21st April, 2004
It’s ‘Buzzing’ money in the world of mobile
telephony!
21st April, 2004, New Delhi: Thanks to the
mobile consumer’s love for changing tunes
every few days, mobile operators are singing
all the way to the bank. Popularity of
ringtones in India cuts across all age groups.
The frequency of downloads varies from person
to person, with some subscribers changing
ringtones every week, and teeny boppers
switching as often as twice or thrice a week.
Apart from mobile operators, music companies
are also reaping the benefits of this growing
fad. Internationally, the size of the market
for mobile ringtones is estimated to have
grown from around $450m in ’03 to $1.5bn in
’04. In India, though, the ringtone market
rang in a modest Rs.30 crore last year.
“During the current year, we expect the
ringtone market to grow by 55-65%”, according
to Praveen Rajpal, CEO, Handygo .His Delhi
based company is keeping pace with the rising
popularity for ringtones following its dreams
of becoming one of the world market’s 'big
boys' - an ambition that is not unfounded,
considering its track record for innovation
and its knack for the business with industry
giants like Yahoo, Indiatimes, Rediff,
IMIMobile and Onmobile as its clients. A
prominent player in the field, it prides
itself as India’s pioneer premier mobile
entertainment content provider and application
platform provider.
The services offered under the umbrella of
Handygo's Mobile Entertainment Universe
currently include ringtone (monophonic,
polyphonic and true tones) and graphics
(animated sms, logos, wallpapers, funky SMS
and video clips) downloads, SMS and Java-based
games, subscription-based content such as
horoscopes, jokes, sports updates as well as
chat and dating services which are developed
in-house with one of world’s most efficient
team.
Handygo’s services are not confined to India
alone. More than 80 per cent of Handygo's
business in fact comes from outside its home
base. The company's offerings are available to
a potential consumer base to millions of
mobile phone users spanning the key markets of
Middle East and U.K .It is also considering
capturing a share of the Europe and US mobile
markets.