Working with the local Government Authorities has been an uphill tasks as the policies pertaining to personal transportation are highly archaic and there is a distinct disconnect with the implementers, shared Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO of online car rental service Olacabs.

Speaking at recently concluded Nasscom Product Conclave, Bhavish was quite forthcoming about the issues faced by not just Olacabs, but similar other endeavors who are involved in offering tech–assisted and organized personal transport services.

What are the issues faced by such services? A complete misunderstanding and opacity of the policy framework, doesn't make even Collective Forums possible, shared Bhavish. "Every company follows a slightly tweaked model due to the industry's opaque policy. Even if we make a collective forum, it will comprise of different voices in the same forum," he said.

Essentially, Online Transport companies can't unite since each has different outlook and business formula that is optimized for that particular geographic region, in which it is operational. Furthermore, though there are policies designed to promote such services, there is a distinct disconnect between intention and implementation, lamented Bhavish, "What we've primarily seen is a wrong implementation of policies. The policy was intended correctly but the intent was some 20 years ago and the speed at which the policy iterates is too slow for modern technology businesses to thrive (in the country)."

Bhavish further pointed out that the Government still feels a strong need to protect the interest of the local population by regulating the prices. But the agencies, that do not operate with tech assistance, often over–charge the customers via their own techniques. Still on the other hand, it isn't possible for private companies to take complete charge and yet remain conscious about the charges levied.

With such a high level of tech assistance that unites telecommunications, internet, Mobile and GPS, one would think these companies would offer the opportunity to customers to share a ride to similar destination, but Bhavish, doesn't feel the idea makes business sense.

Tech Assisted Personal Transportation companies have indeed come a long way from merely offering booking via a telephone call. With sophisticated mobile apps, anyone can book a cab even from a mobile phone. But, with restrictive policies and strong individualistic business intentions, these sophisticated Call–A–Cab companies are facing tough times. What do you think?

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One97 Communications, a Mobile Internet and Services company, has integrated its Digital Gaming Marketplace into Paytm Games.

Initially launched without much fanfare and christened GamePind, One97's attempt garnered significant response. However, company has re–launched the same under Paytm Games. The store was launched in India, Dubai and Bangladesh a few months back and claims to have crossed half a million users.

Paytm Games offers a great opportunity for telecom service operators as well as game developers to take their creations to mobile users. Though it might sound very similar to Google Play for Android devices or iTunes for iOS based devices, Paytm Games offers a distinct advantage which might work in its favor.

"This will be a first of its kind operator-driven game store," exclaimed Dushyant Saraswat, VP Business, One97 Communications. He added that the service will soon be available in SEAP (Southeast Asia and Pacific) countries, including Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines, apart from the trio of countries mentioned earlier.

Why is Operator Billing so critical? The term Operator Billing essentially means, anything that is procured via the Mobile Phone, be it a services, Value Added Services or in this case, mobile games, doesn't require Credit Card details or Electronic Transactions. The price of these purchases is added to the end–of–month mobile bill. Thus, customers get the convenience of single–shot, one–time payment, while those that are selling, can easily offer paid–services without worrying about bank transactions.

On inquiring about the preference for SEAP regions, Saraswat added, "Operator billing makes sense in emerging markets where credit card penetration is very low. Google Play Store as well as iOS do not allow operator-billed apps to be purchased via their respective app stores. So such a service will appeal to users who want to buy games but don't have a credit card"

Downloading and playing games via Paytm Games is easy. Users can download the app by sending an SMS to their mobile operator to get a link that will download it on their phones.

With just over 100 games, the App Store is nowhere in the league of Google Play or iTunes, but could still be appealing to the target audience that isn't comfortable with sharing Credit Card information. Paytm is slowly becoming a one–stop shop for Digital Merchandise. With One97 backing it, Paytm could offer some relevant advantages to SEAP Mobile Users. What do you think?

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Facebook has presently managed to capture the attention span of a majority of the online population. Though that makes it one of the strongest and most reliable platforms to serve advertisements, there is a limit as to how much the Social Networking audience can bear, cautioned Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman.

Facebook's investors and others, who have vested interest within the budding ecosystem, have lauded the platform as one 'With the largest online concentrations of Human Attention on earth' and that it offers limitless opportunities for advertisers to push as much and as many promotional and paid messages, as desired. But the words of David Ebersman have struck a different chord and evoke a striking thought about the limits of any such platform, which will generate significant portion of its revenue from advertisements.

It isn't surprising that such a profound statement will have a long lasting and deep impact on any company that offers a platform which relies on human interaction to garner traction and then serve advertisements amid the conversations. More so, micro–blogging network Twitter, which is currently and intensely promoting its 'Initial Public Offering' will surely be taking a long and hard look at the statement and its implications.

Should Twitter be concerned? Twitter hasn't turned profitable yet and is currently attempting to convince potential investors about the viability of the 'Advertising Business Model', that is very similar to Facebook's.

More so, one critical aspect that could go against Twitter was the relatively slow growth in subscriber count. At 230 Million, though the platform has a large subscriber base as compared to other portals or platforms, it is less than 1/4^th of Facebook's 1.19 Billion! Additionally, Twitter has now started to face user–stagnation. A Reuters-IPSOS poll conducted recently, concluded that 36% of Twitter users do not use the online messaging service regularly.

Twitter certainly offers a compelling platform to spread news and stay connected, sans the elaborate ecosystem of Facebook. With a decent track–record, the company could certainly pull–off a successful IPO launch. But it will surely have to think beyond advertising to ensure long–term revenue ascension. What do you think?

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Dublin based Brandtone, a mobile marketing company, has setup operations in India.

In order to tap the Mobile Audience in the emerging markets, Unilever, a FMCG company had signed a deal with Brandtone. The latter will help Unilever to expand its brand using the mobile ecosystem, shared Keith Weed, Chief Marketing Officer, Unilever,

"Over half of our turnover, comes from emerging markets. Mobile provides a direct means of engagement with almost every consumer in those countries, and it is therefore absolutely critical for our brands’ growth"

How will Brandtone assist Unilever? The Mobile ecosystem, as an Advertising Platform, is growing phenomenally. Even global Social Networking giant Facebook, confirmed that Ad revenues from its Mobile based endeavors have been rising healthily.

Supported by the fact that smartphones, which are capable of pushing ads in a variety of ways, now outsell feature phones in India, it makes sense for Unilever to tap into this highly interactive and proactive audience. Mobile users actively share information and interesting posts made, even by brands. This makes the platform a must have option for brands which make and sell, one–to–many products.

Brandtone claims to forge a relation with the target audience via voluntary opt–in methods of advertising. In this method, people willingly part with their information to receive more relevant advertising and this is precisely what Unilever needs, explained Weed,

"People are willing to share information about themselves in order to get more relevant advertising and offers. So the opportunity is there – if we do it correctly. We need to approach people with respect – maintaining trust and ensuring two-way dialogue. The work we do with Brandtone enables us to do exactly that. By building relationships with our consumers and adding something of value to them we can increase both purchase and brand loyalty."

One of the simplest, yet highly effective techniques employed by Brandtone is, offering free mobile talk-time using codes on product packaging, to reward consumers for interacting with brands and sharing information via their mobile phones.

With an illustrious client list that includes Kellogg’s, PepsiCo, British Petroleum and many others, Brandtone has had a very effective run internationally. With almost 700 Million mobile users in India, it will be interesting to see how well Unilever, a household brand already, manages to etch its name even further via Mobile Advertising. Have our readers opted to share information to get freebies?

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