Thinking Aloud Magazine February 2016 - 205 x … internet users are increasing, ... to reach 87 million in December 2015. These ... companies like Micromax have taken a lead by launching

Digital India

T urning IndiaDynamic!

February 2016 · `40 · thinkingaloud.in

H E L P I N G Y O U T H I N K O N L I N E

EDITOR SPEAK

NilotpalChakravarti

T his is going to be an action packed month, if you will. The country’s biggest conference for the digital industry, the 10th India Digital Summit is scheduled on 9-10 February, besides the much awaited budget. With the Prime Minister announcing the start-up policy, there is an air of expectation from the start-ups, and rightly so. While, there is optimism, we can’t disregard some of the pain points start-ups are afflicted with.

A recent survey of around 800 small digital start-ups by IAMAI and IMRB have revealed that while challenges in raising funds remain the primary concern, innovation and lack of skilled personnel are major pain points for all of them. Interestingly, while all companies are concerned about raising funds, issues such as regulatory framework and monetization of business model is not much of a bother at this stage of their operation. This is reflective of the fact that the government’s move to boost funding and develop a robust ecosystem through a series of programmes is a step in the right direction as far as supporting the small digital start-ups are concerned.

I must mention here that there is an urgent need to improve the investment environment in the country. India's entrepreneurs need early stage venture capital – but the domestic venture capital sector needs to develop further. In the US, the VC industry took off when their government allowed the large pension funds to put 5-10% of their assets into VC firms. Thus, there is a need for tax breaks and incentives for individuals supporting start-ups with capital.

What is heartening is that the number of internet users and more specifically mobile internet users are increasing, thereby creating a great consumer pool for entrepreneurs to tap. According to the latest data by IAMAI, the number of mobile internet users in India is expected to reach 371 million by June 2016. There were 306 million mobile internet users in India in December, 2015. Of the 306 million internet users, 219 million users are from Urban India, which registered a Y-o-Y growth of 71%, while the user-base in Rural India has gone up by 93% from December 2014, to reach 87 million in December 2015. These indeed are heartening numbers, and I believe, with an enabling policy framework and congenial tax environment, India’s start-up story has a rosy path ahead.

Sincerely,Nilotpal [email protected]

02/16VOLUME 16

ISSUE 15

THE TEAM

Printed, Published& Edited bySubhajyoti Ray

On behalf ofInternet & Mobile Association of India

Published at28, 1st Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase – III, New Delhi-110020 (India)

Printed byNational PrintersB-56, Naraina Industrial Area Phase 2, New Delhi 110 028

For advertising, contact [email protected]

Designed by03 Pixels

Editor-in-chiefDr. Subho Ray

Executive EditorNilotpal Chakravarti

INBOX

C. DebroyKolkata

I read all the articles of the January issue of ’Thinking Aloud’ with great interest. The interviews and articles across all verticals were well represented and represented. Thinking Aloud is a great read.

A. TyagiNew Delhi

I love reading Thinking Aloud. The topics discussed are relevant and lends a balanced perspective of the issues. The magazine is now becoming a must for all people related to the digital industry.

B. ChadhaNew Delhi

Let me commend the editorial team for a great issue and design. The views were balanced and I am now more enriched about what the real issue is concerning the digital industry. Thanks for conceptualizing the issue based on some important topics. Keep up the good work.

H.KrishnanBengaluru

I found all the articles and interviews in the January’16 issue interesting. It was a delight to read the expert articles and knowledgeable interviews. All the articles were all argued and present a very neutral point of view. Keep up the good work.

A. SrivastavaMumbai

The latest issue was very relevant and it hit my desk at the right time. I was struggling to really comprehend the real issues concerning digital advertising and the set of expert articles greatly helped me clear my doubts. The articles were very well written, researched and presented a balanced point of view.

THIS ISSUE

07-12

Digital Media• Want to grow in India? Go local• Marketing Traits of Multicultural

Digital Marketing• Content Marketing Trends You Will

See In 2016• Social Media will be more

Diversified & Spread

• 371 Mn Mobile Internet Users By June’16

• Call Drops Are Here to Stay• LeEco Mobile Looking to Tap the

Indian Mobile Market

15-19

Mobile

22-31

Start-ups/Tech• Startups- The Employment Engine• Small Digital Start-ups Identify

Raising Fund As Biggest Challenge• Wishup - A Chat-Based Startup

Gains Investment Injection• Digital Start-ups Need Specific

Incentives: IAMAI

eCommerce

13-14• India Post Capitalize on the

eCommerce Boom

20-21

Digital Payments• Paytm & M-Taxi Jot Down Strategic

Partnership• Mobile Wallet 'Udio' Launched

February 2016 | THINKING ALOUD! 07

Arvind PaniCo-Founder & Director, Reverie Language Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

I had an interesting chat with my driver a few days ago. He owns a smartphone but doesn’t know English. However, he has attended school. While driving me around for my work, he asked me if I had the time to check OLX for him, as he wants to buy a bike and an LCD. I asked him why can’t you do it? He said, “Sir, the site is completely in English and I can’t understand product info.” This is just one of many examples of our daily lives where smartphone and internet have become accessible but are not being used to their fullest potential because of the language barrier.

No Indian language finds a place in the top 10 global languages used on the Internet. Hindi, despite being the most spoken language in the country has negligible presence online. Barring a few social media messages and Whatsapp, there is hardly any noticeable effort being made in content creation in any of Indian languages on

Want to grow in India? Go localBy Arvind Pani, Co-Founder & Director, Reverie Language Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

February 2016 | THINKING ALOUD!08

the Internet. If we compare this with global data, languages like Mandarin, Thai, Arabic dominate the online ecosystem of their respective countries.

The humble telephone has now been replaced by snazzy smart phones. Your entire world is now controlled by simply tapping or touching the screen of your mobile. Send a message, book tickets, pay bills, plan holidays or buy monthly groceries. All of this and more happens using the smartphone device. However, these benefits are still being reaped by the English speaking population which makes up for only 10% users in the smartphone ecosystem. The good news, however, is that stakeholders in the ecosystem – corporates, consumer internet companies, government – have acknowledged this as a problem which needs to be solved with the use of technology and support from the right quarters.

