Mobile Entertainment

Many would regard Tanla as a billing company, but I understand that’s changing. Can you sum up the activities of the company now?

Tanla does provide payments solutions and will continue to do so. It’s an essential element of the wider service we offer. However, we strongly believe that content providers need a combination of payments, messaging, content management and customised mobile applications to make a complete service. They need bespoke solutions that work across different channels, which is why our product portfolio consists of content management platforms, 3G video dialling, interactive TV, premium SMS, WAP billing and global messaging.

Tanla is very bullish about the cross over between mobile, web and even TV. Can you elaborate?

Clients are not interested in technology. They want to monetise content across multiple platforms. Tanla specialises in integrating mobile with other media channels. Convergence is here. We want to play a pivotal role in marrying mobility with other technologies.

Tanla has its base in India. What are the benefits and what are your views of the Indian market?

The Indian market is very dynamic and recruited 60 million new subscribers in 2006, which is more than the UK achieved in 20 years. It’s vibrant but in terms of content revenue shares and ease of launching new services, it’s playing catch up with the European market.

Tanla has over 300 software engineers in India specialising in developing mobile apps and services Our clients benefit from our base in India as they can access specialist skill sets to develop bespoke mobile services, reduce the cost base and speed up the route to market.

How much did you raise in your IPO? Where's the money going?

Tanla listed on the National and Bombay Stock Exchange in India, raising $95 million. Our IPO was oversubscribed by 40 times.

Now, we’re set on a path of global growth in terms of geography, product and sectors. We recorded 263 per cent growth in consolidated total income in FY 2007, while profit grew by 207 per cent.

The regional presence is growing too. We’re active in India, Ireland and the UK and we’re looking to start operations in North America, South East Asia, Australia and the Middle East. We will consider acquisitions in certain territories where it adds value to our existing assets.

It seems to me that Tanla's future is bound up with the off-portal market. What is your opinion of how this sector will develop?

We definitely see off-portal as a key driver for market growth, which will to be our benefit. Flat rate data charging is inevitable so the next wave of growth is very near. This is the best time to be in this market considering the mass penetration of multimedia handsets, higher data speeds and global brands building a multi-channel digital strategy.

How will billing for content evolve? What will happen to premium SMS and WAP billing? And what about other methods such as Paypal and credit cards?

Premium SMS is ubiquitous and well understood by users – and it will continue to be so until WAP Billing becomes the mainstream mobile payment method. Thereafter premium SMS will be used for alerts and other interactive applications. We are extremely upbeat about Payforit, which Tanla is accredited for, as it opens up the market and enhances the user experience.

Credit card billing will be focused on high value transactions. Generally speaking, consumers do not like to use credit cards to access mobile content when the transactions are between 25p and £10.

A hot area now is community. How is Tanla helping brands build and keep communities?

We are providing content management platforms that help create community portals that link across mobile, web and TV. An example is 4D Interactive in the UK, for which we developed an interactive TV community based service. Although the big social networks will build services for mobile, we also want to help niche brands that have built communities on TV and the internet mobilise their services.