Exclusive | Mobile internet soon a way of life: IMImobile's Vishwanath Alluri

The advent of smart phones in a big way and otherwise too has led to increased usage of internet on the go. Increasingly people are using mobile as a primary and a quick source of internet access. Mobile technology has thus become ubiquitous with information, convenience, and social networking, all served up on the go.

No wonder if user rely more and more on mobile businesses too cannot stay behind, when it comes to communicating with their different target audiences. According to a study by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMImobile in 2012, enterprises are too are increasingly adopting mobile data service platforms to engage better with their employees and end-customers.  

Says Vishwanath Alluri, founder, chairman & CEO, IMImobile, “Mobile marketing, along with social media, has become the two main mediums through which enterprises communicate to stakeholders as well as their employees. With the advent of cloud, these two mediums will be integrated to create a technology trinity of Social, Cloud and Mobile (SoCloMo) so as to create a seamless platform that would reduce the time and place barrier to a great extent.” He was speaking to Adgully.

A global mobile data infrastructure and solutions provider, IMImobile caters to mobile operators, enterprises and media companies with over 650 employees and presence across Asia, Europe, America and the Middle East. IMImobile works with over 100 blue chip companies and its services reach over one billion subscribers in over 72 countries. IMImobile’s operator customers include Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, France Telecom, Meteor, Millicom, Mobitel, MTN, Reliance, Tata, Telefonica, Tigo, Zain and Vodafone. IMImobile’s media and enterprise customers include BBC, Centrica, E-ON, Ford, Mahindra & Mahindra, Star TV, Universal Music and The AA.

Dwelling further, Alluri said, “As per IDC, Smartphone sales outshone PC sales last year. In fact, in many countries (including China) smart phones have already overtaken PCs as the primary Internet access device.” In developed countries, the desktop-first strategies of tech biggies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Apple have made way for a “mobile-first” approach. Similarly, in developing economies the absence of a mature desktop economy has provided opportunities for mobile-only propositions which are even ahead of those that are available in developed economies. For example, the 'Inter-Bank Mobile Payments Service' in India is an example of an innovative mobile service that is well ahead of mobile banking services in many parts of the world.

There has been a significant change in consumer behavior as far as these two technologies are concerned, thanks to the Smartphone revolution. As per StatCounter, mobile web usage has already overtaken fixed-line Internet in India, with mobile accounting for 51.63 per cent of web usage and desktop devices making up the remaining 48.37 per cent. According to a report by On Device Research, the majority of web users in India are mobile-only at 59 per cent. As per comScore, there has been a steady rise wherein total pages viewed on mobile have grown to seven per cent in July 2012, up from three per cent in July 2011. Going by these trends, one can safely conclude that mobile surfing has an edge over desktop usage.

There are problems however. Says Alluri, “The biggest challenge for mobile marketing, social media and e-commerce space is the fragmentation of suppliers offering different pieces of the mobile engagement puzzle. The market today has vendors offering point products scattered everywhere. Enterprises use different vendors for different technological services, creating an overall disconnected customer experience. What they need is an integrated platform that provides mobile data services so as to unleash the power of mobile for business productivity and growth through unified customer engagement.” The customer data that the telecom operators possess have been largely untapped. Opening up these assets to business customers will bring in new revenue streams for operators and increase their overall average revenue per user (ARPU), Alluri adds.

However despite problems, India as a market is set to grow significantly in the coming years.  With smart phones becoming more affordable and network technologies improving (3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax etc.), there has been a significant rise in data consumption. According to IAMAI report in 2012, the country is expected to have close to 165 million mobile internet users by March 2015 as more people are accessing the web through mobile devices and dongles. “Naturally, businesses have to adopt this medium to reach out to their customers and provide access to their systems over the mobile medium to their employees. In order that user (customer and employee) experiences and insights are known, there is a need to shift focus from MVAS to a more focused, productive user engagement through mobile,” concludes Alluri.