Reverie raised series A funding last year of $4m from Aspada and Qualcomm. This was a seal of confidence for the entire team as the sentiment behind this investment was that investors have also realized that local language technology market needs backing and even companies in e-comm, apps, mobile internet, financial services are increasingly sorting services from startups like ours.

Indian market is being touted as the fastest growing market in many business segment like smartphones, internet consumption, e-comm, travel and hospitality. Many business ideas of the West have seen tremendous success here because India offers scale and a big market size for companies to grow and garner more revenues. The trick to capturing Indian market is to go local with global features. This can only be accomplished if the consumer internet companies realise that they need to explore the possibilities of going multilingual.

Last month, Snapdeal announced that they will be going multi-lingual providing users with as many as 11 languages to choose from in order to surf and purchase from their site. This is a game changing step. We expect more consumer internet companies to follow suit. We believe that from here on, going multi-lingual will be a decision which will be included in all business strategies of consumer internet companies. The need for more web content in local language is driven by the fact that there is a growing smartphone population which doesn’t understand English and a saturation point has been reached in the English speaking smartphone users’ population. The data speak for itself. It is expected that by 2017, the web users in India will touch 500 million and this won’t happen if the internet is not in local language.

Media sector has taken a lead here and is paving the way for others to follow. Content platforms like Your Story have launched their website in several local languages. Even top English dailies like The Economic Times, Business Standard have a hindi edition of their papers which is available online too. But for the real change, we need more companies to go local.

The BFSI segment too is getting serious about going local. Recently, we enabled HDFC Securities to go multi-lingual via our platform. Their customers/traders can now trade in stocks in their preferred language. We are converting real time data from the BSE and NSE for enabling stock trading in real time for non-English traders. HDFC Securities has registered a staggering growth in no. of new users who are using local language feature of the app.

In the smartphone segment, companies like Micromax have taken a lead by launching Unite 2 (spelling?) and Unite 3, one of their most successful smartphones whose USP is that it supports 22 Indian languages. While we have managed to make an impact on one side by enabling businesses to go local, the next thrust has to be on consumer internet space. With the speed with which users are moving online, a majority of them experiencing internet for the first time through their smartphones, need local language internet to make a buying decision. It could be a pair of shoes to a bike or even travel tickets. I’m of the view that with consumer internet companies going local, real power of internet can be harnessed for the Indian non-English speaking population which hasa considerable amount of disposable income.

February 2016 | THINKING ALOUD! 09

Marketing Traits of MulticulturalDigital Marketing

By Staff Reporter

Be it any business or vertical, one must always follow a simple fact. A person should always be aware of the business field that he/she ventures in. Proper market research and analysis can help an individual to properly plan strategies in every sector. Likewise, people follow the same virtues in the marketing and advertising sector. Ethnic and multicultural marketing has been garnering a lot of attention since a couple of years. It can be defined as a process of targeting a certain multicultural group via performing a market research & analysis to gauge the mindset and social values of the various ethnic groups. This helps the agencies to properly strategize and execute marketing campaigns that focus on multicultural markets. The agencies that focus on cross channel targeting should make sure that the advertising efforts are comprehensive, personalized and inclined towards connecting the mindset of the target audience. This plays a very important role in boosting sales for the client. Marketing avenues in multicultural markets are now ever evolving and has grown very competitive over the years. Let us discuss about some marketing traits of multicultural marketing.

Languages play a very pivotal role in planning and conceptualizing a marketing strategy for ethnic markets. Ethnic markets comprise of people from diversified sections that speak and communicate in different languages. Multicultural audiences must be a part of your overall digital strategy. In 2016, as marketing in different languages continues to prosper, multicultural marketing will become supplemental in realizing the core marketing goals. If tapping the audience is not part of your core digital marketing strategy, a huge number of business opportunities will pass you by. Understanding vivid meaning and utilizing different languages is very important representing different brands on various platforms. Clear and simple policies and conditions can be regarded as the second step while planning a marketing strategy. The multicultural segments always prefer simple and clear messages. The TV ADs and promotional messages should be published and created so that the major chunk of the target audience can easily relate to the brand or product. The agencies should also focus on the market research & systematic planning as proper planning helps in contriving new ideas and unique attempts that have not been seen in the market before. The multicultural digital advertising agencies will continue to focus on the demographics, competitors, ethnic group preferences, target audience selection and much more.

Along with these factors, multicultural marketing agencies should also focus on using in-house talent at the firm. The integral staff of an agency always tends to know the products and its reach better. Every subordinate and heads of different departments should be given a chance to express their opinion & views while strategizing a campaign. Advertising field is a very creative field, whilst churning out a campaign, it is very necessary to brainstorm ideas. This would help in the deliverance of a unique and innovative concept for brands along with making other employees feel associated towards the brands. These are some behavioral traits that will be big for the multicultural digital spectrum in the coming months.

10 February 2016 | THINKING ALOUD!

Content Marketing Trends YouWill See In 2016By Garima Sharma, Product and Strategy Head, Spiral Content Solutions

Since December 2015, several marketing gurus, experts and publishers spelt out their #ContentMarketing ‘predictions’ for 2016. And yet, it seems like only yesterday that content marketing predictions were made for 2015 - some of those predictions continue to stay true for 2016 as well. Except that the speed of adoption and where we are on the curve will be different.

Here are some predictions that have captured our imagination at Scatter, and we believe most content creators and marketers in India are likely to experience the same:

1. QuantityWhat should be a no-brainer is actually a raucous debate. In a world of SEO and blogging, there is a need where "less is not necessarily more." We found very different points of views in an interesting piece of research and a more run-of-the-mill article. Hubspot ran an experiment and their inference was that the fewer posts they published, the fewer the opportunities there were for posts to get clicked on in the inbox and shared on social media. On the other hand most of the other content advice we hear says that quality always trumps quantity. The argument goes to say that your biggest positive discriminator is to offer content of interest, relevance and value. Our PoV: We do not expect a cohesive answer on the Quality > Quantity debate by the end of 2016. Look at your context and decide based on that.

