One97 Communications, one of the leading VAS providers of India comes out all geared up for the next era of Value Added Services in the country, as its Founder and Managing Director Mr. Vijay Shekhar Sharma catches up with TelecomTiger on its strategies, future plans and the telecom industry at large.

With the VAS industry prepared for its next lap, Mr. Sharma heralds advertising model as the new revenue source for the VAS industry and forebodes that the current VAS pricing of Rs. 6/min will soon see the dust.

Q1. The VAS market in India is too crowded with no differentiation noticeable among the various VAS players. You have the same content, services etc offered by most of the VAS players. In such a scenario how does One97 differentiates itself from others?

Ans: The VAS landscape has been growing for years now and I agree that it’s a crowded space we are thriving in. But we have managed to make our mark in the field because we have consistently held on to few essential points that distinguish us from the rest. Despite the fact that we are running a technical company, we never limited our attention to content and technological aspects alone. Consumers’ experience dominates the center

stage for us. In fact, we travel the extra mile to get the feel of the user experience. Before the launch of any new application, we conduct a BETA testing of the potential consumers to know about the real world likes and dislikes. We were one of the first companies to have a dedicated product team that focuses on the user experience. We always strive to set a new bench mark in consumer experience. If amassed in a line, I would say ‘consumer is the king’ for us.

Besides, we have always sought to offer the right value for the consumer’s money. And our company’s trend of thinking ahead of time has given us the headstart. We have many applications lined up that are way ahead of the time. So that’s how we have unremittingly hooked up our consumers.

Q2. One97 has Network VAS among its product and services portfolio. Could you please elaborate on this offering of yours especially from the point of view of how it will help the operators?

Ans: The VAS as how its largely perceived is not exactly right. While, VAS does include things like content and utility on the phone, it needs to be viewed in a larger holistic way. And this is where ‘network VAS’ comes in the frame.

Network VAS is basically enhancement of network. It comprises of facilities like- call management, enhanced SMS services and varied internet billing options to name a few. Honestly when we look at VAS in this sense network has not focused on user experience since its inception.

There is a need of an intelligent network that is able to identify and block the calls one doesn’t want to take, give constant updates on phone balance and validity expiration dates and offer simpler ways of operating mobile internet, which is flagged as the talk of the town.

In network VAS we are striving to make networks able to serve today’s enhanced consumer and converged media requirement.

Q3. During your fund raising exercise carried out in May this year, you had reportedly mentioned that you are eying acquisitions in VAS space. What are your target firms in terms of offerings, revenue size, geographical preference, etc and are there any acquisitions in pipeline?

Ans: Our strategy is to grow in the different territories of the businesses that we operate in. So, we don’t mind acquiring a consumer internet company or consumer telecom application services company, or telecom enterprise services company. These are opportunities we see as logical expansion of our current business operations.

While we develop our own technologies in house, there is also a lot that we outsource to other companies. And from time to time we have made investments in such companies and will continue to do so. Given an opportunity we could also look at owning them 100 percent.

On the international front we will look at expanding our footprints in select geographies. Instead of spreading our selves thin in a number of smaller markets we may look at larger markets. We are looking at an acquisition of over $ 50 -100 million in the international market. It is early days for us in this, hence would not like to divulge more details.

Q4. VAS players in India often complain of high handiness from telecom operators particularly