ENABLING THE MOBILE APPLICATION ECOSYSTEM IN INDIA
Bipin Preet Singh Founder CEO
CII Summit13 Nov, 2010
Follow us @ twitter.com/mobikwik
Who am I?
Bipin Preet Singh
Founder CEO, www.mobikwik.com
B.Tech (EE) IIT Delhi 2002
8 years in Consumer Hardware products
Stints at Intel, NVIDIA, Freescale
What is MobiKwik.com? Direct to Consumer web platform for
mobile services, Live since Aug 2009
Example of mobile services Mobile Recharge Mobile Bill payment Mobile Apps Mobile Content
What we do best? Kick Ass customer experience Independent, open access, user discovery model Monetization
Apps – Why should we care?
Mobile Hardware is now a commodity – differentiation lies in software
Apps represent the primary software opportunity on the Mobile – worth billions of dollars
Mobile apps will drive data usage especially with 3G
Mobile Apps Ecosystem
Top countries for January 2010 downloads on Getjar
Developers
Supply
Customers
Demand
The Ecosystem in India Today
So WHO are we missing?
We need more Enablers App Stores Web downloads Commissioned apps Offline RetailTo build the Mobile Apps Economy…..
Demand India
Country Current Period Previous Period Trend
Indonesia 14,454,167 13,736,562 5%
India 8,661,600 7,774,230 11%
United States 4,817,565 3,815,531 26%
United Kingdom 1,356,746 1,400,482 3%
Egypt 1,280,035 1,216,0575%
South Africa 1,263,530 1,240,3412%
Source: Getjar.com Jan 2010
Supply India
Many cutting edge apps on the iPhone AppStore are developed by Indian companies either branded or white-label
So, why aren’t enough apps being developed for the Indian consumer?
What developers care about?
Size of the market
Development Infrastructure
Market feedback
Time (or headache) to market & payouts
Therefore,
Developers mostly not interested in developing for Indian market.
Consumer gets old generation apps with poor provisioning.
And the cycle continues ....
HOW CAN THE ECOSYSTEM IMPROVE?
Unlearn the lessons of MVAS
Apps are not ringtones or wallpapers!
Apps are not a single mass market
‘Push’ model won’t work ‘Search’, ‘Discoverability’ and
‘Provisioning’ matter
Understand the ‘Long Tail’ of mobile apps
Attract the best developers
The best mobile developers don’t work for you – Accept the truth.
Make Rev share attractive. ( hint: 20% cut after 3 months does not work)
Create the feedback loop.
Create and Promote the developer brand.
Emerging market trends
“But unlike North America, where users with high-end smartphones are happy to plunk down a few dollars for a time-killing casual game,
growth in emerging markets will lean more heavily on productivity apps used by consumers who don’t have regular fixed-line Internet service.
And app developers and distributors will be tasked with finding ways to monetize their wares beyond simple one-off purchases.”
- Quoted from gigaom.com
Apply Indian Consumer trends The Indian consumer
is value conscious is not an impulsive buyer bases buying decisions on trust (through
word of mouth, internet search and social media)
changes handsets & SIM cards
Partner, Partner, Partner
Software and Telecom are different businesses
Independent players like Mobikwik.com create multiple advantages: Developer Engagement Piloting and Feedback loop Pulse on Macro and Micro Consumer-
trends
Q&A
Email me - bipin [at] mobikwik.com for a copy of this presentation
for partnership meetings
for job opportunities
Follow me on Twitter twitter.com/mobikwik