2. Mobile ContentWith mobile being the first point of contact for most things digital, including everyday navigation (maps), shopping, news updates, social media, 'one-to-one' and 'one-to-many' communication, etc. marketers and

11February 2016 | THINKING ALOUD!

content creators will need to urgently scale this peak. You can debate all you want on Quality versus Quantity, but relevant content showing up on the wrong medium is a sure shot route to failure. After all, the medium is the message. Here’s why: Let's say your content agency just delivered what is the best piece of content as yet for your brand, and it’s a long form post. If a large chunk of your audience typically accesses your content on mobile, the chances of this piece of high quality content being fully appreciated will likely drop rather sharply. Our PoV: Relevant content is about form, but it's also about function today.

3. The Content Format MixWe have often come across studies which tell us that video content is more important than other formats. Then again, we come across other studies that insist that image based content is the real king. And the death of text content has been predicted a long time ago. The fact is, no one format of content trumps the other. In fact, all formats of content need to complement each other to drive the best result for the content marketer and creator. Naturally, Instagram will be about great images, YouTube about riveting videos while blogs+newsletters are likely to be text heavy. Our PoV: In 2016, marketers will see a better balance and will unlikely be swayed by these platitudes about one format being bigger and cooler than the other. Figure out what works for you—that’s more important than the format.

4. The Ad Blocker ComethMuch ado about nothing? Think again. Dave Ortega (Creative Director) at McKee Wallwork and Company thinks marketers find themselves facing two options i.e. fight the never ending war over how to beat ad blockers or create better customer experiences. And while it probably won't affect the large mainline publishers, it's the long tail publisher who will see consumers turn on the ad block. Our PoV: Is the ad block really all that bad for marketers? Not really, we think. Intrusive experiences are hated by just about anyone and content marketing offers brands to seamlessly integrate themselves into an experience the consumer is already immersed in.

5. Birth of Content Marketing TeamsHere's a small dipstick to test the magnitude of the content marketing opportunity. Type the words 'content marketing' in the search bar on LinkedIn. You will see a plethora of opportunities and almost every organization worth its salt today is beefing up content marketing teams. This is a classic tell-tale sign and 2016 is when content specialists will add impetus and drive this effort with a single minded focus. We've seen SEM + SEO / Social Media take off after bringing in these domain specialists. Our PoV: Content marketing teams will accelerate the adoption of this new age engagement practice.

6. Publishing Tools Will Make Their Presence FeltThe coming of content marketing teams will mean they will need tools and technology to scale their publishing efforts. Several tools ranging from recommendation engines, analytics and big data applications, content marketplaces, etc., will raise their head and make their presence felt in 2016. There are already several tools available in the market today and these can help you do everything from content creation to content distribution. Our PoV: Marketers will need to work on an array of tools depending on their needs / verticals.

Social Media will be more Diversified& SpreadBy Rohit Pandey – Sr. Content Writer / Social Media Strategist


Brands and marketers have witnessed that social media company networks are evolving with each passing day. Social media has emerged as an important marketing & an advertising tool for a number of businesses, brands and digital agencies. The front running applications and platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have helped in the generation of business for many clients globally. Various brands are now hiring digital agencies to tap these social media platforms to enhance their brand reach & create better brand awareness on digital platforms. Recent trends show that Social Media Marketing (SMM) would be even bigger this year. The Social Media campaigns will receive bigger and better budgets for an optimized campaign.

SMM has tremendously inclined towards the mobile market. Every social media company in Mumbai must identify with this fact. This trend will have a major impact in regards to the digital service platter provided to the clients. SMM will ride on the mobile revolution this year. The majority services like optimizing website & pages along with the generation of content and other real-time information will be specifically for the Smartphone end users and audience. This transition will push SMM beyond optimization adding a more personalized touch towards the customers. Facebook will continue to grow and shrink at opposite ends. More individuals from the older generation would come onto Facebook. The older (60+) generation would venture into regular social media use. Instagram will be huge for big and medium-sized business in 2016.

Along with Facebook and Twitter, Google + will be a major factor. Google + has the second highest number of monthly users only behind Facebook. It will continue to gain more users. Not just about demographics and location, Google + will be in the center of many things as such SEO and providing a personalized search experience. Many social pundits already believe it to be the next big thing and a 'one size fits all' social network. Every social media company in Mumbai and other major cities will be keeping a vigilant tab on this factor. Image centric networks like Pinterest, Tumblr, Path and Mobli will continue to grow and visual content will increasingly become a critical piece of any solid content strategy. The recently Twitter-acquired Periscope has already unveiled their plans to allow the users to give a live video broadcast of their lives. In-app functionality will further diversify and make the Social Media platforms, even more personal and conversational.

Other than these trends, agencies will be using many more offline materials for marketing purpose. QR codes will helm the pile of offline materials. Optimized QR codes will help agencies provide the target audience and offline consumers valuable information about website and social media channels. Video advertising will also play a pivotal part as the competition levels will continue to soar in coming months. Facebook instant articles and buy buttons are just a beginning. Not just Facebook and Pinterest, Instagram will also use the buy buttons to further create an effective yet profitable connect with the audience. Use of video advertising & new publication options will come forward as a powerful marketing element to attract further attention.

eCommerce delivery and logistics have been the cynosure of all eyes (read delivery runners) with regards to profits. Deliveries have turned out to be a major money contributor. India Post, making the most of the opportunity has posted huge profits catering to the eCommerce boom.

The cash-on-delivery trend has made life a lot easier and transparent for the customers. However, the authorities managing the delivery runners have also been raking in huge profits. Via delivering orders from the Big 3 - Amazon, Snapdeal and Flipkart, India Post has registered huge profits. The Department of Posts released a statement that the COD consignments have doubled in the nine months of this fiscal at INR 1,000 CR, the figure stood at INR 500 CR during 2014 and just INR 100 CR in 2013-14. Average monthly consignments from the department’s top six e-commerce customers are up over six-fold in the first nine months of this fiscal, primarily due to the big surge in AMAZON’s deliveries, which have shown tremendous rise to reach 3 lakh consignments until December 2015 from an average of 50,000 in 2014-15. The 2014-15 figures related to Snapdeal stood at 35,000 & Snapdeal had already clocked 80,000 until December 2015. Finally, Flipkart has reached 80,000 in terms of consignment numbers for this year. Here's an infographic, courtesy the Department of Posts that gives a clearer view of the picture.

