iCreate Case Challenge Data Strategy

Team Dual SIM

Current scenario
Barriers for increasing data usage in
the current user-base
Affordability: Affordability still remains a problem for most of Indians. As the
following data suggests, high data consuming users tend to use Wi-Fi at
home and office, while those who don't have that option are shackled by the
data limits (FUPs). As per a report by Jana, 46% of average user's mobile
consumption comes from a Wi-Fi connection. The cost of data per 500 MB,
while one of the least compared to other nations, still takes about 17 hours
of an average Indian's work time (which is one of the largest). But on a
positive note, the devices are becoming cheaper, especially with the
tremendous success of the Android operating system.

Unknown use-cases: Though this

is one of the major barriers for
increasing data usage in
underserved, rural India, the
problem persists even in the
current user-base, where
customers don't know how to use
data. Lack of local content has
been a sore issue for a long time,
though it's now being alleviated by
local production houses gaining
popularity in Youtube and Hotstar
coming in at no.10 in India among
apps ranked by usage.
Availability of other high-speed
data options like public Wi-Fi
spaces: Although technologies
like 4G offer greater speed, they
are still limited by amount of data
in the plan. Many initiatives by the
global tech companies to provide
public Wi-Fi spaces and help
corporations and municipalities
get connected to the internet, are
gaining in popularity

Barriers for increasing data usage

in semi-urban and rural India
Affordability as discussed in the previous slide remains a major problem even in rural India. But apart from it, there
are other important factors that also need to be considered. Here is an illustration from a GSMA intelligence report
that explains the consumer awareness journey. Most of the users in rural India are in Step 1 or Step 2
There are 3 important
barriers in this segment
Lack of awareness of the
benefits of internet
Lack of digital literacy
Absence of localised content
(in native languages)
The second (aware) and third (understands) steps are critical in enabling lower-income non-users in
developing markets to fully appreciate the impact mobile internet services can have on their lives. At stage two of
the journey, the consumer may or may not own a mobile handset if they do own a mobile handset, they
probably only use it for voice and simple text services (SMS rather than content based services). This is likely due
to a lack of skills to use internet services (digital literacy) or a perception that the internet does not offer anything
useful for them. Moving from awareness to understanding is an important step. If consumers deem the content
to be cost effective and meeting their needs, they will progress to internet access and usage. If internet
content is seen as unimportant, unnecessary and not meeting personal requirements then making the conversion
to the later stages in the journey will be difficult

Help create content

for the underserved

Creating Use-cases
and communicating them to
the new internet users

3-Pronged
strategy

While connecting the rural India, we must understand that they

have leapfrogged the PC revolution and mobile phones are their
introductory gateway to the internet. They need to be introduced to
different apps that use data, can drastically improve the
productivity of their work and have the potential to become
essential to their living
Set up a team inside Airtel that identifies different use-cases that
are unique to the people of India (like weather applications that
helps farmers, disaster alert apps for fishermen, native language
apps, etc)
Build an app store inside Android that curates such applications,
with detailed and easy-to-read descriptions of the use-cases
Introduce an app development contest in the identified categories,
the winners of which will get funding by Airtel to get the apps to
market. Also work with local entreprenuers to improve digital
literacy and awareness
Airtel can also use its platform to promote these apps

There are only 4 local apps (Hike,

Flipkart, Paytm and DailyHunt) that
feature in the top 25 apps in India
by DAU. If you look at it from usage
perspective the number is lesser
(only Flipkart, Paytm and Hotstar)

Content is King
and Video

Why video is important

is his crown

According to the Nokia MBiT study, in 2015,

most of the mobile data was spent on video and
audio services
A whopping 70% of North American internet
traffic in peak evening hours comes from
streaming video and audio sites like Netflix and
YouTube, according to new research from
broadband services company Sandvine. Five
years ago, that so-called "real-time
entertainment" content represented only 35%
percent of prime-time usage.
Consumption of data usage patterns in India
differ from those in developed market where
applications like video with high bandwidth
consumption are used on Wi-Fi networks but in
India they are mostly accessed using mobile data
According to Jana, the app marketing company
behind mCent, in India, Youtube has more DAU
(Daily Active Users) than Google Search and
Facebook

Build a video streaming app that will

stream new movie trailers and video
songs (or any promotional content)
The app will be completely free and
the data usage won't be counted in
user's bill
Monetisation will happen at the
content producers' side (movie
studios), who will pay per bytes
streamed
As the platform matures, add
exclusive video content and paid
videos (whose price will include the
data charges, and can be paid
through simple transactions like
carrier billing or Airtel Money)
Serving the bandwidth won't be a
problem, because the content will be
low in number (new video songs and
trailers) and the app can download
and cache for repeated viewing

Most importantly, most of the users in rural India associate internet with entertainment, which in turn means video. Streaming videos
for free, even if they are promotional ones, is a very attractive proposition to them, many of whom are not literate

Earning Data
for free
in a net-neutral way
For Open, not Zero

While there was a huge public outcry about

net neutrality when Facebook announced
its Internet.org (later Free Basics), there is a
model in which Airtel can build a platform
around the same idea, while alleviating the
concerns regarding net neutrality and
following the latest TRAI regulations
regarding free data. Here it is:

Anopenplatforminwhichanyonlinecompanycanparticipate
Insteadofzeroratingtheservicesoftheonlinepartners,thedata
usagewillbecounted.Butasusersreachcertainengagementlevels
(numberofbytesconsumedusingapartner'sservicegetsabovea
predeterminedthreshold),theamountofdataconsumedusing
theservicewillbeaddedbacktotheuser'saccount,alongwith
bonusdata(certainpercentageofuseddata)
Thisdata(consumed+bonus)willbepaidforbythepartnersites.
Thismodeladdressesmostoftheconcernsaboutnetneutrality,
sinceanysitecanpartnerwiththeplatform(themoneypaidwillbe
proportionaltothedatausedbytheusers)andtheusersarenot
gettingtheserviceforfree(theyareusingthedatawhichtheypaid
for,butwillgetawardedlaterwithmoredata)andtheadditionaldata
canbeusedtovisitanysite(includingthecompetitors')