This week mobile analytics provider Zokem launched their first panels and research products in India. The products are based on Zokem’s on-device metering solutions that capture passively all mobile usage as it takes place in people’s everyday life. The company is also working on entering the Chinese markets. 'In addition to our existing 9 panels in Europe and North-America, India and China are the next big markets where we want to play a role, in mobile audience measurements', commented Zokem's CEO Hannu Verkasalo. 

With more than a billion inhabitants and a growing economic might, India has one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. Being among the first service providers to cater for that industry has immense advantages. How can a start-up based in the Nordics enter the promising yet far away land? 'We discussed and piloted with selected market research companies, that we knew from the Western world',shared Hannu.

While geographical distances are easy to overcome today, there is still a significant cultural gap between Nordics and India. Zokem's experience suggests being patient and working as much as possible with the locals to understand their culture. The only way to find out what you need to do differently is to deliver a concrete product for the end-customers and evaluate your performance.

Hannu also commented that the three big challenges working in Indian include geographical distance, cultural differences (especially when managing big projects) and the lack of substantal revenues in the short-term. However, the benefits make up for the drawbacks. India has a huge population that is increasingly using phones to go online. 'Next 1 billion of people will start using Internet with smartphone type of devices in this kind of countries, and first mover companies have an advantage in specific fields like ours', said Hannu.

Zokem's initial findings discovered that music applications are the most popular in India - 75% of smartphone owners use them. Maps (41%), social networking (36%), and instant messaging (35%) follow the lead. A surprising discovery was that emails are not a very popular means of communication - only 20% of smartphone users send emails on a monthly basis, preferring to text instead.