S-Tel Mobile Recharge now available at mobikwik.com

S-Tel , a new mobile operator, is now live with mobikwik.com. Mobikwik.com is the first online recharge service which supports S-Tel. S-Tel is live for Bihar&Jharkhand, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Orissa.

Below is the list of mobile number prefixes for S-Tel.

"S-TEL"  OPERATOR
Applicable Circles	PREFIXES
	From	To
Himachal Pradesh	91290	91299
Bihar	91280	91289
Orissa	91320	91329
Assam	91270	91279

Mobikwik customers can get flexible recharge topups by going to our Recharge search page and selecting an amount of their choice.

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Let the battle begin!

After multiple delays, the auction of 3G spectrum has finally begun today in India. The month long auction is expected to fetch INR 42000 crore for the Indian government. Although the number of Indian mobile subscribers is grossly inflated ( claim is 550 million which is 40% inflated), the auction is an incredibly significant event for India's mobile operators. The reasons,though, maybe different from what people think.

Even though 3G is primarily aimed at triggering data consumption, the operators by themselves are not in any position to drive this data consumption all by themselves. Mobile operators are too focused on numbers ( subscribers, revenues) to understand what "experiences"  their customers really want. Just creating an app store and pushing apps down the throat through a WAP portal does not work. Quality of product and Quality of experience matters. Infact, now with 3 of India's leading operators claiming 100 million subscribers each           ( Airtel, Reliance and Vodafone)  their scale has begun to work against them. With their number-focused mentality, cost efficiency and process improvement now becomes significantly more important than innovative services.  They need the 3G spectrum to carry voice and relieve their already overburdened 2G spectrum. This is the prime reason that the big operators have no choice but to bid and win.

This leads to a scenario where product managers at these companies will have to backup any new innovative/unproven service with massive adoption potential ( e.g. a million users atleast.). This fact alone will throw innovation out of the roof.  Monetization of the long tail goes for a toss.

Our belief is that in such an ecosystem, innovation will have to come from elsewhere. The biggest contenders are those service providers , content providers and application developers who have no legacy and can find ways to market and sell their products without operator's assistance.

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Mobikwik.com now supports MTS and Virgin GSM

Mobikwik.com now brings topup services for MTS India and Virgin GSM for its members.

MTS India offers CDMA services throughout India and recently achieved 3 million subscribers in a short period. MTS was earlier known as Shyam Telecom and MTS , Russia's leading operator had invested in Shyam Telecom to create MTS India. MTS is popular in Rajasthan and is growing quite fast in TamilNadu. Mblaze USB modem for internet is already pretty popular. MTS through mobikwik is available through PIN based topups where the PIN is made available to the user on our website or through SMS if you use SMS recharge services. MTS Topup available at mobikwik is Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100.

Virgin GSM is essentially the GSM services of TTSL branded under the "Virgin Mobile" banner. It is currently active in southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu.

Mobikwik.com welcomes its new users!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Mobikwik.com to offer personalized massage services through your mobile!

Given the pressures of modern professional life, most working people do not get enough of an opportunity to unwind. Alcohol and Sex are no longer the preferred avenues to let one's "hair" down, given the increasing number of dry days in India and the inability to "tighten up" by majority of Indian men.

All good ideas begin with founder's own unmet needs. This new service is no different. Spotting an opportunity in the leisure space, mobikwik.com CEO Bipin Preet Singh , personally managed the development of an "end-to-end" solution which would help mobikwik.com customers relax. What helped is the fact that most mobikwik customers have a vibrate mode on their cellphones.

So, this is how it works :

1) Type VIB-RATE<space>ME<space> AAH! on your cellphone's SMS screen.

2) Send this SMS to  9696969696 .

3) If you are 18+ years of age, within 30 seconds, your phone will start vibrating the way you always wanted it to. If you are less than 18, a message will be sent to each of your parents or local guardians.

4) We will NOT go into the details of what you can do with a vibrating cellphone. However, the CEO will be happy to advise you personally on a 1-to-1 basis.

5) Please note that this service is absolutely gender-neutral. It is targeted at both adult men and women. Also, mobikwik.com does not take any responsibility for any damage, physical or mental, caused to you or your pets, due to use of this service.

6) The charges will Rs 10/min for the time your cellphone is vibrating. Please do not ask for discounts because its heavily pre-booked.

Happy Massaging!

 

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Mobikwik.com among India's top 25 most promising internet startups!

Mobikwik.com has been selected as one of the top 25 most promising internet startups in India by the smart techie magazine. Read the full article about mobikwik.com  here.

The full list of top 25 companies is here.

Mobikwik.com has a long way to go yet , however, recognition like this keeps our team motivated to keep pushing the bar higher.

Thanks to everyone, and most of all our users, who have helped us get here!

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Recharge with SMS without registration!

1) We have updated the mobile recharge API - Now you can get your mobikwik balance with every successful recharge. For more, download the API.doc from the API tab.

2) Now, you can recharge any prepaid mobile number if you have a mobikwik account. No need to register the new number with mobikwik! To make it even easier, any number you try to recharge using SMS gets automatically added as "Add-On" number in your profile.

