Market Entry Strategies Of Wireless Startups

The recent few years has seen a tremendous explosion in mobile phone ownership all over the world 1 , resulting in a boom in the wireless industry. However, as the effects of the boom taper, the average revenue per user (ARPU) from voice traffic is projected to decrease over the next few years. As a result, increasing revenues from data traffic over mobile devices is touted as the next " holy grail " 2. Marrying the Internet and mobility is the next natural progression since the Internet has become an indispensable tool in our lives. DoCoMo and Verizon had started to make plans in this area a few years back, all hoping to have a share of the pie. There have been various steps by these incumbents to push for the acceptance of mobile Internet in the mass market, whether in R&D, strategic alliances across the value chain or setting up forums for collaboration. With intense competition and the industry still very much at its infancy, firms have yet to secure dominant positions in the data transmission market. Many startups have taken advantage of the opportunities opened up by this emerging industry. They have come up with innovative products and services to serve markets untouched or too specialized to be worthy of incumbents' attention. This phenomenon bears an uncanny resemblance to the Internet boom of the late 90s, which saw many startups trying to cash in on the opportunities brought about by the Internet. Having witnessed the spectacular demise of many of these ventures, startups and venture capitalists (VCs) are treading with more caution. Startups without defendable business models would have difficulty in procuring funding. Good market entry strategies are hence crucial not only in securing funding, but also, in view of the current grim economic climate, the keys to success. The aim of this thesis is to identify the market entry strategies of these startups. The areas covered are strategic issues the startups have to decide on prior to product launch, to ensure successful market entry and their ensuing survival. These include, but are not limited to, 1 See Appendix 1 2 See Appendix 2 and 3 2 their rationale for entering that particular market segment, the modes of marketing, their competitive advantages and ways to sustain these advantages. There is ample literature on entrepreneurship, strategic management and the wireless sector. They usually deal with two of the three …