How to start a VoiceSite with Rs 1 lakh
Posted on | May 19, 2008 |
Sometimes introduction of a few pieces of detail makes you look at something you know - in a completely new way! Last month’s MoMo session changed the way I saw the Voice-based VAS opportunity.
The April event of Mobile Monday Mumbai was on the topic “Voice-based VAS”, in which we learnt how to create and run a voice-based content portal for mobile phones.
Voice portals are the equivalent of Web portals, giving access to content and information through the voice channel on a mobile phone or landline.
Some Voice-portals runs by Operators and Media companies are:
- 543212 of Airtel
- 56789 of Vodafone
- 51234 of Reliance
- 55456 of Idea
- 5057827 of Star TV
- 5052525 of Sony TV
- 5056882 of MTV
- 5057272 of Dainik Jagran
- 5056776 of Manorama Online
- 5055454 of Big FM
Website = Voicesite
One does not need VC funding to start a website today. Domain names and hosting are cheap, while designing and programming can be arranged in a bootstrap budget.
The economics of websites and Web 2.0 allowed proliferation of startups and encouraged innovation because it took little for a startup with an idea to do a beta launch, gather feedback from community and then invest in scale and product enhancements.
The lightbulb that got activated in my head was that - just like websites, Voicesite is “startup’s play”.
The VoiceSite - ApniAwaz 02218181818
Lets imagine a VoiceSite called ApniAwaz available on the number 02218181818.
Just like a radio channel has a brand name and frequency, a voicesite too has a brand name (ApniAwaz) and access number (02218181818).
So if a user comes to know of the voicesite, he will dial the number from his mobile/phone and listen to the content of his choice available on this voicesite.
So what does it take to start such a service.
The E1 line will allow 32 simultaneous incoming calls on a number. This E1 line will be connected to an Asterisk box which will provide a IVRS-based menu that can be programmed to serve content from the content server/space.
So what does it cost to start such a service.
- E1 line will cost around Rs 65,000 to acquire and roughly about Rs 8,000 per month to operate inbound calling
- Low-end server to host Asterisk and content should cost around Rs 35,000
- If you are a techie you can setup and program Asterisk
- Assuming audio content is available and IPR owned
Here is a diagram explaining the broad flow.
Apache = Asterisk
LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) played a crucial role in bringing down the cost of acquisition and operation of web servers. It brought the cost of websites within the reach of startups.
Without getting into the technical details, it would not be incorrect to say that the open source PBX & telephony engine Asterisk is to VoiceSites what the LAMP platform, (Apache in particular) was to websites.
Why the time for VoiceSites is now
Telephones have been around for more than a century. But the explosion of voice-based VAS and voice-portals happened only in the last 5 years or so. Why did it take that long for voice-based content services to take-off in India?
Some reasons that come to mind are to do with the readiness of the ecosystem and coming together of its entities.
- There was no critical mass i.e. it wasn’t a sizable market before 2002.
- Making STD or local calls was expensive for the user.
- Billing systems of telcos were not advanced enough to charge for non-voice calling items.
- Penetration of other payment instruments like credit/cash cards was low.
Three important hurdles have been removed from the growth path of Voicesites.
Potential market size as of May 2008 is around 275 million.
Open source technology like Asterisk makes it feasible for startups to launch innovative voice-based services. Therefore, lots of voicesites will get launched and the consumer will benefit from a choice of services at a competitive price.
Also, very recently most operators dropped national calling (STD) rates to Re 1. It means that by taking an E1 line from one telco, the service goes national. Users will access 02218181818 from anywhere in India and will only pay Re 1 per minute as call charges.
Business models
So how does one make money by running a voicesite? There are only two ways - advertiser pays or the user pays.
Charging the user for paid-content:
Credit card penetration is increasing at a good pace - India has close to 50 million credit card users. Cash-cards like ItzCash have also reached healthy usage levels. Therefore one way to charge users for paid content is via IVRS based online credit card or cash card charging. There are IVRS-based payment gateway companies ready to integrate with your voicesite.
Ad-funded model:
A voicesite can adopt the ad-funded model where the content is free and revenue is generated via audio-ads. Voicesites can be seen as on-demand radio. They are to radio what IPTV is to television. Therefore, radio advertisers would become the obvious target for advertising on voicesites.
But wait - voicesites are a better deal to advertisers than radio.
- Measurable ad delivery
- Captive listernership - user can’t fast forward or switch channel
- Actionable ads - advertiser can ask for response via IVRS
Voice portals are extending the reach and introducing new categories of users to value-added services, becasue they are multi-lingual and can be operated through IVRS or spoken commands (speech-recognition) without necessitating complicated downloads or settings.
The navigation menu, content and ads can be multi-lingual - a boon in a language rich country like India. Voicesites are handset agnostic and can be made available across operators on both CDMA & GSM networks. Even an illiterate rural user with the most basic handset can use the service.
The only limiting factor is the entrepreneur’s ability to think of innovative services!
So is there a catch? Am I missing something here? Would love to know from knowledgeable readers whether my lightbulb is faulty or is it indeed true that VoiceSites are an opportunity for startups and not just a realm of large companies.
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14 Responses to “How to start a VoiceSite with Rs 1 lakh”
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VeerChand Bothra
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- Aman on How to start a VoiceSite with Rs 1 lakh
May 20th, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
Nice article. How do we get USSD numbers from Operators?
May 21st, 2008 @ 10:05 am
Indeed the article is very informative but I still question the Ad funded business model of voice site.
