The Hindu : Bright prospects for m-commerce

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2003

Business

Business

Bright prospects for m-commerce

By Preeti Pandey

MUMBAI AUG. 11. Revenues from mobile advertising and marketing (through mobile commerce) will exceed $1 billion over the next two years. During 2003-04, mobile advertising is expected to surpass online advertising revenues, according to mobile Internet analysts. Gartner even says by 2005 more people would access information on handheld devices (mobile phones and PDAs) as opposed to the PC.

Closer home what this spells for cellular service providers such as BPL Mobile is a substantial increase in revenues, especially in the light of mobile commerce (m-commerce) concepts such as m-cash and SMS-enabled vending machines.

"At present, 8 per cent of BPL Mobile's revenues comes from the SMS stream," revealed Krishna Angara, Chief Operating Officer-West and Chief Business Development Officer, BPL Mobile Communications, to The Hindu. The m-cash concept uses the mobile phone through the SMS mode to conduct transactions. The cellular service provider has prototypes functional at food and beverage companies (Pepsi and Kingfisher) and the Maharashtra Traffic Police, while Cadbury has already set up SMS-enabled vending machines at 35 locations on a pilot basis.

While the Indian mobile market is yet to mature like the European market in terms of voice and non-voice traffic (18 per cent in Europe), BPL Mobile now has 10-12 per cent of non-voice and is likely to increase to 15 per cent. F. B. Cardosa, President and CEO, BPL Mobile, anticipates m-cash to find applications in diverse areas such as entertainment (music, movies), banking and finance (peer-to-peer mortgage, stockbroking), retail/merchandise (restaurants, grocers) and service industries (parking, hotel bills). Not only FMCGs, even logistics providers are using technology to spur m-commerce. "The customer can trace and track products stored at the GL warehouse and even do real time inventory of goods," William J. Flynn, President and CEO, Geologistics, said.Clearly m-commerce is taking off in India albeit in small steps. IDC has predicted huge opportunities in m-commerce in the Asia Pacific region and this will come to fore between 2003 and 2004. As of now, however, consumers are yet to rush to enjoy the always-on capabilities of wireless web, comments IDC. Still in a nascent stage, m-commerce with its value added mobile data service is gaining ground among both the end-consumer and the business community. And given recent developments in the Indian context, m-commerce is finally being adapted by more enterprises to spur sales and increase market shares.

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