support is hampering the end user adoption . It is vital to provide interactive voice response ( IVR ) based services for users that are disinclined to use SMS-based services or data services . By 2018 , the utility mobile applications are expected to account for almost 7.6 percent of the overall operator revenues in South Asia . Look at Vodafone India that has tied up with mobile VAS company Handygo Technologies to launch IVR based service called Behtar Zindagi for rural India . Vodafone India has more than 70 million mobile subscribers in rural India and mobile VAS is a major focus area . In Q3 2012-13 , Vodafone India posted £ 44 million revenue from messaging services alone against voice revenue of £ 785 million . Its data revenue was £ 94 million . An IVR-based offering from Vodafone has the potential to take the Indian mobile VAS to earn `33,280 crore in 2013 from `26,000 in 2012 . Frost & Sullivan suggests that operators in South Asia must focus on both the feature phone and the smartphone owners . This will enable them to offer utility services on advanced as well as traditional channels such as SMS for maximum reach .
Behtar Zindagi , the handset independent IVR solution from Vodafone India , is designed to cater to the information needs of rural people . It will help subscribers get information based on their location on agriculture , weather updates , rural finance , mandi rates , live stocks , fisheries education , health , and more . Users can ask a question to the experts on various related issues and they will get answers within 24-48 hours . Recently , Reineke Reitsma , vice president , Research Director for Market Insights , Forrester , said : “ Historically , consumers in Asia Pacific have done far more activities on their mobile phones than in other regions . With the increasing availability of affordable smartphones in the region , mobile phones are now the # 1 device for consuming media for many consumers in Asia Pacific .” In many Asia Pacific countries , mobile penetration is much higher than that of PCs . As smartphone adoption increases in Asia Pacific , 90 percent of mobile phone owners in metropolitan China , 81 percent of mobile phone owners in metropolitan India , and 54 percent of mobile phone owners in Japan now use the mobile Internet at least monthly .
How 3G and 4G building mobile VAS revenue ? Both 3G and 4G will assist the rapidly growing mobile VAS segment to move to the next level . Global mobile data service revenue , made up of mobile internet and messaging revenue , will rise by 21.4 percent between 2012 and 2014 to represent 40.4 percent of the $ 1 trillion mobile customers will be spending on their mobile phone services . Besides developed markets , LTE network deployment in Latin America and Africa will create opportunity for regional mobile content and application developers , which will stimulate a nascent mobile apps and content marketplace . Jake Saunders , VP and practice director , core forecasting , ABI Research , said : “ As smartphones have become the entertainment hub in our lives , music , video and TV streaming ’ s contribution of mobile internet service revenue has jumped to 26 percent in 2012 .” India has around 800 million plus mobile users . The mobile VAS growth will be faster if Indian economy grows faster .
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