Hike, announced the launch of a new product called ‘Total, built by hike’. ‘Total’ is a refined version of Android targeted at the next billion people. ‘Total’ lets users access essential services such as Messaging, News, Recharge and more even without an active data connection and paves the way for them to get on Data by providing packs at as low as Re.1/-.
‘Total, built by hike’, has 4 key elements to it that combined together make the end to end experience extremely seamless:
- Single Login: A Single Login via the Phone Number for all of Total services such as Messaging, News, Horoscope, Recharge, Wallet, Cricket Scores and Rail information.
- Light Services < 100 kb to 1 MB: Services on ‘Total, built by hike’ take between < 100 kb to 1 MB ensuring a lightweight footprint on the device.
- Works without Data: All of the services built on Total can be accessed even without Data via proprietary technology. Developed in-house, the proprietary technology, based on the USSD protocol does the heavy lifting of encrypting, compressing and transmitting data. It has effectively supercharged USSD to help bring an uninterrupted experience to the users even an active data connection
- Sachet Data Packs: Users will be able to purchase Sachet Data Packs starting as low as Re. 1 from inside the Total experience itself with the goal of lowering the cost of access and introducing people to data.
Over the last 6 months, Hike has worked extremely closely with telecom partners to enable the USSD Technology & Data Upsell on Total. Airtel, Aircel and BSNL are the telecom partners which cover over 42% of the telecom market.
On the device side, Intex and Karbonn are the first Smartphone partners. ‘Total, built by hike’ will be available on 4 models across Intex & Karbonn. The Intex devices with Total are Aqua Lions N1, Aqua Lions T1, Aqua Lions T1-Lite and the Karbonn device is A40 Indian. The devices are scheduled to hit the shelves starting 1st March 2018.
Total users will also get upto Rs. 200 to spend on any of the services when they buy one of these devices.
On the launch of ‘Total, built by hike’, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder and CEO, Hike said, “For the next billion true mobile first users, coming online can be still be quite complicated and intimidating. Simplify, simplify, simplify. That’s all we’ve been doing. We’ve taken the 15–20 step process of someone coming online and made it into only a few steps — “Buy a phone, turn it on and you’re good to go. Everything, all the essential services all work out of the box even without data.”
Kavin further added, “Our goal is to bring India online and online means data so we’ve also made it extremely simple to buy data packs right contextually inside the OS itself. We’ve worked closely with telcos on special data packs for these phones starting as low as Re 1/- to give people a taste of what it feels like. This is really powerful.”
Total propels digital inclusion and furthers the national agenda of financial inclusion as well as socio-economic progress.
According to recent reports, the Internet is out of the reach of nearly 736 million Indians. The launch of ‘Total, built by hike’ will drive access to information and familiarity with the services that the world of connectivity provides. So whether it’s simply chatting with friends or making digital payments, a whole new set of people will be able to experience these services
The technology used here is very powerful and but we believe it won’t be a success for hike as they partnered with specific smartphone brands for a feature phone. In India, it will be very interesting to see the growth of hike in this segment. It would be a great advantage if they have implemented this on their app and tried any other source of income, but at the end of the day it’s a business and they have to make money.
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