Topics

796

SmartPhones & Apps / Most Popular Ad Platforms / Services for Apps

« on: February 25, 2015, 05:15:25 PM »

We'd like to present the Most Popular Ad Platforms / Services for Mobile Apps for Developers to Monetize their skills.

Ad Platforms
VDOPIA
Qriously
Dstillery
Fiksu
Liftoff
Byyd
Conversant

Advertising Services
AdMob
Millennial Media
Archer
iAD
Hipcricket
Ripple
Mojiva
InMobi

Advertising Agencies
Publicis
Eagle Eye
Merkle 5thfinger
Acision
Amobee
Carat
GroupM
Iconmobile
Miva

797

SmartPhones & Apps / Best Consumer vs Enterprise Apps in 2014

« on: February 25, 2015, 05:06:43 PM »

Here is the List of Best Consumer vs Enterprise Apps in 2014 across Android and iPhone App Stores

Best Consumer Apps in 2014
Games
Candy Crush Saga
Follow The Line
Rock Hero
FarmVille
Entertainment
Netflix
Hulu Plus
MTV
Pandora
Health & Medical
Feed Baby Pro
Doctor on Demand
My Diabetes
Lose It!
Media & Video
Ringtone Maker
Video Kik
YouTube
Cartoon Network Video

Best Enterprise Apps in 2014
Finance & Tax
Checkbook Pro
Chase Mobile
PayPal
Easy Currency Converter
Office & Presentation
Google Slides
Microsoft Office Mobile
Adobe Reader
Image Editor
Communication
Teamspeak 3
Skype
Outlook.com
Good
Storage
Dropbox
Google Drive
Folder Downloader
Amazon Cloud Drive

798

Technology / What Should be the Drone Flying Regulations ?

« on: February 25, 2015, 04:46:45 PM »

The US FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) proposed rules for commercial drone usage, applicable to civil drones weighing 25kg and below. On the positive side, the rules clearly define the usage scenario for commercial drones including

Limiting flights to daylight time and to visual-line-of-sight operations, and away from bystanders
Maximum flying speed of 100mph (160kph) and an altitude of 500ft
The operator must be at least 17 years old and obtain special certificates.

We believe the new regulations satisfy the requirement of major commercial applications such as oil & gas inspection and agriculture. On the other hand, the new rules: Bar an operator from dropping any object from the drone and rule out commercial drone usage for home delivery.

Although the FAA?s regulations are negative for the adoption of drones in the home delivery market, there are still wide areas of
applications for drones to explore such as recreation, industrial inspection & land survey, natural disaster & humanitarian relief and wireless communication. We believe the FAA?s restrictions on home delivery reflect its safety concerns, especially after recent accidents such as a small drone crashing into the White House on 26 January 2015

799

5G / Wi-Fi / 70 Mn Wireless Broadband Subscribers at End of 2014

« on: February 25, 2015, 10:44:13 AM »

The total hi-speed wireless broadband subs base in the country expanded to 70 mn at end-December 2014 from 40.27 mn at end-December 2013, a healthy growth of nearly 75%.

We note that the top-3 incumbents' share of hi-speed wireless broadband subs in India (3G + EVDO + LTE; phones + dongles + routers) has gone up to 67.7% at end-December 2014 from 51% at end-December 2013. Incumbents? share of incremental subs was nearly 90%, validating our argument earlier in the note that accelerated data adoption is one of the key factors driving sustained RMS gains for the incumbents.

800

5G / Wi-Fi / RCOM vs Idea vs Airtel Mobile Data Operating Metrics

« on: February 24, 2015, 12:51:43 PM »

Data traffic on RCom's network increased 16% Q/Q and 83% Y/Y. The weak non-voice revenue growth despite high data growth points to meaningful decline in data realizations. Interestingly, RCom?s non-voice India revenues of INR 11.6 billion is lower than Idea's data revenues of INR12.6 billion despite the fact that total data traffic on Idea's network is about 46.1 billion MB, which is just 60% of total data traffic on RCom's network (about 76.4 billion MB).

RCom's India non-voice revenues of INR11.6 billion is half of Airtel?s India data revenues of INR21.4 billion. However, total data traffic of 77.3 billion MB on Airtel's Network is almost equal to RCom's data traffic of 76.4 billion MB. Even assuming that all non-voice revenues are from data, it suggests that RCom's realized rates (on data) are at significant discount to the other large players.

801

4G / LTE / What is Significance of 800Mhz Spectrum for Mobile Broadband?

« on: February 21, 2015, 05:18:11 PM »

Telecom Spectrum in the 800 Mhz band has been efficient in the CDMA, EVDO Broadband and now Mobile Broadband / 4G LTE.

