14 DAY TRIAL // Virgin Mobile, a global mobile communications brand, recently entered the Indian market with Virgin Mobile India, said to be the country's first national mobile service focused on teenagers and young users.
Since Virgin Mobile doesn't have a network of its own and operates worldwide by collaborating with other operators, in India the company works together with Tata Teleservices.
With a "Think Hatke" philosophy and a wide range of new offers, Virgin Mobile India plans to quickly attract several million customers. The company comes with attractive phones plus offers that India didn't have until now. For example, Virgin users will get extra credit for every incoming minute received from any other network, they will be able to call more for less and also to easily upgrade their phones.
Virgin Mobile India also launched a nice looking and funny (especially in the "Why switch to Virgin?"section) website, to make sure potential users don't miss the reasons why they should choose Virgin over other brands.
"At Virgin Mobile we believe that the existing operators are all pursuing the same strategy: to get as many subscribers as quickly as possible," said Sir Richard Branson, Chairman and Founder of the Virgin Group. "Virgin Mobile's strategy is different. We want to deliver a more tailored, more relevant offering for a single, distinct segment. We are not pursuing scale for scale's sake."
"We are very excited about our association with the Virgin Group," declared Anil Sardana, Managing Director of Tata Teleservices. "Their service innovation and strong brand resonance with the youth segment will allow Tata Teleservices to offer a truly world-class service experience to our youth subscribers. This association also supports our efforts to be the fastest growing mobile network in India".
"There are more than 215 million Indians aged between 14 -25 years old. Over the next three years, we expect this segment to be adding over 50 million new youth subscribers and to have mobile service revenues of over Rs 350 billion. By focusing exclusively on a single segment and by continuing to deliver innovative services that cater to this segment's distinct needs, we believe Virgin Mobile can capture more than 10 percent of this incremental market within 3 years of launch," said Jamie Heywood, Deputy CEO, Virgin Mobile India.
With about 225 million subscribers, India is one of the most important mobile markets in the world, currently having no less than 10 mobile operators with over 1 million subscribers. Among them, Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone, BSNL, Tata and Idea Cellular all have more than 10 million customers. Only time will tell if Virgin Mobile can integrate into this market.