Future of Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) in India - Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA

"Future of Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) in India"

For the full report download of "Future of Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) in India", please click here.

For a Video of the Launch Event held on Stanford's campus where the findings of the report were presented, followed by a panel discussion of industry leaders, please click here.

Wednesday,
December 5th, 2007
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

by

Mohit S. Gundecha – Research Associate, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Stanford University

Prof. Tom Kosnik – Consulting Professor, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Stanford University

In Association With:

BDA, lead by Kunal Bajaj – Director India, BDA

Speakers:

Jeffrey Belk – Senior Vice President, Strategy & Market Development, QUALCOMM

Location:

Ashok Narasimhan – CEO, July Systems

Hewlett 201,
Hewlett Teaching Center
370 Serra Mall
Stanford University Stanford,
CA – 94305

Free parking on Campus
after 4:00 PM

Parking to Venue Directions

Parking Structure 1 at:
Campus Drive West and Roth Way, Stanford CA - 94305

Other Parking at:
Lomita Drive and Roth Way, Stanford CA - 94305

Event Platinum Sponsor:

Ojas Rege – Vice President, Global Mobile Products, Yahoo! Inc.

Vin Dham – Executive Managing Director, NEA-IndoUS Ventures

Chetan Sharma – President, Chetan Sharma Consulting

Niren Shah – Managing Director – India, Norwest Venture Partners

Moderator:

Eric Allen – Vice President, Direct-to-Consumer, FunMobility Inc.

Agenda:

6:00 PM – 6:40 PM – Networking & Reception

6:40 PM – 6:50 PM – Introduction by Prof. Tom Kosnik

6:50 PM – 7:20 PM – "Future of Mobile VAS in India", Research Report release by Mohit Gundecha and Kunal Bajaj

7:20 PM – 7:40 PM – QUALCOMM: Enabling Mobile Phone growth in emerging markets - Jeffrey Belk

7:40 PM – 8:50 PM – "Why Mobile? Why India? Why Now?" – Panel Discussion

RSVP:

Mohit Gundecha : mohitgundecha@gmail.com

Event Description:

Is the Indian Mobile VAS Market overhyped? Why are Silicon Valley VCs pouring money into Indian Mobile VAS Companies? What are the growth drivers & inhibitors? Is the market overcrowded? Who are the dominant players in the Indian Market? Who are the promising players? When will 3G networks be installed? How will 3G change the market landscape? Will India leapfrog to Mobile platform for Internet use? Will advertising be an effective revenue model? Will innovation happen only around SMS? How can Silicon Valley participate and benefit from the explosive growth?

The event attempts to understand the explosive growth in the Indian Mobile Market and how Silicon Valley companies can participate and leverage it.

The event is the culmination of a cutting edge research project on "Future of Mobile Value Added services in India" done by Stanford University graduate student Mohit Gundecha and Prof. Tom Kosnik in association with BDA, a leading telecom consulting and research firm in India. The study is targeted at entrepreneurs/ VC's /angel investors/ students and will encompass different components of the Indian Mobile VAS Value chain. The study evaluates the competitive landscape and offer detailed profiles of established as well as emerging players across the value chain.

This event will bring together a variety of leaders in the industry from both India and North America, along with budding entrepreneurs, aspiring students and prominent authors and bloggers.

Join us for the event to get a FREE copy of the Research Report – Future of Mobile VAS in India!!

Mohit Gundecha
119, Quillen Court,
#303, Stanford
California – 94305, USA

Tel: +1 650 799 5495
email: mohitgundecha@gmail.com

Jeffrey Belk

Jeffrey Belk serves as senior vice president of strategy and market development for QUALCOMM Incorporated. In this role, he is responsible for the formulation of company- and industry-wide programs and initiatives designed to enhance QUALCOMM's partnerships in the wireless industry and beyond, and drive the adoption of the Company's products and technical innovations. Previously, Belk served as senior vice president of marketing, managing QUALCOMM's global marketing effort. Belk joined QUALCOMM in early 1994 and worked in business development roles prior to being named to lead QUALCOMM Consumer Products' (QCP) marketing team in the summer of 1995. QCP developed and manufactured the wireless industry's first CDMA digital handsets, supporting the rapid global deployment of cdmaOne in the1990s. Belk was responsible for initiating QUALCOMM's global branding and marketing campaigns as QCP's director and then vice president of marketing. In 1998, his role expanded to include overall responsibility for corporate marketing and communications as vice president of marketing for QUALCOMM. In 1999-2000, Belk served as senior vice president and general manager of QUALCOMM Eudora Products, QUALCOMM's award-winning email product line. Prior to joining QUALCOMM, Belk worked at Proxima Corporation, a San Diego-based manufacturer of multimedia projection devices. During a 10-year span at Proxima, he held sales, distribution, product and marketing management positions, including serving as U.S. national distribution manager and Western Europe area manager, based in Holland. Belk holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of California, Irvine and a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the University of California, San Diego.

