Naveen Bhandari
MD & CEO
Techzone
The Company, Techzone started in the year 1999 with a team of four people and have come a long way to about 350 plus team members. It works with the telecom companies and top labels in the country including Sony and Universal and has exclusive rights to over a million music and video titles and power nearly 60 per cent of all mobile digital entertainment content in India and many parts of the world.
To know more about the Techzone, VARINDIA caught up with Naveen Bhandari, MD, Techzone. Here are the excerpts.
Please tell us about your company?
We run across all the four platforms on telecom companies which include SMS, WAP, IVR and RBT and now 3G and offer a rich portfolio of managed services for telecom operators, media houses and related enterprises. For the last two years, we have also started exploring international markets and our flagship product ‘Magic Voice' is live in about 33 countries worldwide. Techzone has recently tied-up with major channels growing exponentially in sales and marketing, technical, content digitization and new product development(R& D).
What is the roadmap for India?
In Indian domain, we have already expanded to application based solutions for mobile. We have recently started our tech research and development centre in Bangalore which would focus on all future platforms. It’s a complete technology solution for applications converging with existing mobile platform. This will also mean that we will greatly work towards developing branded stores for content on mobile, which is the future of M commerce for contents. Our latest offering in this section is PLAYGROUND, which is the largest online music store with international music in India.
Other than that, we are also getting into managed services platform. This will be based out of Delhi where we are going to do technology platforms for managed services for telecom companies. The services could be anything like a missed call alert service or SMS or IVR based activities.
Apart from India, we also have our energies focused on international markets. We are looking at further expansion in the international market and venture into the flourishing application and Mobile advertisement market.
We are still trying to gauge this market though, but we have already taken the rights from about 4 odd corporate societies there locally, with an investment of about some Rs. 30 lakh to 35 lakhs approx.
The way I look at it, by the end of the financial year, we will be available in the 50 odd countries/ cities and India together. Now these 50 countries will need VAS services, will need content feeders and technology platform. So this managed services will be a freedom for these operations of India and international, so that is why we have started the managed services in Delhi where we will develop a platform & technology for telecom companies, which need not necessarily have to be on value added services.
How do you place yourself as different from those of your competitors?
There is a difference with what everybody does what we are trying to do. Techzone as a company is made by young people and is highly focused on providing innovative and path breaking solutions for clients. Our approach to a regular activity makes it a class apart and delivers results that more than the general standards.
For examples, we recently launched an RBT contest with an operator for downloading RBT shuffle tone packs and we were pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming user response. we recorded additional 30% hike in sales which is huge in the currently low lying RBT sector. This was made possible because of your unique promotion channels on social media and our various tie-ups with other companies.
Talking about mobile apps, others are making applications which will work for smart phones. On the contrary, we are mixing smart phone applications along with existing platforms which are available. Example, we are looking for an application for IVR which is working with the IVR technology for that fixed operator.
For example, to activate a RBT service and to search your song, you will call up IVR number the operators give. But we mix that IVR with application number. We make an application number for CRBT platform where you don’t need to go to the service provider and you can directly operate from your app.
Which are the focused market verticals that your solutions cater to?
Telecom operators, media houses and related enterprises
What kind of challenges are you faced with while operating in a competitive market?
Challenges are many. You have to keep revamping your thought process and keep pushing yourself to avoid getting lost in the clutter. Other issues could be like Piracy. Nonetheless, with rights to so many music and video titles, we are still not getting much affected with digital piracy on the mobile platform at least. This is primarily because a telecom company has a close-guarded approach. But I have faced a situation recently where I got a message about some pirated content of my own content coming to me. I was quite alarmed when I saw that. Yes piracy is there, but its done not by industry people, but by outsiders. Yet, it can be plugged, unlike the open internet model where to catch a pirate is quite difficult.
Additionally, because of the strict TRAI regulations, there could be a slight slump in the revenue for a short period of time, but I am highly positive and optimistic about jumping back to the normal revenues soon with the roll out of new products that we are doing.
As far as the competition is concerned, while we all operate in the same industry and offer the same products and services, everybody functions in their own space. There is absolutely zero competition. All the companies functioning in this sector today have got their own space. We are not competing with each other at all its a large market out there. So how much we expand solely depends upon the stretching limits of our own teams. We have to constantly increase our focus, our creativity and our productivity, and there is nothing stopping us. If at all there is competition, its with ourselves.
Where would you like to see your company in the next 4-5 years?
We are focusing on a lot of things which will keep us busy in the coming few years. While we would be actively developing more and more branded stores for content on mobile (which is the future of M-commerce for contents), and venture into the flourishing market of application and mobile advertisement market, we will also focus our energies on expanding in the international market.
Other than that, we want to build and grow the online community of digital marketing where users get a seamless interaction between various digital platforms to access content on their mobile. In all, we want to give our users innovative products which will be focused entirely towards the end consumer.
for more contact :
Moumita Deb Choudhury
Moumita@varindia.com
