As firms click on augmented reality, app companies log on to growth

By: KRITHIKA KRISHNAMURTHY

BANGALORE: Consumer companies are increasingly turning to augmented reality — where layers of digital information are overlaid on an image — to get their products through to customers, enabling makers of such technology applications to grow at a scorching pace.
Fledgling augmented reality application makers said they have seen business double over the past year because of rising interest from large brands in India and abroad.

Typically, augmented reality applications links an image to a gamut of interactive information such as videos, animations and three-dimensional models. Companies believe this increases the user’s interaction with the product and helps seal a deal faster.

“We have done more business in the past six months globally than in all of 2012,” said Suresh Narasimha, chief executive officer of Telibrahma, a Bangalore-based company that has sold augmented reality applications to customers such as the Aditya Birla Group, Samsung and Sony.

The 37-year-old entrepreneur, who earlier worked at technology services firm Wipro and multinational communications company Siemens, said Telibrahma’s sales are growing at about 40% every quarter. The company’s revenue is likely to touch $20 million (about Rs 122 crore) within two years. An application developed by fouryear-old Blink Solution for confectionery major Cadbury was downloaded by 25,000 users in just five days.

Another, quick service restaurant KFC’s Wow app was one of the most downloaded in the food and drinks category on Apple’s iTunes store recently. “The success of these campaigns has inspired us to leverage augmented reality to drive awareness and consumer engagement,” said Dhruv Kaul, marketing director at KFC India. Globally, developers of augmented reality are expected to invest $670 million (Rs4,110 crore) this year realand more than $2.5 billion (Rs 17,516 crore) in 2018, according to USbased ABI Research.

“In India, augmented reality is still in a very nascent stage,” said Vishal Tripathi, an analyst with research firm Gartner. But this is changing fast. Blink Solution said it is now receiving about three enquiries every week compared with about two a month, last year. Dooj Ramchandani, 25, who cofounded Blink Solution, expects augmented reality to boost his company’s revenues by 30% in 2014, as they take the total number of customers to 20 from 11.

Blink Solution’s is in talks with Hindustan Unilever, Cadbury, Hyundai and Tata Docomo. Some of the most active users of augmented reality are online retailers. Hyderabad-based startup Imaginate has created virtual trial rooms that buyers can use beginning December. The company said it has access to about 15 ecommerce stores globally, including Flipkart, and expects to generate sales of $50,000 (about Rs 30 lakh) in fiscal 2014.

“We are looking at multiple things and this (augmented reality) is one of them,” said Binny Bansal, cofounder and chief operating officer of Flipkart. Automotive and media sectors are also lapping up the technology. Adstuck Consulting, a four-yearold startup in Delhi, designed an app for Maruti Suzuki to promote its Alto 800 model last year. This allowed a user to sift through videos, book a test drive and talk about the model on social media.

“We ran a month-long campaign and the returns were better than any other medium or mode,” said Abhishek Pandey, media manager at Maruti. Adstuck Consulting earned revenue of Rs10 crore in fiscal 2013. “The end result of all this, is providing brands a new exotic way of interacting with their users and give them great mobile marketing experience through their smartphones,” said Ajay Vaishnavi, director of Times Mobile, which ispart of the Times Group that publishes this paper.

Times Mobile has an augmented reality app Alive which has been used by nearly 100 brands in the past 10 months, including Knorr, Nestle, Mirinda, Philips and LG. “Alive (app) has been growing month-on-month not just in terms of downloads and scans but also in number of advertisers,” said Vaishnavi. As other sectors, such as education and pharmaceutical companies, too begin to try out the new technology, startups are expected to grow rapidly.

“An altimeter revolving around you and showing you how current is measured is an awesome feeling,” said Vihang Garg, vice chairman of Hi-Tech Institute of Engineering & Technology, in Ghaziabad, who is working with Adstuck to bring the same technology to schools.