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Ashok Narasimhan

Ashok has been instrumental in founding and building several successful billion dollar global corporations. Ashok sits on the Boards of several companies in the US and India including Rediff.com. He is also a Limited Partner and Advisor for a number of venture capital funds in the US. He was the Founder of Prio Inc., and served as Chairman and CEO from early 1996 until Prio's merger with InfoSpace, after which he continued to be on their Board. Prior to this, Ashok served as the Head of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development at VeriFone, the world leader in automated electronic payment transactions and later a Hewlett-Packard subsidiary. Ashok was the founding President of Wipro Infotech and Wipro Systems, which together comprise Wipro Technologies, India's largest IT company.

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Ojas Rege

Ojas Rege is the vice president of global mobile products for Yahoo! Inc.  His team is responsible for managing the product life-cycle, from strategy through deployment, of the company's mobile applications and platforms.  He has been with Yahoo since 2005. Ojas started in the mobile industry in 2000, as vice president of product management at AvantGo, one of the pioneers of mobile consumer and enterprise services.  Previously, he was vice president of online gaming at Acclaim Entertainment, a major video games publisher.  Ojas started his career at Oracle in 1988 and also spent several years at Boston Consulting Group, where he managed many of the firm's strategy projects in software, telecommunications, and healthcare. He holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Computer Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Stanford University.

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Vin Dham

As a pioneer in the technology industry, Vinod (Vin) Dham is the acknowledged "Father of the Pentium" microprocessor. He successfully executed on his previous fund, NewPath Ventures, and is building NEA-IndoUS Ventures on similar principles. Prior to NewPath Ventures, Vinod was the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Spice Inc., which was acquired by Broadcom Corporation. Vin spent 16 years of his career at Intel Corporation where he held the position of Vice President and General Manager of the Microprocessor Products group. After Intel, Vin joined microprocessor start up "NexGen", as its Chief Operating Officer. At NexGen Vin was instrumental in redefining Nexgen's processor direction, and engineering the merger with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). At AMD Vin became the Group Vice President, and oversaw the launch of K6 the world's fastest windows processor at that time. In 1993, Vin was named as one of the top 25 executives in the computer industry in America. In 1999, he was named as one of the top 100 most influential Asian Americans of the decade. In 2000, Vin was appointed to serve on the US President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Currently he serves on the Boards of Satyam, Sasken, Hellosoft, InSilica, Minekey, Nevis, Telsima and Montalvo. Vin has co-authored numerous technical papers and patents. Vin has a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering.

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Chetan Sharma

Chetan is a recognized industry expert in strategy and implementation of wireless data and pervasive computing solutions. He has a strong background in developing and launching technologies, products, and solutions for the wireless Industry, including extensive experience in managing and delivering all phases of the product development cycle. Executives from leading wireless companies around the world seek his accurate predictions, independent insights, and actionable recommendations. He has served as an advisor to senior executive management of several Fortune 100 companies in the wireless space. Some of his clients include NTT DoCoMo, Disney, KTF, Sony, Samsung, Virgin Mobile, Sprint Nextel, AT&T Wireless, Cincinnati Bell, Reuters, Qualcomm, Reliance Infocomm, SAP, Merrill Lynch, American Express, Infospace, BEA, and HP. Chetan is the author of best-seller: Wireless Internet Enterprise Applications (John Wiley & Sons, 2000) and co-author of VoiceXML: Strategies and Techniques for Effective Voice Application Development (John Wiley & Sons, 2002). His most recent book titled Wireless data services: Technologies, Business models, and Global markets was published by Cambridge University Press, UK (Jan 2004) and is a collaboration with Dr. Yasuhisa Nakamura, SVP, NTT DoCoMo. Chetan is currently working on two books: Mobile Advertising and In Tesla's Shadow: The Broadband Internet beyond the wires. Chetan's blog "Always On Real-Time Access (AORTA)" is widely read and was voted amongst the top 20 mobile blogs worldwide.

