Regulators Put Brakes On MVAS: Donjin

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)'s regulations are proving detrimental to the growth of the Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) industry. Due to this, the MVAS players are eying the enterprise market considering it as a safer option, says the Chinese MVAS firm Donjin.

"When we entered the Indian MVAS market about five years ago, it was booming but then a lot of challenges came from TRAI resulting in a [growth] dip in the industry," says Hariharan Iyer, Country Head, India and SAARC region, Donjin Communications.

"The policies and regulations are good but lack clarity. Unless the MVAS industry becomes an integral part of the regulations, they will continue to be the biggest challenge, severely hampering the investment in the sector," adds Iyer.

Donjin develops MVAS platforms like KeyGoe and works with channel partners like One 97, Times Internet, Cell Cast Media amongst others.

It says that 4G will be a treat for application developers since a lot of content will be required to uplift the high-speed service. And 3G being cheaper now, it is witnessing a sharp rise in video applications and online gaming.

"Majority of smartphone users are from the youth segment, who are fond of video and online gaming applications. The availability of cheap smartphones has resulted in a tremendous rise of bandwidth-intensive applications. However, 2G applications will continue to dominate the market for the time being," adds Iyer.

The company posted a revenue of US$2 million (INR 110.4 million) in India last fiscal and has already reached $1.6 million (INR 88.3 million) in the first six months of the current year. Half of this year's revenue came from the enterprise vertical, particularly media, which is likely to increase further.

When asked about their R&D center, Donjin said that it plans to set up the center in the northern part of the country but will not be able to share the investment figures. Donjin sees Dialogic Corp. as a major competitor.

- Rimit Singh, Correspondent, Light Reading India