Telemedia Magazine issue 43 by annika micheli

billing & engagement for value added services & content

IN THIS ISSUE

ISSUE 43 | £4.99

World Telemedia Review

High performance

Matthew Winters from Veoo gives us the top take aways from the show

FEATURING

Paul Skeldon takes a look at how affiliate marketing and the tech behind it can help you beat the ad blockers and get more bang for your buck TELECOMS

Telcos and service providers urged to adapt to survive

PAYMENTS

Windows 10 extends use of carrier billing with Bango Bango has extended the reach of carrier billing for Windows 10 and Xbox products across devices in Finland, Hungary and Norway >> 11

Changing customer needs, shifting business models and disruptive competitors are all making it now imperative that telcos change the way they operate, the services they deliver and how they are regulated. So warned Christian Göetz, team leader, BDO Global Telecoms, in the opening keynote at this year’s hugely successful World Telemedia Show in Marbella in October. “What customers want isn’t necessarily what they get from telcos these days,” he told the

PAYMENTS

Adyen adds WeChat payments to its platform packed auditorium. “As a consequence they look to the likes of Viber and Skype for voice and voice conferencing, WhatsApp and SnapChat for messaging and so on: these are the nemesis of telcos as they do deliver what users want and eat into telco revenues.” >> 4 MESSAGING

Powwownow selects Zensend to offer SMS to enterprise customers Enterprise grade A2P messaging provider Zensend – part of Fonix – has been selected by conference call company Powwownow to provide SMS messaging.

Adyen opens up payments from 400m Chinese consumers as it adds social network WeChat Pay to its platform for its clients >> 11 PAYMENTS

mGage goes live with carrier billing in Netherlands mGage has gone live with charge to mobile in the Netherlands with a host of clients already using it >> 12 PAYMENTS

Using C2M for paid content Paul Skeldon reports from a Fonix roundtable about how music, publishing and others want to use carrier billing >> 14 PAYMENTS

The future of payments Paul Skeldon finds out how carrier billing can rise to the challenge of other m-payment tools and how carrier billing needs a better name >> 16 >> 4 More news, views and analysis at www.TelemediaOnline.co.uk

„We are proud being National Champion of European Business Awards. That’s great for kwak and the reputation of IPRN!“ Josef Bruckschlögl CEO

www.kwak-telecom.com

MESSAGING

SMS the preferred comms channel between millennials and brands, US study reveals Good old fashioned SMS messaging is the number one choice of communications channel between millennials and brands – and vice versa – a study of US youngsters has found. Research by OpenMarket, of 500 US millennials aged 18-34 on their use of SMS communications with businesses, finds that while 72% of millennials note they text 10 or more times a day and 31% cite they text more than 50 times a day, the leading factor in millennials’ preferences for texting is its ability for two-way communication with businesses, an aspect that provides convenience, speed, and ease of use. As a follow-up to OpenMarket’s first millennial survey earlier this year, this new research aimed to understand not only what communication method millennials prefer, but also why and how they are

using the channel with businesses. The results revealed that the mobile-friendly age group is highly accessible to businesses through SMS, with over 83% of millennials polled citing they open a text within 90 seconds of receiving it. In addition, 60% of millennials want to be able to text their preferred businesses, but currently they’re only receiving five or fewer messages a week from companies, with 20% noting they don’t receive any texts from business at all. The survey also reveals key customer engagement opportunities for companies to leverage with SMS. Nearly 50% of millennials polled said they would like

to receive fraud alerts from their financial service providers (only 19% currently are). When it comes to real-time communication, 80% of millennials would prefer to text a company’s 1-800 customer service line versus dialing direct and waiting on hold. “The goal of this survey was to dive deeper into the mobilemillennial mindset and learn not only why this age group prefers text messaging as their main communication tool for business interactions, but at what level they are looking to engage,” says Jay Emmet, general manager for OpenMarket. “These results show that the capabilities of SMS are very prevalent with millennials, who desire more opportunities to communicate through texting, including more personal

two-way interactions. Businesses need to further harness the ubiquity of SMS to realize better overall engagement and customer loyalty with the millennial generation.” The survey goes on to find that texting is the #1 preferred channel of notifications from businesses, with email coming in a close second, and voice a distant third. Social media channels aren’t a significant factor for business-tomillennial communications as of yet. In fact, postal mail has a higher preference than Twitter and Facebook. Millennials also prefer to receive texts from businesses for appointment reminders (62%), delivery notifications (59%) and payment reminders (48%). However, currently, less than half of millennials actually receive appointment and payment reminders from business—signaling an engagement opportunity for companies.

Driving value added services for voice and mobile

TELECOMS

Adapt to survive << 1

As Göetz pointed out, demand for voice and messaging is going up, but revenues for these services are going down for most telcos and they are not offering the kind of value added services to these basics that they should. Skype and Viber are so successful because they are international, free and simple to use, plus they offer the ability to run conference calls, do video calling and share documents and chat. This all knocks what telcos offer as a voice service into a cocked hat. Similarly, WhatsApp and SnapChat – and increasingly the likes of iMessage – offer much richer functionality and scope that 160-character-limted SMS with picture sharing, graphics and more (see page 18). “These are the kind of services that users want,” said Göetz. So what needs to happen? According to Göetz the convergence of telecoms, media and technology – to form the TMT Industry, nominally – is going to really shake things up and telcos have to embrace this and become part of it (see page 20). “You won’t see pure play telcos or media companies for much longer: the change is already happening. This is driving the consolidation of the telecoms space as telcos buy each other for reach. It

is also driving the purchase of tech companies by operators to get the tech in house.” Göetz continued: “Telcos also need to use their existing assets better. They need to get more out of their networks with 5G and VoLTE and the like. They also need to sweat the data better – it’s a new currency right now.” According to Göetz programmatic advertising uses this data to create a new business model for many TMTs (see page 8).