Let us know what you think of these changes!

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DO-THE-NEW at mobikwik.com

Tata Docomo is now live at www.mobikwik.com. With its path breaking pay per second second plan, Docomo has captured the minds of millions of Indians, especially the youth, in a remarkably short period. Docomo users can recharge their prepaid mobile at mobikwik.com by simply adding it to their existing mobikwik account or open a new account.

The first 10 people to recharge for docomo will get Rs 100 mobikwik balance each. Free !

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Calling India from Gulf?

Middle - East ( aka Gulf ) is a popular destination for Indian workers from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and other southern states. Proximity to India, good wages for skilled labor, relatively easy to obtain work permits, and an established expat Indian community are the primary reasons why lakhs of Indians flock to these shores every year. UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are among the major countries which have expat Indian populations.

If you are one of the Indian expats in Gulf,  here's an interesting piece of info :

• Normal Calling Rate from Indian mobile( Airtel/Vodafone etc) to Gulf - Around INR 7 per minute.
• Normal Calling Rate from Gulf Mobile ( Etisalat etc ) to India - 2.4 Dirham (Approx INR 30) per minute.

The calling rates from Gulf to India are almost 4 times the other way round! In addition, most Indian mobile operators have special prepaid packs that reduce calling rate to Gulf to almost Rs 2-3 per minute.

Conclusion:

1) Get your family a prepaid mobile connection if they already don't have one. 

2) Topup online using mobikwik whenever you want to talk! Mobikwik accepts all international credit cards and Indian net banking and works instantly.

3) Give your folks a missed call so they can call you back. :D

Mobikwik has many satisfied customers from the Gulf who use it regularly. If you are from Gulf and want to share your experience using mobikwik, do come forward and comment!

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The mobile world changed today - Did you notice?

At the Mobile World Congress 2010 today, there were 3 big announcements in the mobile industry which will *potentially* have far-reaching implications for the next few years. And yes, none of them have to do anything about Apple. :D

1. Nokia and Intel merge their mobile Linux Operating Systems. Called MeeGo, this will power both Intel netbooks and Nokia smartphone platform (Maemo). Is this finally the converged mobile computer platform that pundits have predicted for over a decade?

2. Microsoft launches Windows Mobile 7 dubbed Windows Phone 7. Built on the Zune HD interface, Microsoft's boldest attempt in the mobile phone space with major revisions in personalization, productivity and looks!

3. Symbian Foundation launches Symbian 3 , a major revision to their workhorse mobile platform. Symbian has had a chequered history, with Nokia acquiring the company and then spinning it off as an open source platform in response to Google's An

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Are you a social media guru?

One of my friends who works ( freelances) with a social media strategy firm sent this hilarious cartoon clip. I have a few friends in this space who work with both big companies and startups. Being a startup ourselves, we do take social media seriously given that it does not cost anything.( except time to tweet and re-tweet and post and re-post). Social media is definitely a good tool to make yourself heard  and  let the world know there are real people behind the company. Folks like Tony Hsieh ( sold Zappos.com to Amazon for a billion USD) have used their blogs to good effect. So while Zappos primarily sold shoes and other apparels, Tony's blog had quite a fan following based on his mostly humorous posts.

The problem : Marketers in big companies hear the latest buzz ( through friends or media or "social circles") and suddenly every one of them wants to jump on the bandwagon.  Before you can say "Twit what?", there are hundreds of social media gurus, facebook consultants, twitter shops, community engagement platforms, all selling their wares to these marketers. Result : You are asked to become a fan of "Baby XXX diapers" even though a restraining order legally prevents you to be within 100 meters of a kid. Or follow           " Porn YYY game"  on twitter except that there are only nude men ( and no nude women ) in the game ( gay adsense scammer, ha ha).

The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between. If you are a startup , I recommend you to use social media to engage meaningfully, not just to garner facebook fans and twitter followers. ( Last I heard, you could buy followers on twitter for a cent each). As for big companies, well, if no billboards are available on Gurgaon expressway this month, pay some $$$ to a social media guru and start a cause like Stripey the Cub. ( sponsored by Aircel). It is cheap, fast and it works.

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MTNL makes debut at mobikwik

Giving in to popular demand, mobikwik has integrated MTNL pin based recharge on its platform. To start with, you can do simple topups like Rs 10/50/100/200/500. MTNL GSM prepaid service is also popularly known as Trump. This is what we support right now. 

When you click on Recharge Now button in mobikwik, the Trump pin is displayed. To recharge, just type *400#PIN# on your MTNL mobile or call 400 and follow IVR instructions.

Although MTNL mobile service has not grown as fast as some of the private carriers in recent years, it is quite popular among students both in Delhi and Mumbai with its special vouchers and SMS packs. These packs and vouchers will also go on sale very soon on mobikwik. Check out the 

MTNL topup for Mumbai .

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Whose data is it anyway?

Breaking News : The Delhi High Court today asked InfoMedia 18( part of the TV18 group) to stop its site askme.in from functioning until next hearing. I just checked their site and it gave a 503 - Not available message.

