In April this year, Bharti Airtel had introduced the sachet model in the telecom segment, offering video content for just Re 1. During the first three months, average data consumption increased 117 per cent to 27.3 megabytes; the number of data users also saw a rise. However, while it sounds affordable, consumers actually end up paying about 65 per cent more than the charges for usual data plans.
The back-end technology of this model was developed by California-based video company Vuclip, which is backed by SingTel's Innov8, NEA and Jafco Ventures.
With the success of the sachet model in India, Vuclip is now planning to take the model to other countries. "We are in talks with leading operators in a few countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)," said Vuclip co-founder and chief executive Nickhil Jakatdar.
The company is also in talks with other telecom operators in which Singtel has investments. Singtel has about 32 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel. "We are trying to keep the 'one' number as base with every local currency in various countries," said Jakatdar.
To offer buffer free streaming and to restrict bandwidth usage to a limit so that it remains profitable for operators, developers and content providers, Vuclip had to reduce sizes of the videos, but ensure the quality was at a "reasonably" good level, Jakatdar said. "We worked out a strategy to slice the content into very small pieces (such as two-, five- or 10-second clips) so that there is no buffer," he added. Typically, videos offered for Rs 1 consume one-five megabytes of data.
Jakatdar said the company, along with operators, was also working on other sachets models through which consumers would get about 10 videos for about Rs 5. "The volume is important. The Re 1 model alone might not be a long-term game," he said.
Currently, Vuclip's video is accessed by about 80 million users, through their smartphones. It has about 20 million users in West Asian countries, about 20 million in the South Asian region, about 10-12 million in Latin America and the rest in Africa.
"We offer videos that are tailored for each consumer and delivered in compressed formats that make sense for your devices and carriers. We are able to deliver videos on the fly on any device, in any country," Jakatdar said, adding video content shouldn't be restricted to just smartphone users.
In India, Vuclip also has arrangements with UTV Motion Pictures, Reliance Entertainment and Vodafone. Recently, it started offering full movies on mobile phones for Rs 15.
Following the success of the Re 1 video model, Bharti Airtel has launched its virtual Re 1 Entertainment Store, where consumers would get music, video, games, photos and internet browsing packages for Re 1. Also, by paying Re 1, consumers can get three megabytes of data usage for a day to access Facebook, Yahoomail, Twitter and LinkedIn.