“Many telcos are also starting their own internal VCs [venture capital funds] and incumbators to nurture and develop new technology, services and more to meet this demand,” Göetz said. “But while this is good as telcos are usually slow and bureaucratic internally, which stymies fleet-footed tech development, it is still too slow. They need to be as agile as Silicon Valley internally to succeed.” The other area where telcos are under threat is in payments.

While Charge to Mobile has been successful in several European countries, the UK is struggling to get it going (see page 16). Here again telcos need to be careful. As fellow speaker at World Telemedia Marbella, Alastair Walton, Business Development Director, ACI Worldwide put it: “Consumers are driving this: they want simple, secure ways to pay. Apple Pay has changed the concept of how people pay and how they want to pay – this is why Apple Pay is so ingenious.”

as well as office based staff. That means that we have to provide our customers with messaging functionality that effectively engages staff. SMS is a big part of that since pretty much everyone owns a mobile and its open rates are above 90 per cent. “Integrating with the Zensend API means that we now have a robust SMS platform that hits a high watermark in terms of service delivery.”

Stephen George, Business Development Director from Zensend said: “Our messaging API makes it simple to add high quality messaging into existing communication platforms. The integration with Powwownow is a great example of how straightforward that process is. Using SMS as part of its suite of enterprise communication channels, will help its customers streamline everyday tasks and operate more effectively.”

MESSAGING

Powwownow selects Zensend << 1 Aimed at Powwownow’s enterprise customers, the simple integration with the Zensend API allows the company to operate SMS as part of its suite of communication products and services. Powwownow customers will use the SMS function to notify staff for all-hands calls, attend management meetings or to simply provide company updates via employees’ mobile

devices. Notifications for conference calls can contain simple click-to-call functionality embedded within the SMS for example. Moreover, Zensend only operates via direct connections to the mobile operators, ensuring the highest delivery rates possible. Steve McGeary, Commercial Director at Powwownow said: “Large enterprises are typically spread across a number of locations and are likely to include both homeworkers, freelancers

More news, views and analysis at www.TelemediaOnline.co.uk

FROM THE EDITOR THE BIG GUY Paul Skeldon paul@TelemediaOnline.co.uk ART DIRECTOR Victoria Wren victoria@wr3n.com CONTRIBUTORS & CONSULTANTS Rory Maguire, Toby Padgham, Chris Newell, Edward Boddington, John Strand, Peggy Ann Salz, Bruce Pharoah, Paul Dunone, Jarvis Todd, Sheldon Johns, Mark Birkett, Eric Feltin, Tim Green SALES & MARKETING info@TelemediaOnline.co.uk PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Annika Micheli annika@TelemediaOnline.co.uk PUBLISHER Jarvis Todd jarvis@TelemediaOnline.co.uk TO SUBSCRIBE www.TelemediaOnline.co.uk CIRCULATION ENQUIRIES Ellie Gold ellie@TelemediaOnline.co.uk WHAT WE’VE BEEN LISTENING TO Skeleton Tree, Nick Cave Jerk, Neurotic Outsiders WHAT WE’VE BEEN AMUSED BY The world going mad! Brexit and Trump? Really? WHO WE’VE BEEN FOLLOWING @Roryredbox WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING ABOUT The death of neoliberalism 2017 WILL BRING... Chaos TELEMEDIA MAGAZINE is published five times a year and circulated in print to qualified readers and downloaded in digital format to 12,000+ requested readers. BUSINESS ADDRESS: Ground Floor, Virginia Cottage, Nash Lane, Scaynes Hill, West Sussex, RH17 7NJ, UK. Web: www.TelemediaOnline.co.uk Overseas subscriptions and non qualified readers can obtain Telemedia Magazine with an annual subscription rate of £15 / 20. Refunds on cancelled subscriptions will be provided at the publisher’s discretion, unless specifically guaranteed within the term of subscription. © World Telemedia Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of Telemedia Magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording on any information storage or retrieval system without the written consent of the publisher. The contents of Telemedia Magazine are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems. Repro and Print by Trio Offset

Strange days This year’s World Telemedia in Marbella has been one of the most successful and memorable of recent years. More delegates, more exhibitors and more new faces brought the show to life and saw the industry take some important strides forward. Across the pages of this issue we take a closer look at the key issues that arose from the event – running successful affiliate marketing campaigns, beating the ad blockers, carrier billing, expanding the world of payments, messaging and new opportunities for telcos – and delve deeper into each to set you on the path to telemedia success in 2017. We kick off with an overview of the event’s highlights from our lead sponsor Veoo that crystalises what the industry got

from the event this year and why it was such a success. What this year’s show highlights is how the industry has to be prepared for a very changed world in 2017 and beyond. While there is much to say about regulatory issues such as PSD2 and how they can make carrier billing more effective as a payment tool, the wider international political landscape is going to have a massive – and as yet unknown – impact on the industry. Come 2018, the UK could well be on its way out of the EU. While it is understood that all EU laws will immediately transfer onto the UK’s statute books – so PSD2 will still apply – over the years post Brexit, these laws could well be picked apart. There is every chance that we get used to a world of car-

rier billing success for it all to be thrown into chaos come 2019/2020. It may sound far fetched, but these days I expect the unexpected – who’d have thought that come the last issue of Telemedia magazine for 2016 would be pondering a world where the UK has left the EU and Donald J Trump is about to take the reigns of the Whitehouse? Strange days indeed, but the telemedia industry usually thrives when there are challenges… I can’t wait to see what I write this time next year. www.telemediaonline.co.uk @telemediaTweets @MrSkeldon

Paul Skeldon. editor

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Driving value added services for voice and mobile

