Month: November 2014

What are Digital Services [SMAC] and How is it Different from IT ?

by

Digital Services are the key focus for IT services vendors today with increased investments by vendors in building capabilities in this area. The term digital services or SMAC refers to a computing paradigm that is essentially a confluence of four different technology forces, namely a) Social Media, b) Mobility, c) Analytics and d) Cloud.

Social Media & IT
The ever increasing use of social networking platforms has opened up new avenues for customer engagement, marketing and brand building by organizations across the world. Social Media helps firms widen their reach across geographies and demographics; connect with customers and proactively seek real time feedback. For instance, most technology products have social networking sections

Read more

How can Apple Pay Extend NFC Payment to Other Areas ?

by

Apple Pay NFC System ExtensibilityApple Pay & Passbook have the potential to be very innovative and disruptive to many everyday user experiences. Apple is able to derive the most economics from getting a cut of credit / debit transactions that are enabled through Apple Pay as well as driving incremental revenues through the burgeoning mobile advertising network. As Consumers view fingerprint authentication technology to be more secure than current swipe transactions. Recent credit card security breaches by Target, Home Depot and various banks add focus to this in the minds of consumers. The ecosystem can be extended further with a win – win solution for all as detailed below.

iAds
Integrating Apple Pay with Apple’s iAd mobile ad network in the form of a tap-to-buy button embedded in mobile ads. This would allow app publishers that work with iAd to generate more mobile ad revenues from their apps. Apple keeps 30% of the revenues generated from sales

Read more

How & Why Xiaomi Built a Different Eco-System Model ?

by

We view Chinese Company, Xiaomi as a mobile Internet company, rather than a hardware company, mainly because Xiaomi captures a significant portion of user life time value (LTV) after hardware purchase through a 3-way monetization model (hardware, Internet service and software). On the contrary, hardware companies capture vast majority of the user LTV at hardware purchase.

Hardware, which includes various in-house developed Xiaomi devices such as Xiaomi smartphones, tablets, Xiaomi Router, etc. Xiaomi devices are priced at significantly lower prices vs. competitors, which should drive user acquisition.

Read more

How Many More 3G Operators can be Accommodated in 900Mhz Spectrum Band ?

by

Contiguity is the key factor for the launch of 3G services and a minimum requirement for a successful rollout. We look at availability of extra spectrum across the circles (including surrender of spectrum from BSNL) and the corresponding contiguous blocks.

We note that in six of the 18 circles, there is a creation of an additional block of 5Mhz thereby allowing each of the top-three operators to gain presence in the market. On the contrary, in other circles, for example in Madhya Pradesh, either of the top-three is capable of winning, while

Read more

Why Xiamoi Buying Stake in iQiyi and Youku ?

by

Android device maker Xiaomi is considering taking a stake both in Baidu’s online video subsidiary iQiyi and in Alibaba-invested online video site operator Youku Tudou. Earlier this month on its official Weibo account, Xiaomi announced that it plans to invest US$1bn in online video content to support its smart television ecosystem. We expect Xiaomi to invest about US$300m in iQiyi to become the second largest shareholder and an US$ 8-digit figure in Youku Tudou in the secondary market.

A partnership with iQiyi and Youku Tudou will

Read more

China Mobile Commerce Hits $37 Bn up 251% YoY

by

China Mobile PaymentsMobile commerce has been an area of intense focus in recent years. According to a recently published report by iResearch, China mobile commerce reached USD 37 Billion in 3Q2014, surpassing overall ecommerce growth of ~50%YoY over the same period. During the quarter, mobile GMV accounted for ~33.4% of total online shopping GMV, some 2.8ppt higher than that in 2Q14. We attribute the robust growth in mobile commerce mainly to a growing profusion of mobile devices in China and an accompanying rapid evolution in buying behaviors. We envision an ever-growing mobile

Read more

MakeMyTrip Air Ticketing Strengthens, Structural Growth Story Intact

by

MakeMyTripMakeMyTrip [MMYT] asserts its focus on growing its Hotels & Packages (H&P) business by spearheading online shift & mobile platform adoption. It is cementing leadership here. Robust air traffic driven by discounting of airfares surprised positively for MMYT’s Air business.

MakeMyTrip gained market share in domestic air ticketing business increasing it from about a steady 12% for the last several quarters to around 13%+ in Sep-14 quarter. To provide context, MMYT delivered a solid Sep-14 quarter with air ticketing revenues (less service cost) of US$18.4 million in revenues i.e., 20% Y/Y (and 10.7% Q/Q) revenue growth. Management suggests that revenue per booking is low primarily because of discounted ticket prices. But there is little correlation between revenue per transaction and air ticketing margins as margins in

Read more