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Business News/ Companies / News/  With Around YU, Micromax’s Yu Televentures makes software foray
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With Around YU, Micromax’s Yu Televentures makes software foray

Around YU is a suite of services bundled into Yu Televentures new smartphone Yutopia

Yu Teleservices founder Rahul Sharma expects software services to be a major source of revenue for the company in the next five years. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/MintPremium
Yu Teleservices founder Rahul Sharma expects software services to be a major source of revenue for the company in the next five years. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

New Delhi: Yu Televentures, a unit of Indian phone maker Micromax Informatics Ltd, announced on Thursday its entry into software services with the launch of Around YU, a suite of services bundled into its new smartphone Yutopia.

Yutopia is the third smartphone in the Yu series and is being positioned as the firm’s flagship. The phone is integrated with a host of services in categories such as food, travel and entertainment.

The company has been diversifying its business to include high-margin software and services businesses and creating new revenue streams.

“We believe that the whole app world is going to go away. How many apps are you going to keep in your phone? With Around Yu, one does not need to install separate apps," said Rahul Sharma, founder, Yu Televentures. “We are poised to disrupt the services play with the current offering."

Sharma expects services to be a major source of revenue for the company in the next five years. “In the next five years we will make more money from services than hardware."

Yu, which has been working on its services platform for nearly a year now, in the first phase offers services in travel (local cabs, flights and hotels), food, shopping and will add more categories. These services are being rolled out in partnership with food ordering platform Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd, price comparison travel site Ixigo and price comparison shopping portal Scandid.

Micromax has been investing in start-ups in the last six months, as a part of strategy to build an integrated mobile ecosystem. In October, it made a strategic investment in Scandid run by WishPoint Inc., in digital fitness app HealthifyMe (Caeruz Ventures Pvt. Ltd) in May and Ixigo (Le Travenues Technology Pvt. Ltd), a mobile travel search firm in June.

Yutopia, a 4G phone with Cyanogen operating system 12.1 (a variation of Android), 5.2" display screen, 64 bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 21MP rear camera and 4GB RAM, will be available for Rs24,999 on Amazon.in, the company said.

Booking for Yutopia begins from 26 December.

Gurgaon-based Micromax was started in 2008, and sells its products in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Russia. The company is looking to expand its presence to markets such as Africa, West Asia and some other parts of Asia.

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Published: 17 Dec 2015, 05:00 PM IST
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