WORLD TELEMEDIA SHOW REPORT

World Telemedia Marbella: What’s hot and what’s not? Following a blisteringly good World Telemedia Show in Marbella in October, Matthew Winters, CEO, Veoo – one of the event’s Gold Sponsors – offers his view as to what was hot (and not) this year to kick of our post-show issue that expands on many of his themes There are plenty of positives to be said about Marbella, aside from it simply being the holiday destination of choice for the ‘stars’ of The Only Way is Essex, or a millionaire’s playground where you are just as likely to see a swarm of excitable tourists gathered around a super yacht moored at Puerto Banus as you are to see champagne spraying parties taking place at Ocean Club. No, there is much more to the place than that. In fact, if you happened to stray off the beaten track in mid to late October, you may have seen a collection of the brightest minds in the valueadded service (VAS) and premium content space debating and deliberating the future of the industry at World Telemedia 2016. Still thinking about the champagne parties? Well, stay with me and you may just learn something. World Telemedia is now in its 27th year and if that isn’t a glowing indictment of the event’s validity and relevance, then I don’t know what is. Furthermore, it bears testament to the fact that our industry is, in fact, thriving. I’m reliably informed that this year’s event

was the biggest in 10 years. With more than 340 delegates from more than 50 countries attending the event, famed for being the only one where the value chain for VAS and premium content is represented under one roof, World Telemedia is a key destination for innovative corporates and individual entrepreneurs that wish to develop new premium services using the latest technologies, distribution networks and mobile billing solutions. In fact, this year’s event even saw a migration into new areas, where social media, OTT messaging, wallets, ticketing, vouchers, affiliate marketing, gambling and alternative payments were also discussed. The event embodies three days of VIP networking, meetings, conferences, company presentations, international market updates, workshops, clinics and sponsor breakouts. It empowers delegates to advance new opportunities in the sector and has become an established trading and information exchange for domestic and international providers in a value chain where the currency is typically based on minutes, messages and traffic.

Right, now that I’ve got the World Telemedia sales pitch out of the way, let’s discuss why the Veoo team was there and what we learnt. As one of the key Gold Sponsors, our primary reason for attending the event was to wax lyrical about the expansion of ‘Mobile Money Opportunities’ and the event organisers were kind enough to afford me the opportunity to give a presentation on the impact of the mobile wallet. There is no doubt that there is an appetite in the sector to know more about the mobile wallet, how it works and whether the consumer is actually likely to save personalised mobile wallet offers and loyalty cards. In fact, in the not too distant future we will be sharing some research that we have conducted which looks into whether or not we are suffering from loyalty card fatigue. The intricacies of these findings are for another day, however, what they do show is that there is huge opportunity for mobile wallets here in the UK. The survey shows that the value proposition for mobile wallets is definitely under-

More news, views and analysis at www.TelemediaOnline.co.uk

stood and could accelerate as there is still a huge appetite for physical loyalty cards and reward programmes. This research was commissioned in the UK and US, where over 2000 adult loyalty card holders were surveyed and shows comparisons between the two markets. As I said, these findings are for another day, but for anybody that is interested in learning more about that, just drop us a line. At Veoo we have been pushing the advantages of the mobile wallet for quite some time now and actually launched our own mobile wallet solution in April this year. The solution harnesses Apple Wallet and Android Pay app functionality, already available to almost 100% of smartphone users, to revolutionise the way brands and retailers engage with their mobile customers. Essentially the mobile wallet solution provides marketers with a new way to create and deliver branded content like offers, coupons and loyalty cards to their customer base, across virtually every online and offline channel. Simultaneously it leverages native communication functionality within Apple Wallet and Android Pay, enabling marketers to deliver time or location sensitive

prompts directly to customers’ mobile devices, similar to push notifications but without the need for consumers to download an app. My presentation focussed mainly on ways in which organisations can expand mobile money through wallets and was an educational piece looking at the wallets key features and benefits and suffice to say, the presentation was well received.

Pack up your sandals – and enjoy these take aways World Telemedia 2016 was indeed an overwhelming success with a proliferation of new topics open for discussion. From ‘The Expanding World of Payments’ to ‘Carrier Billing to Engage and Convert’ to ways in which we can ‘Create Value from OTT Messaging’ all of which was highly illuminating. It is regrettable that the event is over now for another year and that it’s finally time to put the sandals away for 2016, however, here are my three of the key takeaways from the event: When brands, merchants, content owners start to use carrier billing – they see the benefits in terms of engagement and conversation rates. New technology services and products – e.g.

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wallets, vouchers etc will eventually become second nature to consumers and therefore become a mainstay for VAS developers. Advertising and affiliate marketing networks are becoming powerful routes to market but choosing the right partners is essential as compliance becomes more and more of an issue. There is a proliferation of OTT messaging services out there, but text still has a role to play: alongside them and in helping them expand Telcos and service providers need to adapt what they do to meet the challenges of a rapidly developing world of communications. Text and voice are far from dead, but they need to change and evolve.

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Driving value added services for voice and mobile

ADVERTISING

A new way to sell It’s only a matter of time before ad blockers become a thing of the past. But if that happens, digital ads need to get much better and much more immersive. Here Paul Skeldon finds out what’s in store to make marketing so much better that consumers won’t want to block them “Advertising today is like swallows in the air,” Clive Goodman, CEO of Goodman Associates told delegates at World Telemedia Marbella in October. “Back in the day adverts were like a big heavy things like a jumbo jet. Today they are like a flock of swallows: they weigh the same, but are more disperate and hard to track.” Consumers still want to watch and see ads – 63% on TV, 60% in newspapers and 46% on social – but the rise of ad blockers across mobile is causing havoc with digital advertising. It is estimated that ad blocking on mobile and desktop is costing $46.4billion a year. Moves are afoot to try and reverse this. The IAB in Sweden has got 19 of the country’s 20 main publishers to stop ad blocking and the EU is poised to introduce the EU Equality of

Access Directive in the coming year, which could see an end to ad blocking as we know it – and yes the UK will probably get to adopt it before the country leaves the EU – which could bring ads back with a flourish. While this is good news for those wanting to market what they do online, they are all going to have to up their game in terms of the kind of adverts that they produce if they are going to have an impact with consumers. Advertising is the lifeblood of many service providers, affiliate networks, publishers and other content providers. But it is also set to be one of the ways in which content is monetised: advertising covering the cost of the ‘free’ part of the ‘freemium’ model. So what is in store for advertising that could make it something that people actually want

to look at? “For starters we are going to see much more clever ways of delivering adverts with things as simple as silent ads with subtitles so that people looking at Facebook can see the ad without it interfering with what they are doing or what they are listening to,” Goodman says. This is already widespread on Facebook and some websites, tapping into how people now flip through their social media feed while listening to music or chatting on the phone. But there are much more clever things that can be done with ads. Gatorade in the US launched a game on Snapchat celebrating the career of tennis star Serena Williams. The game includes 22 levels of tennis, with each level representing one of the 22 Grand Slam singles titles Williams

