Indian telcos killed VAS business. Now they're out to kill your business. - Mahesh Murthy
Some of you may remember the huge hype around VAS (Value Added Services) startups in India less than a decade years ago - remember SMSing to get your horoscope for the day, or a cricket score update? The story was all about how they'd create great content for distribution on the telcos' networks and how we'd see new giant companies being formed. Fast forward to today - the telcos' user base is ten times larger - but do you see any of those VAS companiess around? They're all virtually dead - and the telcos killed them. And they did so with a simple weapon - they charged a toll tax of 80% or more on all revenues generated by the VAS startups on their networks. VAS companies are long gone - the telcos killed and ate the golden geese, and golden eggs are now hard to come by. But rather than learn from this debacle - they're out there to find and kill the next golden egg. And that's you, dear Indian internet entrepreneur. You're going to be the next ...