Mobile VAS giant Hungama Mobile is reaching all parts of Indian society with music services that range from rental MP3s to circuit-switched streamed songs. Hungamas Neeraj Roy told ME all about them
It’s easy, when discussing India, to retreat into cliché and observe that this is a country of people driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for music and film. But, when you look at the numbers, you have to concede that there’s some truth behind the stereotypes.
Take the Indian film industry. Bollywood was worth $2.3 billion last year, according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Step forward Hungama, whose Bollywood deals have made it the unrivalled leader of the Indian mobile content space, with an estimated 74 per cent share.
Hungama says this market was worth $1 billion in 2008, with the potential to hit $2.3 billion by 2010. And sitting at the heart of it is music. According to more Hungama stats, 65 per cent of India’s mobile content revenues come from music, against 24 per cent for video and eight per cent for games.
The building block of this flourishing space is the ringtone, and Hungama markets them hard, ensuring that shortcodes are printed on every CD, DVD and marketing spin-off produced by its Bollywood partners.
However, India is a country of contrasts – with a growing middle class at one end and a vast rural population (100 million of whom have mobiles) at the other. The affluent are seeking richer experiences, and those at the lower end don’t have data-enabled phones. Hungama is now building out services that serve both.
Earlier this year it launched an unlimited digital music service with state-owned operator BSNL. The ‘On-Demand Entertainment Store’ is available to BSNL’s 4.2 million broadband subscribers, and offers unlimited access to over 50,000 songs and 1,500 videos for Rs. 149 a month (less than $3). Such deals are fairly common in the West, but in India, where fixed access to the internet is low, it’s a first.
The service permits sideloading to mobile, but for Hungama it serves as a dummy run for the inevitable arrival of 3G and flat rate data plans – at which point tracks can be downloaded over the air.
Neeraj Roy says: “OTA is not practical in a 2.5G world, but 3G is coming and we need to prepare for it. Also, these kinds of services work well for operators with a triple play offer – and they provide an alternative to piracy.”
At the opposite end of the scale is Hungama’s roll-out of a circuit-switched streaming music service with Aircel. Because it uses the voice network, it’s pitched at that rural user base with basic phones. They dial in to listen to a selection of songs available via an IVR menu. It costs one cent a minute.
Now, Hungama is experimenting with new features such as dedicating and sending a song to someone. It’s seeding the social networking idea among newer converts to mobile.
Roy says: “It works for these users. And it meets the desire for mobile music from even the lowest income consumer.”
Hungama was a Gold Sponsor at ME's specialist Mobile Music Now conference and networking event, which took place on July 9th, 2009. Click here for more details.
To read Part One of our special series of features focusing on mobile music, click here.
To read Part Two, click here.
To read Part Three, click here.
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