More news, views and analysis at www.TelemediaOnline.co.uk

has won in her career. In each level, players attempt to win the “match point” of one of those matches. The final level will be unlocked later this winter. The idea is that it keeps people interested in the brand and gives them something to do – and uses the functionality of the phone – to keep the brand alive. Such novel approaches are going to become the standard way in which advertising is created and used in the postblocker era. “And it can be as crazy as you like,” says Goodman. “Check out donothing.com – it’s two minutes of nothing and has had 2million hits. Or Ron Swanson drinking Lagavulin whisky by a roaring log fire – that’s all it is – that last for 10 hours. That has been watched tens of thousands of times.”

Direct operator billing in motion

Beat ad blockers with payments Can mobile payments be the answer to the growing issue of ad blockers? Paul Skeldon reports

Paying for content

We take a look at how various content providers view charge to mobile and how they want to make use of it

Payments of the future

Reporting from World Telemedia Marbella, we take a look at the other payment tools vying for the same space as charge to mobile and what they mean for the business

PAYMENTS

Bango brings cross-device carrier billing to millions more Windows 10 users Bango has expanded the availability of carrier billing for Microsoft Windows Store. For the first time users in Finland, Norway and Hungary can make purchases from any Windows 10 device, including their Xbox One consoles, using their mobile phone account.

As a result of activating carrier billing for Microsoft, customers on Elisa, DNA and Telenor mobile networks in these countries can use the conve-

nience of one-click billing in the Windows Store to pay with their pre and post-paid phone bills. This method of pay>> 12 PAYMENTS

Adyen adds WeChat Pay to its platform globally – unlocking 400m Chinese spenders Adyen, the payments company powering global commerce for Uber, Facebook and Netflix amongst others, has added WeChat Pay to its portfolio of local payments methods. It’s the first major payment service provider to integrate WeChat Pay into its offering on a global scale – providing businesses with access to 400 million Chinese shoppers. China is at the forefront of the revolution in mobile payments that is powering global ecommerce growth. 15% of China’s total population is expected to make a cross-border purchase by the end of 2016 – amounting to $86 billion in transaction value. By 2020, we expect this to increase to as much as 75%. This will have a significant impact on the global ecommerce market. “We need to be where

our customers are – and as a British-made brand we have a huge following from customers in China. Mobile commerce is vital for this market, especially for the younger urban Chinese shopper. WeChat Pay is essential for targeting this exciting demographic,” said Natalie Zhu, China Marketing Manager, The Cambridge Satchel Company. “Our global partnership with Adyen allows us to roll out new

local payment methods as they become relevant to our customers, hassle-free”. “We are very excited to support WeChat Pay. When combined with our existing UnionPay and Alipay integrations, it gives businesses access to the world’s biggest ecommerce market with a single partner. This is the final key to unlocking full access to the Chinese shopper,” says Adyen CCO Roelant Prins. “This is especially

appealing to travel businesses and high-end retailers.” WeChat Pay is the latest addition to the constantly evolving suite of local payment methods offered by

Adyen. WeChat, originally a messaging app, has evolved into a digital ecosystem featuring payments integration that is already used by half of WeChat’s 800 million users.

Direct operator billing in motion

PAYMENTS

mGage launches Direct Carrier Billing in the Netherlands Mobile engagement company mGage has launched Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) in the Netherlands and is onboarding its first clients. By introducing a “oneclick” flow with the launch, mGage now offers a faster, quicker and simpler mobile payment experience, which let users buy with fewer clicks compared to the other flows available in the market. DCB is one of the fastest growing frictionless payment methods that enables companies to monetize online digital content and services such as videos, games, apps, enter competitions, and making donations to charity. It requires no card information from the users,

because purchases are charged directly to the user’s mobile monthly bill or prepaid credit through a direct connection to the carrier billing system. mGage’s “one-click” flow means fastest checkout for the users. By

simplifying the check-out process, mGage provides fewer screens, less friction, which creates commitment to users in early stages of the customer journey, leads to greater conversion rates than other payment methods

such as credit card payments. Rogier van den Heuvel, VP Benelyx & Nordics says: “We are very happy to partner with all Mobile Operators in the Netherlands and give our customers access to online

payments for millions of their subscribers. We have already a lot of experience with Carrier Billing in the UK market, for many years now, and our partnerships with leading digital merchants from all segments of the industry will help us ramp up fast in The Netherlands.” With more than 15 years experience and over 550 global carrier connections, mGage is the industry’s trusted mobile partner and specialist for multi-channel messaging and mobile payments. Whether it’s for marketing of customer care purposes mGage is part of Vivial, a leading provider of Ad Tech platforms and solutions which allow seamless connections between our customers and their customers.

PAYMENTS

Bango extends carrier billing to more Windows 10 and Xbox users << 11 ment is available to PC, tablet, smartphone and Xbox One users. In established mobile markets such as these Direct Carrier Billing generates increased payment conversion rates of up to 10x. “Bango is working with Microsoft and mobile operators globally to ensure maximum coverage of carrier billing for Windows 10 users” commented Anil Malhotra, Chief Marketing Officer at Bango. “We believe this will be particularly successful with Xbox One users, because there is a high correlation between games purchases in app

stores and the use of carrier billing”. Activating carrier billing for Windows Store presents a sizeable opportunity for operators.

