Voice is the lead input medium for 70% of India

“People are migrating to Internet-led smart feature phones, where Voice is the lead input medium”, shared Niraj Ruparel, Head of Tech and Mobile, GroupM India, in his introduction to the panel on ‘Voice for Bharat’ at MOBEXX 2020 Summit.

The Bharat he is referring to is the 70% population that resides in Rural India and Tier 2 markets. While literacy still has to catch up in India, with 400 million feature phones in circulation, India is the highest penetration feature phone market in the world.

Now, some of these phones are ‘dumb feature phones’ priced at Rs 200, while others are ‘smart feature phones’ that may be priced up to Rs 1 lakh, but advertisers are creating solutions for both. Voice technology cuts across all devices and so brands are actively looking at generating user intent in Bharat using this technology.

Five years ago, the Government of India launched Kilkari, a mobile health education service, by deploying Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) so that people may access health and hygiene information. Since then brands have done a lot more work in this space. The ‘Voice for Bharat’ panel discussion at MOBEXX 2020 was joined by esteemed speakers:

Niraj Ruparel, Head of Mobile and Tech, GroupM (Moderator)

Priyanka Gandhi, Associate Director & Head - Integrated Marketing Communication & Ecommerce Marketing, Colgate

Pankaj Parihar, Vice President and Head – Digital Marketing & Transformation, Godrej Consumer Products

Richa Khera, Head of Digital Marketing and Growth, KFC India (Yum Brands)

Sreeraman Thiagarajan, Co-Founder & CEO, Agrahyah Technologies and Co-Founder and CEO, aawaz.com

Watch the complete discussions below: