Think win-win : One of the 7 habits of highly effective people.
Cost cutting, employee firing and land selling are the few measures we have seen companies do till now. Few companies like HCL are sharing the risks with their customers. But, tie-up or collaboration is often overlooked.
Few things in the past week has changed that. There were a bunch of tie-ups which were announced in the telecom and online space which were really inspiring.
BharatMatrimony has partnered with IDEA to provide customized matrimony services for mobile users of IDEA. GPRS users can access the matrimonial site free of cost for select few sections. Users can search and find profiles and express interest. For 100 rupees per month they can view unlimited profiles.
Vodafone has tied up with Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) to bring ACK content to Vodafone subscribers. Subscribers can listen to the stories of ACK through the voice portal and Vodafone live. Subscribers can also read comics, download ringtones from the comic series. There will be charges for this. Monthly subscription is Rs 30, Rs5 for downloading videos and Rs 50 for games.
Yatra has tied up with IRCTC for providing train bookings on its portal. Booking via Tatkal scheme will also be available on the portal. Yet another channel for IRCTC but a very good revenue and traffic generator for Yatra.
Motorola has tied-up with PressSmart to bring live news on the mobile. Indian Express, The Financial Express, The Asian Age and the Deccan Chronicle will be the content providers. The service is available on select GPRS enabled Motorola phones.
All the tie-ups mentioned above are a win-win situation. In the case of BharatMatrimony-IDEA tie-up, the matrimonial site has 15 million registered users and IDEA has 40 million mobile customers. The intersection of these two subscriber base is what the win-win situation is.
Yet another trend is the mobile value added services (VAS) market is really growing in India. 3 of the 4 mentioned above are in VAS space. Yatra-IRCTC tie-up is the only Internet exception. Yet another signal that India is skipping the Internet and jumping onto mobile connectivity.
It would be great if Yatra ties up with IDEA to provide railway bookings on IDEA mobile and someone actually reads this news on a Motorola phone with Indian Express as a source.