Windows 10 is running on more than 350 million monthly active devices and Direct Carrier Billing provides a convenient payment method for

More news, views and analysis at www.telemedia-news.com/c2m

these users, achieving significantly higher conversion rates than credit cards. The move comes just after Fonix won the right

to run carrier billing across Xbox Live and Playstation Network in the UK with Microsoft Partner BuyGameCredit. com. The transformative effect of carrier billing has been recognized by the world’s app stores who are increasingly adding it as a payment method. Bango has emerged as the #1 global platform, deploying more app store carrier billing activations than anyone else. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, BlackBerry and Samsung collectively use the Bango Payment Platform to provide carrier billing for their customers.

Fighting the ad blockers with payments Can mobile payments save media and content providers from the ad blocking assault? Paul Skeldon reports With ad blocking gaining traction with consumers, media companies are getting increasingly desperate to find ways to generate revenue from content: and if ads can’t deliver it, then perhaps it is time to resurrect the paywall? Ad Blocking is an issue that’s been playing out for some months now, and was a hot topic at the World Telemedia conference in Marbella on the 18th – 20th October. To give the issue some context, according to the first quarterly review of ad blocking behaviour by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and YouGov stated that 22% of British adults now use ad blocking software, up from 18%. And elsewhere, a report by PageFair and Adobe estimates that adblocking cost advertisers $22 billion in 2015. It’s an indication of a growing consumer fatigue on how ads interrupt the user experience and mistrust on how their user data is shared. There is clearly an appetite for a user experience uninterrupted by ads. The games market, for example, has experienced a rise of in-app gaming payments, you can conclude that consumers understand this value-exchange and

will pay for good content that is free from marketing messages. More mainstream publishers have also experimented with the ‘paid for’ model in an attempt to redress the balance. The New York Times for example installed a paywall back in 2013. And asking people to take out a paid subscription to view content has paid off, with 727,000 subscribers reported in the first quarter – earning the publisher more than its online advertising. While digital ads brought in $32.9 million, the paywall raised a $37.7 million in 2013 – a ratio that has more-orless stayed the same up to today. “Whilst paywalls clearly have a place, there is a further consideration. Consumers also like to snack on content, browsing and consuming spontaneously to meet a need that is felt in the moment,” says Rob Weisz CEO at Fonix Adding in a layer of friction, such as payment, at the paywall needs to be achieved as a simple process – a no brainer. Filling in credit card details and entering personal information isn’t going to cut it: the

time-poor consumer wants the content instantly not after a lot of thumb work, especially on a small device. Direct carrier billing provides both an alternative revenue stream to advertising and effortlessly adds small transactions – micropayments – to the user’s phone bill. This chimes directly with business models that media companies are trying to exploit – to get consumers to pay small amounts of money for small bites of content. Television companies face similar challenges: how to make money from a more pay as you go kind of content consumption. Ad revenues on all but the main channels are being hit hard, yet online advertising can’t make up the shortfall. Charging for content, as in the newspaper

world, seems the obvious answer, but is there a thirst among consumers for a pay-as-you-go model for TV content? Sky’s launch of its streaming service, NowTV back in 2012 has successfully tapped into this trend demonstrating how there is a shift it consumer taste and demands. For TV companies, voice short-codes and operator billing have long been the default way to serve a more snacking model, like voting on X-Factor or participating in a TV quiz. That logic is easily transferred to paying for the main event – the TV content itself – renting a film, watching a specific sporting event or paying

for access for a defined period of time. And why stop there with ‘traditional’ media? Netflix and Spotify have already launched a ‘pay by mobile bill play’ to offer access to content. Both of these are examples of ad-free services – paywalls – and both work extremely well. If anything, the advent of ad-blockers has shown us that online and on mobile, large sections of consumers dislike the ads that interrupt their user experience and eat up their data allowance. Yet somehow content needs to be paid for. What’s important is taking consumers on a journey, by giving them a choice as to how they want to access that content.

Direct operator billing in motion

Charge of the right brigade The future of monetizing digital content While we spend a lot of time looking at payment mechanisms, what payment models should we be selling: subscriptions, pay to play or should we even charge at all? Paul Skeldon talks to some key vendors about what works best

Back in October I chaired a roundtable for Fonix in front of a telemedia industry audience looking at how to charge for online content. While we are all agreed that businesses need to make money from content, how you actually do that is really hard to fathom. There are a range of models that you can turn to – subscriptions, pay-to-play, freemium, or even free – but what works best depends on the content, the audience and the context. Perhaps more pressingly, the choice of payment model also shapes which payment tools that are used. So what do companies that are actually selling content and services do? “Value is in the eye of the buyer – if people are

willing to pay for content then people who supply it will charge,” says Kevin Judge, from Tastecard. “Personally I think that if content is creative, such as music, it should be paid for or if it brings about offline benefits then it should be charged for.” Gavin Carpenter from Phonovation agrees. “Quality content should be charged for when it is over and above the story,” he says. “So, newspapers telling a news story in their newspaper is paid for by the cost of the paper by the purchaser/reader, but someone reading that same story online for free should only see 50% of the story. The rest of the story should be behind a paywall. The number of visitors to

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the site pay for the ads that are shown there but the real content is the opinion and should be valued differently.” While this all makes sense in terms of imbuing content with a value, the problems arise when looking at what to do about it. As Ilicco Elia from DigitasLBI puts it: “It’s an easy question to answer, but a difficult question to put into practice. Content that has value should be charged for content that is generic or is found in many places needs to be free. Working out which is which is the hard part.” Music service Deezer uses the freemium model, getting customers into the funnel with free music and using the service and what else it can do – playlists and so on – to try and persuade users to upgrade. The free stuff is funded by ads, and as well as offering more if they pay they also lose the ads is a tried and tested model that works. “Long-term business benefits better from the subscription model, especially in music and VOD where there is a wide range of content available,” says Deezer’s Christian Harris. “Key to this approach is having a range of options depending on the segment eg families verses single user vs HD audio, all targeting different user

groups.” But is it always sophisticated enough? “At Tastecard we have seen much higher conversion to full paid subscriptions when people pay £1 for a 90 day trial compare with people who take out a free trial,” says Judge. “People tend to want trials when products are new and they haven’t been recommended by friend or relative already using them. Wat appeals and makes people purchase will be different based on individual and product. To find the optimum conversion for a product you’ll have to test using different purchase options.” But there is a fine balance between charging your most loyal customers and ensuring your content gets enough distribution, warns DigitasLBI’s Elia. “I think there is value for the publisher to have a €3 per month valuation on their product where it is automatically debited from the customer and delivered online,” says Carpenter. “That same content can be more expensive as a one off, with one edition at €5, annual subscription at €3 per month, say. The print, retail cost is circa €6. This delivers a long life revenue stream to the publisher with no delivery cost of content. Engagement

WHAT PAYMENT TOOLS?

