The world's biggest messaging service WhatsApp now plans to add voice calls to the application by the second quarter. With 450 million users across the globe, they have already made a hole in several telecom operator's revenue. Now, what impact will this added feature of voice calling have?
CNBC-TV18’s Menaka Doshi and Senthil Chengalvarayan spoke to Sanjay Kapoor, former CEO of Bharti Airtel , Jaideep Ghosh of KPMG and Prasanto Roy, editorial advisor, Cybermedia to find out their take on the matter.
Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview
Menaka: What happens when WhatsApp launches voice services? How much of a dent could they potentially make for Indian telecom service provider revenues?
Ghosh: WhatsApp and similar applications have already made a dent in the SMS and the basic texting services globally as well as India. So, we have estimated that roughly the person-to-person text message market was about Rs 6,000 crore last year. We believe about Rs 1500 crore or 2000 crore is something, which probably was taken away by WhatsApp. Now, if voice calls are provided free-of-cost and voice is the main stay of Indian telecom operators business, in the medium-term it should impact to a large extent. Possibly, due to regulatory aspects, due to lower penetration of smart phone, it maybe limited in the near-term.
Menaka: What you are saying is that the Indian telecom service providers lost potentially Rs 2000 crore to WhatsApp in revenue last year?
Jaideep: Not only WhatsApp, but on the others as well.
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CNBC-TV18’s Menaka Doshi and Senthil Chengalvarayan spoke to Sanjay Kapoor, former CEO of Bharti Airtel , Jaideep Ghosh of KPMG and Prasanto Roy, editorial advisor, Cybermedia to find out their take on the matter.
Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview
Menaka: What happens when WhatsApp launches voice services? How much of a dent could they potentially make for Indian telecom service provider revenues?
Ghosh: WhatsApp and similar applications have already made a dent in the SMS and the basic texting services globally as well as India. So, we have estimated that roughly the person-to-person text message market was about Rs 6,000 crore last year. We believe about Rs 1500 crore or 2000 crore is something, which probably was taken away by WhatsApp. Now, if voice calls are provided free-of-cost and voice is the main stay of Indian telecom operators business, in the medium-term it should impact to a large extent. Possibly, due to regulatory aspects, due to lower penetration of smart phone, it maybe limited in the near-term.
Menaka: What you are saying is that the Indian telecom service providers lost potentially Rs 2000 crore to WhatsApp in revenue last year?
Jaideep: Not only WhatsApp, but on the others as well.
Read More