India Post Capitalize on theeCommerce Boom

By Rohit Pandey – Sr. Content Writer / Social Media Strategist


Over the course of last year, India Post has also entered into several partnerships with various online retailers. The move has been initiated along with introducing the COD facility & providing effective last mile delivery outside the major cities. A big India Post centre has also made its way at Parel in Mumbai, along with 57 modern delivery centers across various places. In a statement to The Indian Express, Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said, “The new facet is cash-on-delivery. India Post has become the premium courier service for e-commerce, so that is a definite improvement. (India Post’s revenues from) cash-on-delivery is going to be Rs 1,500 crore by the end of this year (fiscal ending March, 2016).” He further added, "Revenues have risen to over Rs 165 crore till November this fiscal, as against INR 172 crore in 2014-15, and Rs. 80 crore in 2013-14. There are local products such as Madhubani paintings of Bihar, so they (India Post) are also going big on these deliveries. They are getting good money for handicrafts and artisans. About 65 per cent of the catchment area is small towns for e-commerce.”

The Reserve Bank of India had granted approval to 11 applicants to set up payments banks in August 2015. India Post was one of the selected ones. Post the approval, India Post has garnered a lot of attention with regards to partnership for banking products. Mr. Prasad said that several big names such as NABARD, HSBC, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Kotak Life Insurance, HDFC, PNB MetLife, ICICI Lombard, ICICI Prudential, and Bajaj Allianz were looking to partner with India Post.


POSTING GROWTH WITH E-COMMERCE

COD Segment(in Rupees Crore)

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16*

100

500

1,000

CONSIGMENTS(Major e-comm Players,average numbers per month)

2014-15 2015-16*

Amazon

Snapdeal

Flipkart

Myntra

Yepme

300,000

80,000

30,000

50,000

60,000

50,000

35,000

-

-

-

*2015-16 figures till December 2015. COD: Cash on Delivery.Source: Department of Posts


The number of mobile internet users in India is expected to reach 371 million by June 2016. There were 306 million mobile internet users in India in December, 2015. Of the 306 million internet users, 219 million users are from Urban India, which registered a Y-o-Y growth of 71%, while the user-base in Rural India has gone up by 93% from December 2014, to reach 87 million in December 2015. These are the major findings of a report titled ‘Mobile Internet in India 2015’, released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International.

371 Mn Mobile Internet UsersBy June’16

Mobile Internet Users

171

70

21

85

25

101

36

119

40

128

45

143

49 68

197

80

291

87

262

109444

371

306276

238

192173159

137110

9148

Jun-12 Jun-13 Jun-14Oct-13 Oct-14 Dec-14 Mar-15 Jun-15 Oct-15 Dec-15 Jun-16 (Est)

Rural Urban Overall


The report also finds that the share of mobile internet spend out of average monthly bill has increased to 64% in 2015 as compared to 54% in 2014. The average monthly bill has reduced to the extent of 18% compared to last year.

For the first time “Online Communication” has surpassed “Social media websites” to top the purpose to access mobile internet list. 80% of the urban users use mobile internet for communication whereas 74% access social networking sites using their mobile internet. In Rural India however, majority of the users access Mobile Internet for Entertainment. This is followed by Social Networking & Online Communication.

Distribution of Mobile Data Spend (in INR)

Purpose of Internet Access in Urban India

45%

173 235 231

54%64%

2013 2014 2015

Data as a %age of Total Mobile BillBase: 71.9 Mn Mobile Users in 35 Cities Source: IMRB I-cube 2015, June 2015

80%Online Communication

74%Social Network

30%Entertainment

13%Online Shopping

11%Online Ticketing

Source: IMRB I-Cube 2015, 219 Mn Internet Users in Urban India, December 2015

52%Entertainment

39%Online Communication

37%Social Network

01%Online Ticketing

0.4%Online Shopping

Purpose of Internet Access in Urban India

Source: IMRB I-Cube 2015, 87 Mn Internet Users in Rural India, December 2015

Call Drops Are Here to StayBy Subho Ray, President, IAMAI


Subho RayPresident, IAMAI

Allow me dear reader to start this article on the sensitive subject of call drop with three essential caveats: First, call drops will remain forever a part of mobile user’s life. Secondly, no user is fond of the telecom service that she subscribes to. Thirdly, I am not a telecom engineer and know very little about technical side of things. Fortunately, these three caveats also strengths the arguments made in this article. How? Contrary to what people expect, call drops can only be minimized to an accepted limit, they cannot be eliminated. Second, user dissatisfaction means that there would be constant pressure on operators to improve service and finally, my lack of technical knowledge will prevent me from making a “technological limitations” argument in favour of telecom operators.

What causes call drops? Suffice it to say; when a call drops it is either the customer or the telecom service provider who is at fault. The customer may have a flaw in the handset, may be outside the subscription area without roaming or may have run out of credits with the operator. Most customers would be aware of these problems and unless they are psychopaths would not go around complaining to the operators or authorities. From the operators’ side however, there are several complicated and intractable problems that may lead to call drops. The main reasons for dropped calls are lack of radio coverage, radio interference between different subscribers, imperfections in the functioning of the network (such as failed handover or cell-reselection attempts), overload of the different elements of the network (such as cells), etc. In short, congestion with too many callers or simply weak functioning of networks. There is also another reason known as dead zones, areas where there is no coverage.

In a report by Pew Internet and American Life Style Project conducted a few years back, it was found that 72% of subscribers face call drops occasionally and 32% at least a few times a week. There is no similar data for India, even if there is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has not shared it with the general public. In fact, for many years Indian subscribers were happily living with the unhappy issue of call drops. More optimistic ones making use of mobile number portability to change their operators, the pessimists knew “all the operators were


equally bad”. Like it happens in so many other cases, the issue did not come to limelight till the political authorities took if up seriously. I have heard that no less a person than the Prime Minister flagged the issue to the Union Telecom Minister, who in turn made it his mission to solve the problem. Initially, he tried the Gandhian way of pleas and requests that in the past never cut ice with the operators. Finally, it was decided through the Telecom Regulator that a fine of Re 1 would be paid by operators for each missed call, maximum permissible fine for each customer was fixed at three missed calls, i.e., Rs. 3 per day.