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Niren Shah

Niren Shah is focused on India–based investments in the consumer Internet, digital media, next-generation services and mobile sectors. Prior to joining NVP, Niren was the Senior Director of Strategy and Ventures at eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) in California, where he helped drive the worldwide strategy across eBay's Global Marketplaces. Prior to this role, Niren served as Director of eBay Inc.'s New Ventures business unit with responsibility for the Americas.  The New Ventures group was responsible for several investments and acquisitions such as Craigslist, Skype, Shopping.com, Rent.com, and also incubated Kijiji.com. Previously, Niren was a part of the original management team of Baazee.com based in Mumbai, India. Baazee was India's largest shopping website and raised more than $21 million of venture capital. Niren obtained his Masters in Commerce from University of Mumbai where he was the recipient of the "University of Mumbai Gold Medal" and the "M.A. Master Gold Medal" for standing first across the University of Mumbai.  Niren is also a rank-holder Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

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Eric Allen

Eric has over 15 years of domestic and international experience in leadership roles defining, developing and deploying technology solutions to solve critical business issues in a variety of functional areas including mobile applications, financial services, web services, and content distribution. Eric is responsible for driving FunMobility's Product and Corporate Strategy initiatives, including maintaining the company's product roadmap and identifying key strategic growth opportunities. Eric is also responsible for overseeing all merger & acquisition and strategic partnership initiatives. Prior to joining FunMobility, Eric was Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer of ITOCHU Technology Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Corporation of Japan, a $100 billion dollar Japanese corporation. At ITOCHU, Eric led their North American Venture Capital and M&A initiatives with a focus on the fast-paced Japanese mobile segment. Prior to ITOCHU, Eric led Stanford Federal Credit Union's efforts to develop the first commercially deployed web-based online banking service.

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Tom teaches Global Entrepreneurial Marketing, Global Entrepreneurial Leadership, and DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Program at Stanford University.  His research and expertise is focused on Global Technology Marketing, Positioning Companies and Brands, Selling and Negotiating across Cultures, Improving Performance of Global Products, Projects, and Account Relationships. Tom has a Ph.D. from Stanford Graduate School of Business and an MBA from University of Virginia. Few of the firms which Tom has served on consulting engagements or advisory boards are RingCube, Electronic Arts, Hewlett Packard, Siemens NTT Docomo Labs USA, Apple Computer, Microsoft, Genesys, NCR , Nuance Communications.

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Mohit is a graduate student in the Management Science & Engineering department at Stanford University with a focus on Product Marketing, Strategy & Entrepreneurship. He works as a research associate to Prof. Tom Kosnik at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Mohit has a deep interest in Mobile Value Added Services industry. Mohit is the student chair in the executive committee of the Stanford/MIT VLAB and outreach chair on the board of directors of the Stanford India Association. He has an undergraduate degree in engineering from College of Engineering Pune (COEP), India, where he was the general secretary of the student body and was awarded the Best Outgoing Student Award 2006.

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Kunal started his career in New York with McKinsey & Company including assignments in New Delhi. He then headed the technology division of a USD 60 million-revenue internet marketing company through its most rapid growth phase. Prior to joining BDA, Kunal moved to New Delhi to work as Consultant (Projects) for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), where he led TRAI's effort in identifying and addressing the challenges to achieving wide-scale internet usage and broadband penetration. He authored TRAI's recommendations, “Broadband India”, as well as leading and contributing to a number of related areas including Spectrum Policy, Unified Licensing, Rural Development, and Leased Line Tariffs. He has three degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with Magna Cum Laude Honors. He has a B.Sc. in Economics from the Wharton School with majors in Finance and Management, a BSE from the Engineering School with a major in Computer Science Engineering, and a MSE in Telecommunications and Networking, also from the Engineering School. Kunal is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

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BDA Team

Girish Trivedi - Principal Manager
Deepshikha Garg, Rahul Gupta, Smita Sharma

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Mobile Momentum

Vision:

• A forum to facilitate ongoing dialogue between the communities of academics, researchers, carriers, entrepreneurs, and investors, in Silicon Valley & Asian Mobile Markets through periodic detailed briefings, discussions, case studies, round tables and projects
• Align with and complement the efforts of many other organizations at Stanford and in Silicon Valley that build bridges to Asia

Founders:

• Mobile Momentum Co-Founders: Mohit Gundecha and Prof. Tom Kosnik
• Founding Advisory Board Members: Kunal Bajaj, Chetan Sharma

Way forward:

• Recruiting an Advisory Board consisting of experts, investors and entrepreneurs in the Mobile industry from Asia and North America
• Inviting your feedback on what you'd like the forum to be
• Designing and executing the next project and event
• Recruiting a team of volunteers to organize and execute
• Inviting research and industry partners
  

Contact us:

For participating contact:

Mohit Gundecha – mohitgundecha@gmail.com

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