Affordable mobile devices and cheaper data subscription rates are expected to push the mobile value-added services market in India to Rs. 33,280 crore by 2013, a study by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)-IMRB today said.
The MVAS segment, which comprises ringtones, SMS-based applications (live cricket updates, horoscope, contests and wallpapers), is expected to grow 28 percent from the current level of about Rs. 26,000 crore in 2012, the report said.
It added that as of March 2012, there were 48 million mobile Internet users in the country. "Even though the average revenue per user (ARPU) has declined over the years, the per user spent on MVAS has gone up by 28 percent in the last one year and is now 27 percent of the ARPU," the report said.
In December 2011, the ARPU was Rs. 96 for GSM services and Rs. 73 for CDMA services. The dependency on voice services is reducing and to increase the ARPU, the emphasis must be put on data services such as MVAS, it added. The current MVAS consists mainly of ringtones (27 percent) and SMS-based application (17 per cent), while emerging ones consist mostly of mobile apps (10 per cent) and games (8 percent), among others.
In the coming years, even though the ARPU will increase by 5-8 percent, there will be reduced contribution from the voice services, while the data services will take a major portion of the ARPU, the report said.
"In this wake, the operators are increasingly moving towards the alternative revenue streams such as non-voice based services," it added.