You wake up one morning and see the Company’s name in the paper and begin wondering where did they hear about it and then from the back lanes of memory ( and in this case a reminder from the PR agency!) you realise …aha! this is from that press statement we made a month or so ago (read my post of August 5). Thats the beauty and bane of working in a company with the motto of embracing change and innovating fast!

Surprise over…lets get back to the real story. With mobile users getting more savy and demanding one needs to keep innovating and coming up with service offerings that are out of the box, entertaining, informative and ” user friendly”. With this thought in mind we at One97 are happy to report that our offererings where users can choose what they want and when they want have been well accepted. This story in Financial Express has featured our Video Ring Back and Ring Forwad Tones, our allinace with Vringo and more. Click here to read more.

Hi! Just to let you know that we are hiring !!!  And for this we have some of the experts in the field working with us! We are a passionate bunch and It is interesting how people perceive us and talk about us. Recently, this was reinforced by when I have come across an introductory mail sent by one of these experts to prospective candidates.  To give you a flavour I quote

 

“Dear Candidate Name

 

On the basis of your profile, we have found a great opportunity for you with one with the biggest player in Mobile VAS domain, One97 Communications. Mobile VAS is one of the fastest growing industries in India.

 

One97 Communications is looking for people with hands on experience in J2EE (Struts, Spring, Hibernate, JSP/Servlets etc) for its engineering team.

 

Mentioned below are the details.

·         Work Experience: 5+ hands on coding experience in J2EE, good designing skills and analytical skills.

·         Location: Noida (Company has a bus running from Pragati Maidan to its office in Noida).

·         Positions: SDE/Tech Lead/Project Lead

 

Who should apply?

o        Who consider themselves as Java Guru/Java Passionates.

o        People who loves technology.

o        Who are hands on.

o        People who loves challenges to design best possible product in least possible time.

Who should NOT apply?

o        One97 Communications is currently NOT hiring for Project Managers, who are not hands on and want to be in man/people management roles.

o        If you are not technology lover, then this company is not for you.

o        If you want to work in only “CMM Level” companies, then this is not a right company for you. We will find some other opportunity for you. Though few exceptional people from BirlaSoft, CSC and NIIT have moved to One97.

 

Expected Salary: You can expect a hike above industry standards.

 

Few points about One97 Communications:

o        High growth company working in high growth industry.

o        Industry leader in its domain.

o        Funds rich company (the company has recently got 2nd seed funding)

o        Cutting edge technologies.

o        An opportunity to work in a product development company and developing high impact products used by millions of users.

About the company:

o        Launched in December 2000, One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd. grew to be a company that Business Today profiled and predicted as one of the hottest companies in India.

o        One97 Communications offers services to businesses and organizations to leverage the telecom opportunities.

o        Its clients include ALL the telecom operations such as Airtel, Vodopone, Tata Teleservices, Idea etc.

o        One97 Communications provides localized content, platforms for network services and is a partner to take a message to the market via the telecom media.

o        Widely recognized as a pioneer, One97 continuously sets benchmarks in telecom VAS innovation and creating applications that are unique and relevant in the domestic and international market.

 

Mentioned below are some links that will give you a better idea about the company.

 

http://www.vccircle.com/2007/04/06/saif-partners-silicon-valley-bank-invest-in-one97-communications/

http://www.contentsutra.com/entry/419-one97-comunications-raises-series-a-funding-from-saif-partners-silicon-/

http://www.contentsutra.com/entry/419-one97-communications-to-close-25-million-in-funding/

http://www.businesswireindia.com/PressRelease.asp?b2mid=12839

 

Please mail me back your contact number or your updated CV, if you find it interesting.  would be really grateful if you could also refer me somebody who might be interested in above mentioned positions. We also have our “Official Referral Scheme”, details of which are mentioned below. “

 

I want to take this opportunity to update you that we have people from all “big brands” like Wipro, Aricent, PWC, Keane, Cadence, SAP Labs etc who believe in our passion and are now on board!

 

What are you waiting for …. gear up guys and be a part of the growing company in one of the fastest growing industry.   And you can share this with your friends.

 

Let’s get connected – careers@one97.net

“Future of VAS is in rural market” is a repeated and much heard statement which sounds convincing enough. But can this influence be more out of benevolence than anything else?

This “assumption”, besides feel good factor, is based on some of the facts like:
1. India lives in rural areas. out of its more than a billion population 72.2% population lives in rural area (2001 census)
2. Urban market has started to saturate ( average urban tele-density is 65 with more than half of the urban areas having tele-density above 70 ; urban areas of Punjab and Chennai already have a tele-density above 100: TRAI, March 2008);
3. Network expansion in rural areas ( almost all the major Telcos have declared their plans to invest hugely in network expansion- read rural India)
4. Increasing income of rural India
Sounds more convincing now….right?
But is it truly true? And how long will it take for this market to overcome urban market? And more importantly how big is this opportunity ?

Some hard facts which may help in answering these questions are :

1. Current Rural tele-density is 9.21 ( all India average is 25: source: TRAI, March 08)
2. Telephone network reach in rural area is already roughly around 80%*
3. Per capita income of rural India is Rs.7000 per annum (ASSOCHAM estimate for 2007-08). All India average is 24,321( CSO estimate for 2007-08)

To further understand this rural market lets to also look at some “not so VAS” facts from another from another “non-essential” industry -FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods).

According to ASSOCHAM, “current FMCG market penetration is about 2% and even more popular products like toothpaste, skin and hair wash, talcum, powder, branded Atta, dish wash, instant coffee, R&G coffee, ketchups, deodorants, jams etc. which currently have less than 30% penetration out of 100 people in rural and semi-urban areas” (ASSOCHAM 2006 press release).

What! 70% people in rural India do not use toothpaste, ketchups, jam…

Forget ketchups… 26% don’t get a have a full meal on a daily basis!

Phew! That sure put things in prespective. Now, let’s get back to the Telecom and look at the ARPU (average revenue per user) of the telephone user: latest data shows it’s around Rs. 290 per month which means if an average rural person buys a phone s/he has to shell out more than half of his/her income! (As mentioned earlier it’s Rs.583 per month for rural India or Rs.7000 per annum).

This explains the low telephone density of 9.21 in circa 2008 despite having a telecom network covering more than 80% rural area and not to forget the “low cost” handsets and “affordable life time” tariffs (remember toothpaste next time you are making a rural tariff plan).

We probably need to remind ourselves that this definitely is a market but with very little (or nothing at all) to spend. So the only thing that may work in this market will be – more value added services for less money.