Since voice site will be much preffered platform for advertisers than radio or television because television and radio gives the viewer liberty of switching the channels but here at voice site user will not be able to fast forward the add and has to listen the full advertisemnet. Usually the user who is calling the voice site is already hard pressed for time and wants information readly and instantly. If you make him listen to the full two or three min audio advertisement (which may be entirely useless for him) before getting to the information he wants, and to add on to that he wont be able to fast forward it, I think we cant limit the user from exercising his liberty of disconnecting the call. Thus
the very purpose of voice site will be defeated.
I may be totally wrong and unaware but it is just a thought. I will be glad if someone can throw some more light on it.
May 21st, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
Reading this I wished I didnt miss the session.
Very Interesting insight.
May 21st, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
Very nice article Veer!
Indeed, there are tons of opportunities in voice-based VAS services, but not always as a mirror of a website. We (NMS Communications) sell voice and video VAS platforms, particularly at the high end (100s and 1000s of simultaneous calls) in India and elsewhere around the world, so I’ve seen a lot of voice VAS applications in a lot of markets.
In every culture there are large opportunities for person-to-person connectivity. Call it social networking if you will, but there is value in the ability to listen to voice content from, leave messages for, and even talk live without giving out your own phone number. In the US, we saw this 15 years ago in voice services associated with newspaper classified ads and later in voice services associated with websites. I’ve subsequently seen this class of application adapted in dozens of countries and cultures.
Another area is businesses offering information to people who have mobile phones but don’t have easy access to computers and the Internet. This includes product information and product training. I believe there are mobile operators in India using voice portal technology to teach people how to use more advanced handset features and/or new services.
Of course, the same technology is the basis for many in-bound and out-bound call center applications. These involve a lot more integration with the enterprise business systems, so they’re likely to cost more the RS 1 lakh, but there are many opportunities here.
Regarding money. Of course the best way is to find some ancillary way of monetizing the service, e.g. provide value to a business so they sponsor the cost. However, there are premium rate numbers in most countries, including I believe in India. To the extent premium rate numbers have a bad reputation (everywhere!), it is also possible to have a voice portal that uses premium rate SMS to do the billing. I’ve seen this in a number of countries. The added complication in the voice portal logic and the user interface can be made quite small.
Finally, a minor note… An E1 line does contain 32 channels but only 30 are used to carry voice. The other two are signaling and overhead. So when you sign up for an E1 trunk, you get the ability to answer up to 30 simultaneous calls.
Again, a very good post!
Thank you, Brough.
May 23rd, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
Voice based IVR systems is an opportunity which is fairly unique to countries like India which have a large diversity of languages, large masses of people where familiarity with technology and English is low and prevalence of low cost handsets.
For India all of the above holds true and Voice based sites are a great play to offer content/information/commerce in local language from ANY phone.
Voice based content has been around for several years now. and companies like Onmobile have made large businesses from this area.
However the traditional voice portal is not doing as well as earlier (relatively) since people seem to be gravitating more towards specialized sites - voice dating, music (e.g. Music on demand from airtel) etc.
Primary reason being the general voice portals are undifferentiated, have an issue with navigation. (navigation in voice is very linear and the number of accents and dialects make the voice recognition difficult)
I really think voice recognition technology is a big play in India and would love to see some interesting companies in the voice VAS and voice recognition space.
Harish Gandhi
Canaan Partners
May 23rd, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
Umm, preferred platform for Advertisers & Content creators but not probably for Users! It doesn’t make sense to me why one would dial-in and pay for listening to obtrusive content where s/he would be dictated and have little control, rather than opting for Radio. Albeit, it could be good for community initiatives similar to http://www.questionbox.org or for content that has no overlap in other media.
May 23rd, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
Harish said “and would love to see some interesting companies in the voice VAS and voice recognition space”
OnMobile Global Ltd. (BSE:OnMobile, http://www.onmobile.com) powers most (may be all?) of the short codes mentioned in this article.
-VAS Dude
May 23rd, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
How does one go about getting an E1 connection.?? which operators provide it in Mumbai??
May 31st, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
Veer,
Nice article, except a few notes on your costing.
While Asterisk is free. Setting up an Asterisk box is gonna cost ya a bit. For one you need a E1 interface card the cheapest of which is around 50k, You will have to add echo cancellation to it and that is another 25k. in the interest of reliability you will have to invest a bit to ensure “availability”.
I have done a lot of asterisk boxes. You can expect to spend about 3-4 lakhs on the hardware plus custom coding.
cheers
Kuldeep Dhankar
June 3rd, 2008 @ 10:06 pm
Very good article. Thank you!
June 30th, 2008 @ 9:06 pm
Hi Veer,
Nice piece of information!!
October 1st, 2008 @ 5:39 am
Was wondering, does anyone know which carriers here in India provide premium rate numbers to third parties and if so, how would one go about acquiring one?
October 6th, 2008 @ 5:11 am
I went through a lot of search regarding Speech recognition system for Asterisk PBX, but I think Sphinx is the only voice recognition system that works with Asterisk.I’ve never luck to integrate Sphinx 3 and 4 with Asterisk. However I tried Sphinx2 with Asterisk and it worked well for me on Asterisk 1.2.x, I followed the following steps:
http://www.syednetworks.com/asterisk-integration-with-sphinx-voice-recognition-system
If version 3 and 4 works for anyone please share. Thanks
October 16th, 2008 @ 7:35 am
Great Article Veer,
I have been looking to get a few India based Premium Rate numbers but there is not much information available. I think BSNL offer the service but their numbers can only be accessed by BSNL users based within the same city where the numbers were acquired.
Is there a “universal” Indian Premium rate number for content providers which can offer payment solutions?
If anyone would like to discuss this at length, please feel free to get in touch with me. aman@atlantis-infotech.com