The choice of model that you want to use to charge and upsell consumers to get them paying for content has a massive effect on what type of payment tools you use to collect the money – and that choice feeds back into how you market your service. And it is all driven by your target audience. “Different payment options appeal to different targets,” says Deezer’s Harris. “Our thinking is that credit card is preferred option for our base, but we will shortly be launching mobile to add to paypal which we have already. The objective is to reach those customers who don’t have a cc but are credit-worthy.” A lot depends on the device being used, says Tastecard’s Judge. “Historically we’ve always had problems with mobile and tablet conversion rates verses desktop. Consumer behaviour has changed towards more mobile browser behavior, but there is a gap between this and the desire to complete purchase through a mobile device. Mobile billing is starting to close that gap though, and for us testing has shown for the first time a higher conversion rate on mobile than desktop. I don’t imagine it’s

the choice of payment method as such that has the influence over conversion, rather it’s the process reducing barriers to sale.” The ultimate friction-

nesses are really wary of what it might mean. “Payments all boil down to trust – trust in the product, trust in the payment method – as familiarity grows

who puts it bluntly: “This could’ve been great had the carriers made it way simpler to integrate payment onto my bill. Could they still?” Yes they could and, as

96% of my customers choose to pay for their Xbox product using mobile payments in 2015. Customers want to use it but it needs to become mainstream within the operators –they have to stop looking at it as a form of premium rate less payment experience is of course one-click regardless of whether that processes a payment through the banks, PayPal, Amazon or on a phone bill. The key is to keep it simple. And that perhaps is where carrier billing should really comes into its own – but many mainstream busi-

people will trust more,” says Judges. “People got stung by mobile billing in the past when the ringtone companies made their fortune and are generally becoming more untrusting of subscriptions services such as Spotify and Netflix as a result.” This is echoed by Elia,

you all know, they are. But there is much they still need to do. Even Phonovation’s Carpenter – who’s company is using carrier billing to charge for Xbox and Playstation games – sees room for improvement. “Mobile operators should look at mobile payments as an alterna-

tive to credit card. That means 3-5% margins and fraud prevention,” he says. “96% of my customers chose to pay for their Xbox product using mobile payments in 2015 when the choice was that or credit card,” he continues. “Customers want to use it but it needs to become mainstream within the operators. I want to use my mobile to pay for coffee, music, Netflix, my news and taxis. As long as service providers and operators see carrier billing as a different version of premium rate payments, the industry will not move on.”

is maintained through smart email, SMS, app engagement and payment is made through mobile billing for the cost of a cup of coffee per month.”

Direct operator billing in motion

ALL CHANGE!

Where does charge to mobile fit in? Mobile payments online and instore are garnering increasing interest from consumers, but is there a role for charge to mobile or do the likes of Apple and Google have it sewn up? Hot on the heels of World Telemedia Marbella’s payments sessions, Paul Skeldon finds out

Mobile payments has arrived. According to Visa’s 2016 Digital Payments Study, 54% of European consumers regularly use a mobile device to make payments for a range of activities, compared to just 18% who were asked whether they used mobile payments to pay for everyday goods and

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services when the same study was conducted last year. The study, which surveyed more than 36,000 online consumers in 19 European countries, reveals how consumer adoption of digital payments has shifted dramatically in the last 12 months. One year

ago, 38% of the people surveyed said they had never used a mobile device to make payments and had no plans to do so. Today, that number has dropped to 12%. Visa’s arch rival MasterCard has found similar things. The Mastercard Impact of Innovation study explored the attitudes to technology among 23,000 consumers in 23 different countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa. It found the UK leading the way, with more than 40% of UK consumers now view the mobile phone as their preferred alternative to a payment card. But who are going to be the winners and who the losers? At World Telemedia in Marbella in October, delegates were treated to some great insights into not just the traditional telemedia stomping ground of direct carrier billing, but a view on how payments on mobile – both online and instore – are becoming the norm. Tim Green, editor of Mobilemoneyrevolution.com took us on an eloquent and amusing tour of the many different flavours of mobile payments out there and begged the question as to whether it is already

Biometrics: the real benefit of mobile payments?

all sewn up by Apple, Google and Samsung. “Mobile payments is clearly useful and in many cases can make payments more simple for consumers, but you have to wonder if there really is a role for operators in it,” he says. “To get in on the mobile payments game in the mainstream, operators – and banks – need to overcome two possibly insurmountable hurdles.” Firstly, he says, the business model for creating a mobile payment wallet or service isn’t that great. Operators would need to align all the facets of the payment chain process flow to make it work and, assuming that the MNOs also want to make money from this, they will have to take a cut. All the other players in the payment process already take a cut: do merchants or consumers want to pay even more so that operators can come in and add to the complexity of the process? Secondly, Green says, operators and banks have an image problem: they are not associated with payments at all. “Apple, Samsung and Google are the first layer that users of smartphones come across when they do anything,” he says. “By default, these brands have the customer’s attention and buy in. They also have the advantage that they can embedded the wallet or payment tools