The response of the Telecom industry was predictable. Initially the entire blame for call drops was indirectly assigned to the government in the name of lack of spectrum. This is the first of the holy cow argument advanced by operators in all cases of bad service. Then, when the fines were imposed, the second holy cow of argument, loss of revenue, was put forth. The telcos have estimated that they would incur a loss of 54,000 crores annually on account of call drop fines. The government and the regulator calculate that the estimated loss to revenue would be around Rs. 800 crores and seem to be adamant to impose fines and to some extent assuage telecom subscribers. It is equally likely that the operators would move court against the regulator’s orders.

I personally consider fines as a lazy solution and a pseudo solution of a problem that can only be contained not resolved. It is a lazy solution because it will not solve the problem of call drops and most certainly operators will figure out a way of transferring cost of fines to customers. Of course, the customers will have the vicarious pleasure of seeing operators being punished. In a way it is also an unethical solution. Currently, call drops are not a part of service level agreements of operators with their customers hence they cannot be penalized on grounds of violation of SLAs. Fines are therefore arbitrary.

The government is in fact a part of the problem and through arbitrary solution is pretending to be a part of the solution. The government has to own up to the following facts: First, part of the congestion problem is due to lack of spectrum that the telecos have been flagging for sometime now. Let me explain, imagine a hole meant to pass 10 arrows at a time. What would happen if you shot twenty arrows through that hole? By asking for more spectrum especially in the lower bands which are best suited for call, operators are asking and are ready to pay for increasing the diameter of the hole. To be fair, the government has notified the spectrum trading norms that is likely to improve matters marginally.

Secondly, Part of the problem of connectivity is the arbitrary behavior and rent-seeking attitude of local bodies to telecom towers. Often towers are taken down by local authorities on grounds of being either a health hazard or not complying with a minor local law. This leaves gaps in the network leading to call drops.

Finally, taking a data-driven approach to the issue and clearly declaring what percentage of call drops would be acceptable given the constraints in the ecosystem.

As a consumer of services though, I am delighted that for the first time there is a clear intention of the government to penalize service providers who violate real or perceived service level agreements and provide poor service. The best part of the penalty system is that it would be in the hands of the customer to decide what is bad service, and the penalty will accrue directly to the customer’s account.

Would it not be great to see this system play out for other services? The fire service that do not turn out on time, the banks which can’t send your cheque-book in two days, the passport office which cant deliver your new passport in 15 days. Should not all these private and public service providers be brought under a system where the customer is directly and perhaps monetarily compensated for deficiency of services? That would be the real change, wouldn’t it?

Views are personal and have no links with IAMAI's official position on the issue


The Indian smartphone market has been abuzz with new players entering the fray. Major eCommerce companies registered thumping numbers with regards to the Republic Day sales. With so many opportunities in the market, 2016 will witness more new names coming up to grab their share. LeEco has arrived with the same motive.

Comparatively new entrants in the Indian smartphone market, brands like Xiaomi would now face tougher competition. Newbie LeEco has entered the Indian market with the launch of Le 1s and Le Max phones. Starting with the smartphones, the company will be alsolaunching their whole range of products in the coming months. Other than smartphones, the company also manufactures smart televisions, smart bicycles and are already dedicated towards the nascent concept of smart cars. According to the latest developments, the company has also announced 555 service centers to effectively tap the Indian market. For the unaware, LeEco was formerly known and active as LeTv. LeEco says that these service centers will cover more than 300 cities in India. The service centers will have a 24X7 toll free helpline with support in 10 languages, which includes English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu. Along with the launch, the company also made their plans clear of setting up 1000+ member strong R&D center in Bengaluru. The R&D team from Bengaluru will be pivotal with regards to the technology behind the LeEco products. Le Max is the high end phone from the house of LeEco. On the other hand, Le 1s is a budget smartphone. Le Max will be available in 2 variants at INR 32,999 and 69,999 for the 64GB version and 128GB Sapphire crystal display version respectively. The Le 1s would make your pockets lighter by INR 10,999 for 32GB storage.

Speaking about the launch, Atul Jain, CEO, LeEco India said, “At LeEco, it is our constant endeavor to provide our users with superior products and content integrated ecosystem which ensure that their user experience on all our devices is unified and exceptional. We are very excited about our launch in India and look forward to a long-term association with consumers in this market. We are confident to disrupt the market with our innovative products at sustainable prices.” Mr. Jain also mentioned that the company is looking forward to give their established competitors like Samsung, Micromax and Intex, a run for their money. The company is also looking forward to the Make in India plans. “We have been thinking about these plans, and in the direction of Make in India, but it would be too early to discuss at this point in time.” Since the Indian market has a deep interest in movie content, Jain added that if the Indian market has a great affinity for Hollywood, LeEco would work towards getting more Hollywood titles in its content pool. LeEco is also known as Netflix of China to their loyalists.

LeEco Mobile Looking to Tap theIndian Mobile Market

By Staff Reporter


Paytm & M-Taxi Jot Down StrategicPartnershipBy Staff Reporter

Several industry experts had already predicted that tie-ups would be big in 2016. Digital payment players & startups will be in the center of all the action. Paytm and M-Taxi has joined hands to disrupt the payment patterns in the commute industry.

With so many startups looking to claim their share of the Indian market, entrepreneurs are looking to implement new things. Commute industry startup 'M-Taxi' started off last year with the mission of providing a hassle-free option for the daily commuters. Looking at the recent development, M-Taxi has got Paytm on-board as their payment partner. M-Taxi had raised angel funding last year, led by Mandeep Singh and Jairaj Singh. Started by Arunabh Madhur, M-Taxi is looking to disrupt the payment patterns in the commute industry. Catering to the same cause, the company has decided to tie up with Paytm. A move which can be termed as transportation marrying digital payment technology. The main motive of the move is to boost cashless transactions with Paytm's expertise. Paytm has been one of the most widely used mobile wallets in the country. An integration with Paytm will further enhance and smoothen operations on M-Taxi's part. The majority of the commute service providers are now looking to go cashless. Till date, M-Taxi loyalists were only able to pay via cash for the services. However, the partnership with Paytm will cross this hurdle and help the customers to pay on-the-go. So what has instigated this move? The simple answer to this question would be the ever-increasing smartphone penetration and internet usage. These factors have pushed the growth for on-demand services. The integration with Paytm will provide the commuters with an additional option to pay their fare. With companies like Uber and Ola covering the majority of the four-wheeler commute segment, M-Taxi's main competitors in the two-wheeler segment includes companies like HeyBob and HeyTaxi. The two-wheeler taxi concept may still be in the nascent stage in India. However, the concept has been a huge hit in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam. The main two-wheeler taxi players out of India include Go-Jek, GrabBike and Blu-Jek. The two-wheeler taxi market will be witnessing a lot more entrants in the near future. However, being India's first two-wheeler taxi service, M-Taxi has pulled up a coup of sorts with the partnership with Paytm.

