According to Sethi’s estimates, religious content accounts for 8-10% of value-added services. Demand and customer traffic spikes around religious festivals and dips in between, said Mahesh Prasad, who heads value-added services at Reliance Communications Ltd.
This past Christmas, Reliance offered a new “SMS-a-candle” service where users could send a prayer and a request via SMS (short messaging service) for a candle to be lit at Mount Mary church in the Bandra section of Mumbai.
Thousands of people sent in requests for this service; the proceeds were used to buy the candles, said Prasad.
As part of its marketing efforts, Hutchison-Essar Ltd, in which UK’s Vodafone Group is seeking a majority stake, studied both religion and mobile patterns in rural and urban India. Hutch’s conclusion: religion, beyond a way of life, remains an important form of entertainment, especially in rural India.
Among urban Indians, religion is still important, but denizens were less open to talking about their faith, according to Hutch’s study. “The first thing they will say is, ‘I am not religious’, but if they pass by a temple, they will bow their heads,” said an official at Hutch’s value-added services division, who did not wish to be named because it is against the company policy. “As our study suggests, people are becoming more religious.”
He also declined to provide additional information or data on the survey.
Most cellphone providers now offer a range of basic services such as SMSes for daily horoscopes, Vaastu and Feng-shui living tips, and Panchang and Rahukaal consultations that help ascertain auspicious and inauspicious times, for a fee of about Rs3 per message. Devotees also can sign up for texting services, such as Gurubani, a collection of sayings of Sikh gurus, or excerpts from the Bible or the Gita. Hindu, Muslim and Parsi calendars also send reminders of important holidays.
Worshippers can plan pilgrimages, from room availability to darshan timings and special puja offerings through text messages. Some providers also offer live contact with an astrologer to help with crises, from personal to professional. Hutch charges Rs6 per minute for this service.
Intense competition in the mobile phone market has forced the industry to look at offering distinct features and truly unique content. Reliance has gone so far as to allow customers to directly question god. A virtual god, that is.
In its dart game called Prashnavali, users can play with god, as they would any other mobile phone game. “A picture of Shri Ram and a dart appear on the screen,” explains Prasad. “You close your eyes and think of a question that is important to you and shoot the dart on the screen. It will hit some point on the picture, which will reveal an answer for your question, or give you some set of predictions about it,” he added. The game was so popular that it became an integral part of the company’s offerings, accessible to every mobile phone customer.
Tata Indicom’s Sethi believes that competition will take the battle for the “faith-market” to the next level: personalization of devotion.