Both merchants and consumers are worried about fraud. The latest UK retail fraud survey by Retail Risk – London finds that 83% of retailers highlighted that credit cards had the highest proportion of fraud of all payment types this year. The biggest area of online loss remains, overwhelmingly, from the fraudulent use of credit cards (51%). Despite a small decrease from last year’s figure of 55%, this is a multi-billion pound problem for consumers as well as retailers, because ultimately the cost of fraud is recouped through increased prices in the stores. And consumers are increasingly aware too. According to Visa, nearly three-quarters of consumers (73%) see two-factor authentication, where a biometric is used in conjunction with a payment device, as a secure way to confirm an account holder. Two-factor authentication includes something you have, such as a card or a mobile device; something you are, such as a biometric; or something you know such as a PIN or password. And biometrics hold the key. According to research from Visa, consumers across Europe are interested in using biometrics, such as fingerprints on mobile, when making a payment – especially when integrated with other security measures. When looking at the range of different payment situations at home or on the high street, over two-thirds (68%) want to use biometrics as a method of payment authentication. Online retailers have the most opportunity for gain as nearly a third (31%) of people have abandoned a browser-based purchase because of the payment security process. Jonathan Vaux, Executive Director of Innovation Partnerships explains: “Biometric identification and verification has created a great deal of excitement in the payments space because it offers an opportunity to streamline and improve the customer experience. Our research shows that biometrics is increasingly recognised as a trusted form of authentication as people become more familiar with using these capabilities on their devices. “However, one of the challenges for biometrics are scenarios in which it is the only form of authentication. It could result in a false positive or false negative because, unlike a PIN that is entered either correctly or incorrectly, biometrics are not a binary measurement but are based on the probability of a match. “Biometrics work best when linked to other factors, such as the device, geolocation technologies or with an additional authentication method. That’s why we believe that it’s important to take a holistic approach that considers a wide range of enabling technologies that contribute to a better end-to-end experience, from provisioning a card to making a purchase to checking your balance.” within the device.” This last point is crucial. Mobile as a payment tool – especially in trying to replace cards in store and online – it has to make the actual act of paying easier and better. Tokenisation and biometric security in the device both service the latter of these, but having the wallet built into device and easy to use is the only way to service the first caveat. “Any bank or operator payment app will need to be downloaded and set up – and the user will have to remember to use it, they must also trust it and get something from using it,” Green adds. This is a tall order

and, put like that, does imply that Apple Pay will conquer all before it. But not necessarily so. Also speaking at World Telemedia was Nick Lane, chief analyst at MobileSqured. His company has done deep research into direct carrier billing across Europe and has concluded that it does have a role to play and could well have massive potential. According to Lane there are four areas where carrier billing can clean up: vending machines, takeaways, toll roads and parking. These could drive what is today a £125million business in the UK to become a multi-billion dollar business globally.

“But the key thing is that it needs a name,” says Lane. “Direct Carrier or Operator Billing doesn’t cut it: it doesn’t mean anything to the man in the street and doesn’t really sell itself.” According to Lane for carrier billing to take off it needs to tap into that idea of a brand that ‘does what it says on the tin’. “It’s like PayPal – there is no other word for PayPal and it sort of encapsulates what it does,” he says. However, it took PayPal 10 years to get to where it is today. It had eBay to help push it and it has grown in use as mobile and online commerce has grown up, so it could well be much

quicker to get carrier billing into the mainstream, but nothing will happen unless it is pushed. “Operators around the world really need to come together properly and make this work – agreed standards and process flows and payout rates: they have to make it work,” says Lane. “And they have to get the name right and start pushing the name and what it can do.” And what does Lane think it should be called? “Charge to mobile,” he says emphatically. “It does what it says on the tin, everyone can understand it and it makes sense. It is this that now needs to be pushed.”

Direct operator billing in motion

MESSAGING

The new age of messaging

When we were kids we organsied our lives using the phone, these days it is all done through messaging: messaging is the new voice. And where there are many OTT services, SMS still has a role to play. Oisin Lunny took part in the MoNage Messaging in the Net Age conference in Boston and has some sage words to share Jeff Pulver knows a thing or two about modern communications. As the founder of Vonage Jeff is widely acknowledged as “the man who saved the voice telephony industry”. Twenty years after his innovations global mobile carriers are using the same groundbreaking voice over IP (VoIP) technology,and apps like Skype and Apple Facetime are second nature to most of us. Jeff was a shy teen who found a world of friends by using ham radio. His eureka moment came when he realized how technol-

ogy could connect him with people all over the world. His primary motivation, to this day, is to connect good people and bring them together. After his initial success with Vonage, Jeff perused his love of “midwifing serendipity” by organizing conferences, wherever his passions and interests took him, be that VoIP, online video, podcasting or Twitter (140 conf). Jeff also helped startups with mentoring and his own cash. This fact was acknowledged in Boston last month at Jeff’s latest conference MoNage

“The Age Of Messaging On The Net”. Jeff’s former protégé and early investee, Jack Dorsey the founder of Twitter, spoke about their early days. Jack and his team of seven people built Twitter in two weeks, using SMS and Ruby On Rails. “To begin with we weren’t solving anyone’s problem other than our own, Twitter solved our need for a messaging system, and so we kept building and inviting tech friends.” This time we had gathered to talk about the rise of messaging

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as a primary global communication channel, particularly for the highly valued millennial generation. In contrast to many of the speakers, myself included, who used a telephone to organize their lives as teenagers, today’s kids prefer to use messaging for most of their interactions, for example SMS or Over-The-Top (OTT) apps like WhatsApp. As MoNage speaker Jon Arnold put it “Messaging is the new voice”. Jeff elaborated, “Where voice was the dominant mode of real time communications for a century.