Speaking about the partnership with Paytm, M-Taxi founder, Arunabh Madhur, said, "M-Taxi is a technology company, providing easy and convenient last mile connectivity to the commuters in Gurgaon. After the success of the first phase operation, we are expanding as a service and constantly improvising our offerings. With Paytm, we will be providing convenience to our daily customers for speedy, secure and hassle-free payments. Lesser transaction failures and shorter turnaround time for payment approvals makes Paytm a natural choice for a digital wallet partnership." The M-Taxi users will be able to use the wallet after the next update.


Mobile Wallet 'Udio' LaunchedBy Staff Reporter

The digital payments sector is booming with a lot of new innovations and entrants. According to the latest developments, a brand new wallet 'Udio' has arrived.

In unison with Ratnakar Bank (RBL), digital payments player TranServ has launched a brand new mobile wallet. The company has also claimed that it is the country's first social mobile wallet. The news comes close on the heels of FreeCharge launching FreeCharge Go & Paytm launching prepaid cards. FreeCharge had partnered with YES Bank and Paytm partnered with ICICI Bank for the venture. The TranServ offering is also similar to the two products mentioned here. Udio has several value-added features & it comes with a VISA linked prepaid card powered by Ratnakar Bank (RBL). In January last year, RBL tied up with Transerv and iKaaz to launch co-branded wallets. Around the same time, Transerv launched (Shmart!), a digital payments suite for both customers and merchants, where RBL provides a semi-closed loop prepaid account to store funds. Shmart! offered a prepaid reloadable wallet for consumers. It also gave merchants a number of APIs to integrate into their website and have a wallet, through which, it counts over 150 merchants including PayUMoney, as its customers.

The company has been working tirelessly to improve the digital payment ecosystem. Along with simplifying the technology, TranServ has also been pivotal in providing enterprise-driven solutions. If you are looking for a secure and discreet digital payment option, Udio is the answer for you. The VISA card balance is linked to the wallet balance, with the app displaying transaction history, balance etc. The card can be used to carry out transactions at any offline outlets that support VISA cards. Users top up the account via bank transfer, and can withdraw the money back to their banks as well. Currently, there are no fees for bank transfers. For the ones unaware, Udio is actually the rebranding of Shmart! The company has incorporated several new features decked on a brand new interface. Udio can be used for electricity, gas, DTH and mobile payments as well. Other than this, users can gift vouchers to others from various brands like CCD, FastTrack, Myntra, Amazon and Starbucks etc. Like most other wallets, Udio also provides users with offers and discounts etc. The overall transaction limit for the wallet is Rs. 10,000 per month (including the card). “With the Udio app, we are taking the next step in the field of digitally led social payments in India by seamlessly integrating the social aspect with our secure and swift digital solutions,” said Anish Williams, co-founder and chief executive of TranServ.


Hardik KapoorFounder of Jewelsify

Startups- The Employment EngineBy Hardik Kapoor, Founder of Jewelsify

India is the fourth largest base for young Startups in India. Today it is home to more than 3000 young and vibrant tech/digital Startups in the world. And it is beyond doubt that by 2020, this number will conveniently rise to 11,500. Driven by factors such as massive funding, constantly evolving technology and the gift of having the world’s largest youth population, the Startup landscape in India has witnessed unprecedented growth in the last few years. There were about 800 Startups which were started in India in 2014 alone, Bangalore and Delhi-NCR being the top two destinations accounting for more than 50% of new Companies.


It is quite evident that a Startup ecosystem like this would also provide a fertile ground for budding professionals from all domains. According to a report, the Startups employed about 50,000 to 60,000 people in 2014 and it is estimated to hire 2.5-3 Lakhs employees by 2020. What is even intriguing is that job seekers are showing a great interest to work in these Startups. TimesJobs.com said in its study that almost 55% organisations witnessed candidates changing jobs to work in Startups. A large number of young professionals are declining lucrative corporate jobs to venture out into making their own dreams a reality by either starting a Company on their own or by being recruited by one of these new-age Startups. They feel that they have a better opportunity to learn, establish and grow faster and hence, they are willing to take a risk of working with a small Company despite the risks involved. The entrepreneurial spirit, backed by strong education, ample capital and economic policy support is what is luring these people towards these Companies. Today, Startups have access to multiple sources of funding from venture capitalists, private equity, angel investors, banks and financial institutions as well as incubators. Indian online Startups are a major chunk of the Startup ecosystem. Among the various industry verticals, Hyper local Startups seem to be the strongest contenders for success and the rise rise of Hyper local markets has also resulted in a considerable improvement of the country’s employment. Their requirement of professionals from across several verticals such as marketing strategy, brand consolidation, logistics, business development, technology etc will result in more employment opportunities for the country’s educated workforce.

Some may argue, that a Startup framework is not a steadfast one, at least initially; and the recent layoffs by some of the well-known Startups like Zomato, which laid off 300 odd people as part of a Global restructuring or Tiny Owl which showed pink slips to almost 250-300 employees. These layoffs may somewhat give them an opportunity to speculate . Some might also see these instances as the first signs of a bursting (Startup) bubble but, one must remember that age is not an indicator of failure. Experienced Organizations also crumble at times and these could be because of a variety of factors and reasons. The instances discussed above might also have a broader set of factors and reasons which get unnoticed by speculators. The bigger picture shows us a very different and bright future for Startups in India. It is because of this reason that the Govt. of India also has been instrumental in developing the Startup landscape with its policies and initiatives. Our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s ‘Start-up India; Stand up India’ campaign to promote bank financing for start-ups and offer incentives to boost entrepreneurship and job creation is a remarkable step to look at the Banking Sector in a whole new light. Nasscom has partnered with the Governments for Start-up warehouses to create a micro-ecosystem where start-ups and entrepreneurs can work together and share their learning and best practices with each other. This aims to foster an entrepreneurial culture contributing to increased knowledge, employment and societal wealth. Further, as part of the Skill India and Digital India initiative, the Prime Minister stated that a package of incentives will be given to manufacturing units for generating jobs. According to a report by KPMG, there are approximately 46 million Micro, Small, Medium Enterprise (MSME) Sector enterprises across various enterprises, employing 106 million people. This MSME sector accounts for 45% of Indian industrial output and 40% of exports. It only makes more sense to invest in this sector for the overall development of the country and in employment generation.

