Mobile Apps

Can Just Dial Reverse Slowing Network Effect with Omni / Search Plus Launch ?

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Just Dial Slowing Sales - Omni SME LaunchJust Dial’s revenue growth for Core Search business has decelerated meaningfully over the last few quarters. While growth may have bottomed out, the initiatives taken by the management will take a few quarters to yield results, in our view. Management reiterated that the slowdown in revenue growth was not led by any increase in competitive activity, but due to a lesser focus internally on the search business. It plans to add 2,000-2,500 people to its sales team (both tele-sales and “feet on street”) over the next 9-10 months, which should address the issue of growth.

The total listings on Just Dial platform is ~16mn and it has the potential to move up to 20-25mn. It is planning to start a program of

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StayZilla Vs Zo Rooms – Hotels & Alternative Stay Aggregators

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StayZillaStayzilla is an aggregator of hotels and alternative accommodation on the Mobile App & Web. The company’s focus is to build supply, which it believes is the most difficult issue to resolve. It believes that there is enough pent-up demand to fill in any supply that will come online. Traffic on the platform also depends more on having inventory across a wider geographical coverage (number of towns/cities) rather than deeper coverage (more hotels within a geographical area).

Importance of supply can be seen from the fact that the company believes that the property owners are customers rather than those booking the hotel. Further, Stayzilla doesn’t believe that hotel owners / operators need technology for booking as is

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Online Food ordering – Zomato Ups the Ante on Tiny Owl & FoodPanda

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Online Food Ordering IndiaZomato launched online ordering, a significant revenue opportunity. Zomato recently launched its food ordering service in India. The service is currently live across 9,000 restaurants in 7 cities. In addition to the main app, It has also launched ‘Zomato Order‘ exclusively for online ordering. Online payment option is not available yet; Zomato Wallet is shown as ‘Coming Soon’. As of now, it is not doing any delivery in-house and is relying only on delivery by restaurants. Restaurants pay commissions of 7.5% to 15% per order – the rate varies based on the delivery rating provided by the user. Online ordering could be a significant revenue opportunity for Zomato; assuming 20-30k orders per day, average order size of Rs400 and 10% commission, revenues could total Rs300-450mn vs. Rs450mn of advertising revenues earned in India in FY15.

Foodpanda and TinyOwl are two key online food ordering services in India Foodpanda currently handles

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Mobile Money Fragmentation (Telcos / Banks) Breaks Mass Market

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In a world where each nation uses its own currency which could not be exchanged, global commerce would stall. But if one or even two currencies were introduced, which were accepted globally, international commerce could resume.

Using this analogy, we argue that fragmented industries (Telecom Companies / Banks) fundamentally cannot successfully launch global m-payment systems as by definition they are too regional. If consumers want to make a purchase or transfer through a mobile, they don’t want to discover their m-payment mechanism isn’t compatible. Therefore, we believe that a sustainable, long-term m-payment application will require a critical mass comparable to the number of iPhone (600m) or Android (1.9bn) users and consequently

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Mobile Powers Chinese Rural e-Commerce

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Mobile Commerce Rural ChinaAccording to research recently released by bjbusiness, roughly 64% of netizens in rural China shop via mobile phone, far in excess of those who shop by PC (~36%). In many of China’s less developed markets, the smart phone is indeed the key gateway to internet access rather than the PC due to the lower device cost when compared with the PC. E-commerce penetration in rural areas has risen substantially, as key e-commerce players such as Alibaba and JD shift their strategic focus from top-tier cities to rural areas. Mobile usage meanwhile has come to embrace online shopping quite rapidly and seamlessly.

Roughly 74% of rural netizens indicate Taobao and Tmall as their most frequently visited e-commerce sites, while

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Just Dial Asset Light Local Commerce, Open to Partnership

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Justdial Asset Light CommerceIn an era where JustDial – JD is competing with the PE-backed internet players that are flush with cash and have an appetite for cash burn, JD unveiled its strategy saying that it maintains belief that over the longer term, JD will be able to compete and emerge stronger vs. vertical / horizontal players who are gaining top-line market share by burning cash.

Just Dial has invested heavily in making a mobile app that can provide multiple touch points for the consumer. The single focus for technological evolution at the company is linked to make JD the preferred platform for all

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Mobile Social Platforms – Instagram & WhatsApp to be Monetized by Facebook

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Instagram-whatsapp-monetizationInstagram and WhatsApp’s large user base and high engagement levels suggest a large revenue potential for Facebook (FB).

Instagram is a mobile online photo sharing, video-sharing social network service that allows users to take photos and videos and share them on its platform. Given growing use of photo sharing, we see Instagram as a well-positioned as a social and mobile platform play, and a nice compliment to the Facebook audience given a younger demographic profile of the site.

Instagram has exceeded with 300mn MAUs expectations. Site activity is impressive with 70mn photos shared per day and 2.5bn daily likes. Globally, users spend over 20 minutes per day on Instagram, which sets the foundation for material advertising dollars. We see a $4bn+ revenue opportunity and potential valuation range for Instagram at $30bn – $37bn based on user and potential revenue comparisons to

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Why Xiamoi Buying Stake in iQiyi and Youku ?

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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

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China Mobile Commerce Hits $37 Bn up 251% YoY

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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

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Apple Pay Heats the Race for Mobile Payments

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Apple Pay Heats mPayment RaceNon innovators in the Business are giving Apple run for its money in Mobile Payment by Lobbying. Apple Pay’s impact on the payments world in the US and internationally has been felt in the Silicon valley where PayPal was separated from Ebay and in Emerging Markets where are we likely to see m-Pesa -like disruptions.

Apple’s mobile wallet Apple Pay is one of the 200+ digital wallets in the market. Most mobile wallets ventures have been unsuccessful because consumers and merchants are conservative in payment behavior. Apple Pay is likely to more successful than rival digital wallets as it (1) has a critical mass of partners across the payment value chain, including card networks, issuers, processors and merchants, (2) critical mass of US smart phone market (c40%), and (3) they should be

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