Platform-Oriented Mobile VAS

By Arun Natarajan, Guest Author, reporting from Venture Intelligence Internet & Mobile Connect conference in Mumbai.

Alok Mittal, Executive Director of Canaan Partners, emphasized the need for Mobile VAS companies to “own the customer” as well as directly create demand for their applications. This would be the best way for them to get a larger share of the consumer’s spending. “We are seeing companies in India that get a 50:50 revenue share with operators as long as they have something unique to offer and they own the customer.”

Communication, Entertainment and Information would be his order of preference among services in the mobile sector, Mittal said. Pointing out that the sheer number of communication applications on the mobile platform was very limited compared to the Internet – including in terms of group communication, publishing, etc – Mittal said there was plenty of scope for entrepreneurs to come up with innovative products and services in this area. As a firm, Canaan would look more favorably at platform-oriented companies rather than those dependent on a single application.