• 800 Mhz is very well suited for deploying 4G LTE Networks - High Coverage Area
• We have quite a few 4G deployments across the globe powered by 800 Mhz band
• The 800 Mhz band has very high propagation characteristics, suitable for countries like India with concrete jungles
• Well developed Mobile Handset eco-system for the 800 Mhz band, unlike the 2300 Mhz
• Lower Capital Expenditure - Deploy fewer BTS

802

4G / LTE / What is Reliance Jio Infocomm's Free Wi-Fi Jionet Gameplan ?

« on: February 20, 2015, 04:25:39 PM »

New entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm is introducing free WiFi service under Jionet brand in Kolkata, Gujarat & Delhi etc

Reliance Jionet will focus on gaining traffic market share by offering free WiFi initially. As a late entrant and an operator with 2300 MHz, we think that getting subscribers on its WiFi would be core part of its strategy. The company may look to monetize data overtime by charging for higher usage and for content. We expect more - free WiFi hotspot launches by R-Jio as it comes closer to its launch.

What is Reliance Jio's Offering ?
Free Wi-Fi available only in selected areas of Kolkata
Initially offering unlimited data for free, subject to fair usage policy
Free Wi-Fi av ailable in 17 locations across Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat

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3G / HSPA / EVDO / Highest Monthly Net Ads for GSM Operators in FY 2015

« on: February 20, 2015, 01:59:43 PM »

GSM net-adds surged to 8.9mn in Jan-15 from 8.2mn in Dec-14; Bharti saw an increase of over 1mn net adds m-o-m, while Voda reported 0.3mn increase. This was partly offset by m-o-m decline in Idea?s and Uninor?s net adds, by 0.35mn each. On a combined basis, Top-3 [BVI] contributed 6.8mn (78%) to overall Jan net-adds, compared to 5.8mn (71%) in Dec. [Note: BSNL/RCOM/TTSL are yet to report their GSM net-adds for Jan]

Airtel's net-adds were its highest after nearly four years. Idea/Voda reported net-adds of 2.2mn/1.8mn in Jan. Among regional telcos, Uninor reported c.30% m-o-m decline in net-adds, driven by lower-adds in all but two of its six circles. Bihar and UP-East were the best performing circles?they together accounted for 30% of January net-adds.

804

Technology / eComExpress - Courier for the eCommerce Industry

« on: February 19, 2015, 05:32:08 PM »

Ecom express has Dominant share of air within eCommerce logistics: 90-95% of total eCommerce goods shipped within the country go via air, and this could remain high at 70%.

Overall market for last-mile delivery would be Rs1,450cr with top 5 players accounting for 80% of the total market. In all, 1 million parcels are shipped daily.

Key factors for growth are scale and reach, service level, cost, reliability. 3PL players fare better than established courier companies and logistics arms of eCommerce companies in most of the above factors except reach. Existing large players like Blue Dart have substantial revenues coming from mail, making this a lower priority for Ecom express.

Ecom express delivers over 100k packages every day and aims to grow to 200k over next year. Average revenue per package shipment would be Rs85 while direct cost works out to be Rs60-65 per package.

Over longer term with scale logistics, costs could come down to 6-12% of gross merchandise value, as per company. Ecom express states that it needs an average of 150-200 packages daily in any city to achieve break-even.

Return rates vary from 5 to 20%but average 8-10%. Cash is remitted in 3-7 days for large eCommerce vendors of Ecom Express.

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Web 2.0 / Why Jack Ma Invested in Paytm ?

« on: February 19, 2015, 04:08:25 PM »

Paytm has over 20 million mobile wallets and aims to reach a total of 100 million with over 1 million merchants by 2016. Total unique users per month are 350 million and the platform sells approximately 90 million items per month.

Currently it has ~16k merchants on its platform. Some of the key online merchants include Makemytrip, Uber, Dish TV, Bookmyshow etc. 85% of its traffic is organic and 80% of its orders are on mobile. As per management, the current run rate of orders is 20 million per month with cumulative 25 million customers and a total GMV run rate of US$600m. Within marketplaces 60-70% of its sales come from fashion
and electronics account for a small percentage of total sales.

Revenues from merchants come in 3 buckets: a) marketing fee, b) payment charges, and c) logistics costs which is a pass through element. As per management, its competition is more from the likes of marketplaces models like Snapdeal and less from Flipkart.

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Technology / Indian eCommerce Shoppers to Hit 100Mn by 2017

« on: February 18, 2015, 04:41:39 PM »

Rocket Internet India CEO Heavent Malhotra believes Indian eCommerce market could grow to 3x in next 2 years as online shoppers increase from 35m to 100m. Further as the overall base of online shoppers grows significantly, the cost of user acquisition will continue to come down over coming years. The market and consumer expectations have moved beyond price which is increasingly becoming a hygiene factor and differentiating factors would be better choice, faster delivery and brand positioning in the minds of consumers.