JustDial claims Infomedia 18 copied its extensive database which is its key competitive advantage. Now, the big question is who owns the data that a website indexes and displays to the viewers for free? Does the method of copying even matter? The answer to this question could have huge implications for well-known sites in India which rely on such freely available data. I , for one, do not believe that all local search and classifieds websites built up their database organically from scratch, talking to each business owner in the process.

Another way of asking the same question : If your website shows up in google search, does it mean google owns the exclusive right to displaying it ( and other search engines cannot?)

 

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Why Indian web companies build crappy products?

Actually, the title of the post is misleading. Indian companies are very good at building good web products, but only when someone else is defining and managing the product. There are very few who can define and then iteratively build excellent products. Therefore, hold no grudge against the investors who invest in replicated ideas and US-returned expats.

What are the reasons?

1) Most Indian web companies  "do not" consider their product as a key competitive advantage. In that sense, they are much more like media companies , always focused on more eyeballs leading to more advertisement moolah. Those that do have a non-ad revenue model, rely on their alliances or their sales teams.

2) Indian web companies focus much more on marketing than they ever do on the product. Most big web companies are just "online" extensions of their offline businesses. The culture of product innovation just isn't there because all of them get their job done at the same outsourcing shops. There is no overarching product vision just feature additions.

3) Indian software engineers have not been exposed to the latest and the best, even though Indians are no.2 or 3 in Techcrunch readership. This is mostly because the managers and the VP's have themselves never been software engineers. They hardly know their HTML5 from their XML.

4) Sadly, most software engineers are neither risk takers nor good coders nor do they enjoy their jobs. More importantly, very few have that attitude of curiosity which spurs innovation. Combined with 3) , it just becomes a chicken and egg problem.

What do you think?
 

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Please fill this survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KGBSN3N

Hello folks,

Mobikwik has designed a small survey for you to fill . Only 5 questions! This survey is designed to gauge the interest for a new service that we are planning. The survey is here.

Happy Surveying!

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Lessons from Vodafone 360 launch UK

A hard hitting article from Ewan talks about how Vodafone 360, Vodafone's latest service platform in UK , has flunked at the launch itself. This should serve as a wake up call to Indian mobile carriers on their approach to 3G.

This is consistent with the struggle mobile carriers all over the world are facing - are they just network providers ( or bit-pipes) or can they actually provide innovative services using the network as a platform? Unlike the internet which is an open network which can be used by anyone to develop apps,  the wireless networks of mobile carriers are walled gardens where no one can get in except with their permission. Until now, the carriers' approach has not resulted in any serious innovation.

More on Vodafone 360 here.

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EBS - The best payment gateway in India?

Disclosure : www.mobikwik.com uses E-billing Solutions.

There's been a lot of debate of late over which is the best payment gateway in India. A payment gateway is essentially a 3rd party which creates a merchant account for a business to accept payments on their behalf.

CCAvenue has long been a leader in this space. Back in 2008 when we contacted them, they just refused to even talk to me. I filled in their online form but no response.

We also contacted TimesofMoney ( used by Google Adwords in India) supported by the Times of India Group. Response was prompt, but they refused to accept credit cards on our behalf as we were a startup.

We also contacted abcpayments ( which has since shut shop , I guess) and paysignet but the rates were unsatisfactory and low quality was apparent.

Finally we contacted E-billing solutions and started talking. As a startup, established companies usually take you for granted . However, this was not the case with E-billing solutions from day one. I think I spoke to 2 or 3 of their employees independently and all of them came across as professional and flexible. Remember that mobikwik had not started generating any revenues by then. We finally struck a deal and got the Integration API from them.

1) People and Attitude

Very professional as explained above. Don't treat fledgling startups as sh*t.

2) Quality of API

We were impressed with the quality of API. Not many merchants give this a second thought but a tightly knit API can save you from many surprises later on. Developers know what I am talking about.

3) Risk Management

Ours is a real time product, which means once product is sold there's no way to get it back. There's no shipping delay which means fraud checking need to be immediate. While not 100% accurate, EBS risk management system has been of great help to us by flagging transactions based on various parameters : country/ip mismatch, velocity checks and so on. This is real time flagging which implies a fraudster will not get the product immediately.

4) Commission -

Not the best but decent if you explain your business model + ambition correctly.

5) Banks and Cards support -

Not the best in coverage but getting there. Except for a few obscure banks/cards and SBI maestro, they support every bank and credit card.

6) Support system -

EBS has a very good customer support system setup. It responds within an hour at worst, accepts their mistakes and corrects them. They are also willing to listen to you to improve their own system.

Ofcourse, we havent used other payment gateways, but as a startup, I would go with EBS just for points 1) and 6). Highly recommended.

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What customers want?

Today, we received this unique request through our customer care. Couldn't help sharing :) Though we are prompt in addressing customer issues, this is one request we could not satisfy.

"

TicketID: 588
Email: sinha****@rediffmail.com
Cell: 909***8181
Category: payment

Issue: aap muhje 1000 Rs ka recharge ka do maine aap ko kal paise deduga.

"

The phrase in italics translated : "Please give me mobile recharge of Rs 1000, I will give you money tomorrow".

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