It is imperative that development of this segment is extremely critical to meet significant levels of employment across urban, and rural areas across the country.


Small Digital Start-ups IdentifyRaising Fund As Biggest Challenge

Ahead of the release of Government of India’s Start-up Policy, the Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] and IMRB International conducted a first of its kind survey of 785 small digital start-ups across the country. The purpose of the Survey was to identify their challenges in the next one year.

Growth, Talent Management and Fund Management are the top three challenges perceived by the small start-ups.

Base=785: Source: IAMAI-IMRB Start-up Survey

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

Talent

Management

Funds

Management

Competition

Tech

nology

Design

Regulato

ry

Framework

Intellectu

al

Property

...Gro

wth

Top Challenges Identified

Top 10 Challenges


In order to get a better understanding, respondents were asked to rank these challenges. A break-up of the larger parameters indicate the following top 10 challenges.


Key Business Challenge Sub Categories

Growth of the sector vis-a-vis the economy

Growth of your company vis-a-vis the sector

Growth in terms of market-share

Lack of skilled personnel

Attrition rate/latent retention

Managerial skill vs. Technical skill

Challenges in raising fund

Revenue expenditure mismatch

Challenges of monetisation of business model

Excessive competition crowding out funding

Increasing customer/client base

Creating value which has relevance in the market

Concentrating on innovation

Ensuring optimum use of technology

Balancing Quality and Growth

Using contemporary technology in an efficient way

Lack of reforms in regulatory framework

Present regulatory framework is market distortionary

Regulation has loopholes/is inconsistent

Patent/Copyright protection

Growth

Talent Management

Funds Management

Competition

Technology/Design

Regulatory Framework

Intellectual Property Rights

The larger parameters of the challenges included the following subcategories:

Raising Fund

Staying Innovative

Lack of Skilled Personnel

Customer Acquisition

Vale Creation

Staying Competitive

Growth in terms of market-share

Growth of the sector vis-a-vis the economy

Monetistation

Balancing Quality Growth

0 0.5 1 1.5Base=785: Source: IAMAI-IMRB Start-up Survey


While challenges in raising funds remain the primary concern, innovation and lack of skilled personnel are major pain points for all of them. Interestingly, while all companies are concerned about raising funds, issues such as regulatory framework and monetisation of business model is not much of a bother at this stage of their operation. This is reflective of the fact that the government’s move to boost funding and develop a robust ecosystem through a series of programmes is a step in the right direction as far as supporting the small digital start-ups are concerned.

The survey was conducted across the startup innovation corridors in India. The sample break-up of the cities is given below:

0 30050 100 150 200 250

249

130

120

70

45

40

30

23

20

18

11

10

10

9

Delhi NCR

Bengaluru

Mumbai

Hyderabad

Chennai

Pune

Other

Ahemdabad/Syrat/Rajkot

Kolkata

Jaipur/Jodhpur

Chandigarh

Kanpur/Lucknow/Varanasi

Trivandrum/Kochi

Indore



The trend of VCs and angel investors injecting the Indian startups gained momentum last year. As we start to firm our feet in 2016, the trend is set to gain more pace. A Delhi based startup - Wishup, secured funding from multiple investors this week.

500 Startups, Rocket Internet Ventures and TracxnLabs have invested an undisclosed amount in a chat-based concierge startup - Wishup. Since its inception in July 2015, the Delhi-based startup has already carved out a niche for themselves in the product delivery sector. With more than 10,000 customers in their kitty, Wishup is now looking to further enhance their reach across multiple geographies. A brainchild of IIT Madras alumni Neelesh Rangwani and Vivek Gupta, Wishup provides a plethora of products under one single roof. One of the co-investors include Mato Peric, former partner and Global MD at Rocket Internet Ventures. Rangwani used to work for Rocket Internet Ventures in Germany. The chat-based platform caters to all your needs ranging from product deliveries (cakes and flowers, medicines, cigarettes), bookings (movie, cab, hotels, travel) to household services (laundry, electrician, and mechanic) and reservations (doctors, restaurants). What makes Wishup different is their ability to work on your to-do lists and deliver to multiple individuals. Via evaluating your to-do list, it can perform tasks and send products to loved ones, book tickets & cabs at the specified times. Wishup services are currently available only in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. Post this undisclosed injection of investment,

Wishup - A Chat-Based Startup GainsInvestment Injection

By TA Correspondent


the startup will be looking to expand their operations in other major cities. The platform has been already operational on the Facebook Messenger and the Wishup team has already announced the Beta launch of its Android app. The iOS version is poised to be launched in a couple of months down the line. The startup is also looking to further enhance the customer experience through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Through Wishup, customers are provided with expert operators to find the best deals and services on everything they need under a single platform, the company said in a statement. Wishup's Neelesh Rangwani spoke at lengths about the platform, he said, “We always felt that there was a need to aggregate all the upcoming services in the market on a single platform. During my stint in Germany, I came across a food delivery service on a simple chat. That is when this idea of aggregating services on chat clicked to me. I discussed it with Vivek and the concept of Wishup was born.” He further added, “We started with my personal WhatsApp number and scaled up to a 1,000 requests per day within the first month of operation. That’s when we validated the market potential and decided to come up with a more personalized platform on mobile phones.” The use of AI will also play a significant role in the growth of Wishup in the coming years. "At Wishup, AI will be used at both the ends — a Wishbot which is at the customer end and an Opsbot which is at the operations end. Wishbot is autonomous chat bot that understands query intent and acts upon it for certain specific categories like phone recharge, cab bookings. Opsbot, on the other hand, engages the users on behalf of operators when they are busy. It also helps in logging requests and categorizing them automatically. These features are in development stage and will be rolled out soon”, concluded Prahadeesh Giridharan, Technology co-founder at Wishup.