Rocket Internet India has a portfolio of 7 companies and it aims to be the market leader in the respective segments. Overall market is too dynamic and very hard to predict as last 3 years it has grown far beyond its expectations. Within fashion, the key factor would be mix of private brands over time. Currently Jabong has approximately 20% of its business coming from private brands.

One of the key drivers has been mobile as it now accounts for 60-70% of revenues for many key internet platforms from less than 2-3% 2 years ago.

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SmartPhones & Apps / How Hike Managed to become Number 2 behind WhatsApp ?

« on: February 18, 2015, 04:27:24 PM »

Hike is an instant messaging service launched in Dec-2012. Within two years, the total number of users has crossed 35 million already and Hike has emerged as a clear number two after Whatsapp in India.

Hike has used several innovative ways to acquire users, retain them and build a strong case for continued engagement over time. Some of the initiatives include optimizing the app for lower speed and making it more efficient, including stickers in a local context state wise for India, provision for sending messages even while users are offline, provision for putting passwords on messages.

808

Web 2.0 / What is Carwale.com Business Model ?

« on: February 18, 2015, 04:24:16 PM »

Carwale was founded in 2005. The company has three key platforms: Carwale, Bikewale, and Powerdrift (a video platform).

The company has 18.5m unique visitors (Carwale 14m+ and Bikewale 4m) and 65% of traffic is coming from mobile. Mobile traffic is growing 120% yoy. The company has reached 900m monthly page views. It has more than 3100 dealers on its platform, up from 500 dealers two years ago. According to management, the new car dealers are 280 and used car dealers are 3100 on its platform. A new car dealer spends on an average Rs2000 with Carwale. The revenue model includes a subscription-based model as well as pay per lead model. Conversion rate on leads is ~10% and pay per lead is US$3-4.

Carwale believes the used car market would be a big opportunity in India over the next few years: Its relationship with dealers would be key to sustaining/improving its market leadership position. It has started new services like certifying cars in order to build trust with the consumers.

In comparison to the horizontals like Quikr and OLX, a vertical-specific platform like Carwale has significantly better quality of leads.  The company gets 79% of its traffic from direct and organic sources: 45% of leads come from mobile and conversion rates on mobile have been improving.

809

SmartPhones & Apps / ItzCash - Business Model and Customers

« on: February 18, 2015, 04:21:49 PM »

Itzcash provides various payment-related solutions: These include payment of utility bills, recharges, remittances, online purchase of travel and other products. So far it has issued a cumulative total of 88m unique prepaid instruments, out of which 25m are active and 10m are mobile users. The total payment value has grown from USD450m in F13 to USD1333m in F15. The four key verticals are travel, recharges, utilities and remittances. Average ticket size is US$10.

ItzCash Mobile users have been growing rapidly for the company: This base grew from 4m in April 2014 to 10m in Jan-15. The company's remittances business has grown to become one of the top 3 players in the country. Monthly volumes have grown from US$7m in April 2014 to US$50m in January 2015.

The average commission rates would be 2% of total payment volumes and it shares 1.5% with its channel partners. 80% of business comes from direct relationships with consumers and merchants; the remaining 20% comes from aggregators.

The company has 50k retail outlets in 3000 cities with ?feet on street? team size of 300 people. So far the company has invested cumulatively Rs300 crores in the business. It plans to expand its payment volumes to 10x and for that it plans to expand the reach of its retail outlets to 150-200k.

810

Web 2.0 / Insight into Freecharge Business Model

« on: February 18, 2015, 11:37:39 AM »

Freecharge provides prepaid mobile recharge services to consumers. It launched its app in February 2014 and gets 85% of its traffic from mobile. Cumulatively, app downloads are 9 million.

Freecharge has a user base of 20m and average number of transactions per day is 400k. Average value per transaction is Rs125. Key revenue streams include recharge commission from telcos, paid coupons from merchants, and in some cases it charges for directing traffic to merchant partners. Freecharge generates a few hundred thousand leads every month.

Telcos pay, on average, a commission of 2.5% on recharges, and Freecharge pays a payment gateway charge of 1.5%. Currently, two-thirds of traffic is acquired, and the remaining one-third is organic.

The overall online recharge market is only 2-3% and can go up to 40% over the next few years. Currently, the market leader in the recharge market is Paytm, followed by Freecharge. MobiKwik would be third, followed by a long tail of several competitors. A large number of transactions in the Freecharge platform are paid by cards, and debit cards form a large portion of cards.