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Press Release
6 August 2008, The Tribune Chandigarh
Goldfinch to set up R&D centre in Chandigarh
Hong Kong-based Goldfinch Mobile Solutions will be investing $100,000 for setting up its global research and development centre at the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park here. The company will be investing $1 million for its operations across South-East Asia this year.
This was disclosed by Newton Bubber, CEO of Goldfinch, during an interaction with The Tribune here today. He said the R & D centre here would develop applications for roaming, mobile gaming and mobile advertising, which will then be sold to operators in Malaysia and Indonesia, besides India.
"With the Government of India having announced that the 3G services would be started within the next six months, it would allow the mobile users to avail a host of value- added services (VAS). In this era when the mobile tariff rates are falling and even the STD rates are at an all-time low, the real income for the mobile operators, too, will come from VAS. In this scenario, we see a massive growth for our company here," he said.
The CEO said in India they had tied up with Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular for creating applications in gaming and mobile advertising.
Bubber said as of now the good operators in India earn anything between 16-18 per cent of the revenue from VAS, while a weak operator earns over 12 per cent of his revenue through VAS. "Studies have shown that 25 per cent of the revenue in VAS is earned through colour ring back tone (CRBT), followed by gaming (13 per cent) and full song listening (12 per cent). Once the 3G services are launched in India, the revenue earned through VAS, especially mobile advertising and gaming, are expected to double," he added.
Talking about the company's operations in South Asia, he said the focus for the company this year would be on capturing major share in mobile solutions in Indonesia.
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