To implement the Prime Minister’s twin vision of ‘Stand-up India’ and ‘Digital India’, the industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has come up with specific fiscal and non-fiscal measures required by the internet industry. According to the association, the digital start-up ecosystem in India should be systematically encouraged by focussing on specific fiscal interventions.

On the fiscal incentives, the association has suggested the following:1. Improve Investment EnvironmentIndia's entrepreneurs need early stage venture capital – but the domestic venture capital sector needs to develop further. In the US, the VC industry took off when their government allowed the large pension funds to put 5-10% of their assets into VC firms

1.1 Angel TaxAngel Tax under Sec 56 (2) of the Income Tax Act has not been actually tailored to restrict start-ups funding but it has put start-ups under the Income tax scanner, questioning the valuation by domestic individual investors. The criteria to qualify as an angel fund are stringent and need to be eased to support the start-up ecosystem in the country.

Digital Start-ups Need SpecificIncentives: IAMAI


The association suggests that there should be tax breaks and incentives for individuals supporting start-ups with capital.

2. Incentivize Internet Services Start-upsThese are the largest chunk of internet companies in India. This sector, which comprises of aggregators, digital advertisers, online classifieds, bring in a lot of efficiency, and are the largest employment generators. They are either enabling businesses, or they are creating lot of employment in the country, resulting in many people are earning a lot of money than they should otherwise have.

2.1 Service TaxUnfortunately, Start-ups have to pay huge amount over the first

three years in way of service tax. It is not that they don’t want to pay, but they have survival issues and this takes a back seat and penalties just make a struggling start-up's life harder.

The association recommends that for the first three years, the service tax could be waived off or incentivizes the start-ups, if they pay their service taxes on time.

3. Streamline taxation for e-Commerce marketplace Start-upsOnline market places are changing the way businesses are done in India. Small players are setting up niche businesses in India and are attracting lot of investments in India. Online marketplaces bring in a lot of efficiency in the entire retail value chain from customer experience to payments and delivery.

3.1 Taxes on e-commerce TransactionsThe e-commerce marketplace industry is being subjected to onerous VAT demands from several states. They should be recognized as marketplaces and exempt from VAT demands in states. As market places they provide a service to online sellers and pay the service tax on that account. The State of Rajasthan for example treats e-commerce players as market places.

4. Boost FinTech Start-upsFinTech plays a significant role in serving those underserved or not served by formal institutional mechanisms. They are also likely to play a significant role in various financial inclusion programmes of the government. Various forms of FInTech services such as pre-paid instruments, wallets and others create efficiency, transparency and wider reach in financial transaction.

4.1 P2P lending and crowd-funding need an impetus and clarity from GovernmentWhile some early inroads have been made in the P2P lending segment in the country, individual efforts have not translated into a policy from the government. The lack of clarity of rules and regulations has meant the industry is shooting in the dark. In the absence of dictated policy or scriptures, it is quite plausible that misguided individuals may fall prey to unscrupulous operators that may look to make a quick buck.

4.2 Easy KYC through aadhar will allow innovators build new services which in turn will help bring more people under the ambit of financial servicesVarious forms of digital payments such as pre-paid instruments, wallets and others create efficiency, transparency and wider reach in financial transaction.

Dating and matchmaking has become a hot sector thanks to the booming technology. Crossing the traditional hurdles, new startups are looking to provide match-seekers with new age options. Matchmaking startup 'Aisle' is looking to be at the forefront of the action.

Tinder did become a rage once it became a household name in the App culture. However, with the vision of addressingmatchmaking concerns, Aisle has carved out a niche for themselves. Focused on providing a heads up for a potential date, Aisle is looking to disrupt the matchmaking sector in the country. Parents and relative have always been pivotal in the matchmaking process. However, the trend is changing quickly and the concept of westernized dating is slowly peeping its neck out of the nascent stage. Indian youth wants to spend considerable time with their to-be-partner understanding each other and finding that connection. They aren’t for casual dates from Tinder or Thrill but aren’t ready for marriage proposals from shaadi.com too. For new matchmaking startups, it is necessary to be different and unique. Taking cues from the same, Able Joseph and Shrishti Kataria came up with the concept of Aisle. Since its inception in 2014, the platform has definitely managed to turn a lot of heads. Along with building a niche community with authentic profiles, the registration process at Aisle is very discreet. The interest and preferences on the platform are both innovative and interesting. A platform started with the motive of changing the local social issue along with making some changes in the traditional way is turning out to be one the hottest Indian startups. This brings us to the funding process. Aisle had raised $100k in seed funding from a group of angel investors from the Bay Area and India. The initial investors included Microsoft's Anand Vijay & Shashank Mehrotra of Bigrock. Being successful in terms of balancing the traditional marriage concept & modern dating trends, Aisle has now raised INR 1.25 Crore in a pre-series A funding.

The participants in the funding round included TermSheet and ah! Ventures. The prominent participants included Anand Chandrasekaran, Chief Product Officer, Snapdeal along with Akshay Syal, Richard Kim, Jana Pokkalla and Manish Gautam. The funds will be used to make the platform, even more robust & build a stronger team and partnerships. With 600+ registrations per day, Aisle seems bound for matchmaking success. Speaking about the funding, Able Joseph, Founder, Aisle, said, “A balanced gender ratio coupled with a trustworthy brand which has gathered a comprehensive list of users who are of similar mind-sets when it comes to attractiveness and compatibility is exactly what urban India needs in the matchmaking space. Not everyone has got the formula right, and I feel we have managed to add more value in the online dating space for Indians.”

Matchmaking Startup 'Aisle' RaisesINR 1.25 CroreBy Rohit Pandey – Sr. Content Writer / Social Media Strategist


Published on 2nd / 3rd of every month | Posted on 6th / 7th of every month | RNI. No.: DELENG/2009/30094 | Postal Registration No.: DL(S) - 01/3375/2010-12

If undelivered, kindly return to: Thinking Aloud, 28, 1st Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase – III, New Delhi-110020 (India).

Thinking Aloud Magazine February 2016 - 205 x … internet users are increasing, ... to reach 87 million in December 2015. These ... companies like Micromax have taken a lead by launching

Documents