Bollywood goes mobile -February 16th

By Anette Gregow
Just back from a trip to Bangalore, the “Silicon Valley of India”, where Teleca has its 2nd largest site, with many new impressions. There’s no doubt that India is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. The country currently buzzes with almost 300 million mobile subscribers with over a dozen different operators spread over the country. Bangalore has the highest number of engineering colleges in India ensuring a continuous supply of fresh graduates.
These young, mobile-savvy folks have high aspirations but are underserved in everything from banking to entertainment. Getting to them via their cell phones is the best way to provide much-needed and valued services.

Why is demand for such services particularly great in India? For starters, nearly 300 million Indians now have phones - making it the No. 2 mobile market on earth - and some 8 million new subscribers sign up every month. Today the average milkman in India has a mobile phone, which was not the case ten years ago. What’s surprising is the fact that a major portion of the new mobile subscribers being added today come from the rural parts of the country.
The range of offerings is vast and includes downloads of prayers, crop prices to farmers, Bollywood movies and cricket contents. Bollywood is actually becoming a rising force in mobile. The Indian film industry produces more than 1,000 movies a year and attracts more than two billion viewers.
Combine this with India’s 300 million mobile subscriber base and the potential is self-evident!