Applications
Consumer Vas revenues to triple to $420 bn in 2020: Study
MUMBAI: Consumer value added services (Vas) are set to triple from $125 billion worldwide in 2011 to $420 billion in 2020.
This was the predication made at the recently concluded trade event CommunicAsia 2012 in Singapore by Point Topic CEO Oliver Johnson. Point Topic is an industry analyst firm for global broadband statistics, information and reports.
As competition reduces margins in the basic broadband business, and with increasing penetration of broadband value-added services, their contribution to revenues is becoming increasingly more important.
VoIP is currently the top revenue earner. However, Point Topic predicts that this will be trumped by IPTV by 2020.
Johnson also pointed out that growth may not be easy for some services, particularly when faced with competition from online and traditional offline services.
Johnson said, “Development may be harder for some markets than other. For example, security already has a penetration rate of over 85%, so being able to grow this further will depend on developing other security related services, or on the advent of a virulent and destructive online threat.”
Access revenues, subscriptions charged for a broadband service, are similarly a tough area to grow revenue, especially as saturation permeates through more and more markets.
Offering the right bundles for their consumers in a particular market, signing the right deals and maintaining a customer base in the face of global competition will be the mark of a successful ISP in the next few years. Get it wrong and they won’t see growth – get it right and their prize will be an income base worth several multiples of its yearly value.
“Challenges lie ahead for all and the internet can be fickle, but the right player with the right service, or more likely set of services, has the chance to sweep all before them,” concluded Johnson.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