Messaging is now, once again, becoming the dominant mode of communication.” But why text? And why now? It is not new technology but our global fixation with it is. SMS text messaging has a global install base of between four and six billion, depending on which analyst one listens to. Either way it works instantly and seamlessly on every mobile device on the planet, with no installs or user training needed. While we reached saturation point for mobile devices some time ago, we have only recently

peaked in terms of app adoption. According to Nomura research the “app boom” is over, with US downloads declining 20% year on year. Indeed, globally the story of apps is largely the story of messaging; according to KCPB’s Mary Meeker six of the top ten apps globally are messaging apps. Business Insider echoed this by identifying that messaging app usage overtook social media usage on mobile devices in 2015. But where does that leave the sophisticated mobile-first consumer? Ad-blind and appfatigued. Advertisers have been using spray-and-prey broadcasting methods, while many brands have been offering a “destination” app rather then dovetailing with consumers’ high customer experience (CX) expectations. But behaviors are changing; in the US you can now register to vote with a text message. Companies and governments alike are engaging with consumers where they are, in messaging apps or by using the ubiquitous text-messaging channel. Legendary tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi interviewed Yair Goldfinger, founder of the first Internet messaging application ICQ. While they agreed that not much has changed in terms of the core functionality from ICQ, lots has changed in terms of global adoption. Yair predicted that apps will disappear completely, and the main communication channel will be messaging, citing SMS as “the most effective way to communicate with customers.” Rehab Studios Tim Rogers put this broad trend in blunt perspective “The average US consumer downloads zero apps per month, so good luck if you are building an app!” OTT apps like WeChat, WhatsApp and Line prefer the walled garden approach, working on the presumption that walled gardens are fun, safe

places where you get stuff like end-to-end encryption and cool animated stickers. However, one OTT app identity is separate to your other OTT app identities, and there is a lack of a central directory such as the “phonebooks” of recent decades. Matthew Hodgson CEO of innovative open standards startup Matrix. org, explained “It’s all very well having end to end encryption, but do you actually know who you are talking to?” Dan York from The Internet Society suggested that Facebook might hold become the worlds directory for messaging apps, as a third of the worlds population are using the platform. However when Dan asked the MoNage audience “Does anyone pay for Facebook? What does it cost you?” someone quickly answered “Your life!” Alan Duric, CTO of secure OTT messaging app Wire put it another way “Free is the most expensive business model.” Alan illustrated this by talking about a close family member and the degree to which their every movement and digital interaction was being tracked via their smartphone. Matthew Hodgson later argued that messaging apps should be open, and not walled gardens; “The Internet is the most interesting thing that has happened to humanity, and it’s all about interoperability!” Amandine LePepe, CTO of RiotChat, an app built on top of Matrix, called for a User Interface (UI) revolution; “For 20 years the UI of messaging tools have barely changed despite the amazing brokenness of an endless list of rooms. How can we apply tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help people getting back online easily, while not getting into a full profiling nightmare á-la-Facebook? Now

is the time to shape the future.” AI and chatbots were another hot topic vexing the industry. Speaker Bob Frankston demonstrated that chatbots are nothing new, the first chatbot was launched in 1966, but they are finding a new lease of life as we transition to Yair Goldfinger’s post-app economy. SHIFT Communications’ VP Christopher Penn illustrated how AI and machine learning are the only ways brands will ever scale to handle five billion online users. But we are at the beginning of this evolution according to Erick Schonfeld “People expect Iron Man’s Jarvis when talking to a bot, but we are still at the Furby stage.” So, we have indeed moved into this the age of messaging, and it feels like we are at the beginning of its next stage of evolution. While person-toperson interactions seem to be shifting to a wide range of innovative OTT apps, effectively forming ad-hoc social networks with ecommerce benefits, SMS looks to be an increasingly useful tool for enterprises to connect with the modern consumer. Nneka Chiazor, the VP of Public Policy & Government Affairs at Verizon, put the resurgence of SMS into perspective in one of the closing MoNage panels “If you think SMS is dead you are dead wrong. It will be a $50 billion dollar market by 2050.” Here’s to the next stage of our Age Of Messaging! Oisin Lunny is a writer and musician specializing in mobile tech see www.oisinlunny.com

Driving value added services for voice and mobile

TELECOMS

Rising to the challenge Telcos need to adapt to survive in the new age of messaging and OTT, but how can they do that and how can they tap into developing markets? Marco Veremis outlines what the threats are to telcos and telemedia companies and what they can do to turn them into positives Mobile network operators (MNOs) have seen the demand for voice and messaging services diminished by internetbased communication platforms such as WhatsApp and Viber. The GSMA reports that traditional voice revenues have declined by 56% over the past five years and, overall, ARPU is

down 12%. At the same time, other overthe-top OTT online services such as Netflix and Spotify are selling entertainment services directly to millions of increasingly content-hungry consumers. Mobile operators looking to build up their position and

meet consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; appetite for digital services as new opportunities present themselves, should be especially focused on emerging markets. Close to one billion new mobile connections are forecasted over the next five years in these regions and, according to m-commerce technology firm Upstream,

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MNOs have the opportunity to capture a share from a potential $70-billion digital opportunity in emerging markets. Operators have unique assets, which put them in a prime position to engage with customers and boost their revenues. Only if these assets are utilised effectively, however,

will they be able to make the most of this opportunity. The GSMA has found that consumers are increasingly ready to trust mobile operators with their finances. In December 2015 there were almost as many active mobile money accounts as active PayPal users for the first time. In emerging markets, mobile network operators deliver a crucial service, often providing consumers their only window to the world. Operators, as day-to-day consumer brands, are highly recognised and trusted.â&#x20AC;? Research commissioned by Upstream found that consumers in emerging markets want more access to health (26%) and financial services (23%) on their mobile devices, as well as utilities and tools (21%), such as battery or memory boosters and antivirus software. Brand credibility is particularly essential when offering services such as microinsurance or mobile antivirus software. The GSMA reports that 70% of respondents in Ghana would rather purchase insurance from an MNO than from an insurer. Such services are in high demand in emerging markets. Consumers are ready to trust their operators for services such as micro-insurance or mobile utilities, a position that places them ahead of the curve when it comes to broadening their portfolio of services and ultimately increasing their ARPU. Given the weakening performance of traditional voice services, revenues from digital services are critical for forward-thinking mobile operators.

CONSUMER REACH

Mobile operators enjoy unparalleled reach in emerging markets. Mobile device penetration in developing markets stands at 59 per cent, accord

ing to the GSMA.Â Moreover, operators typically own more than 20 marketing channels, such as SMS, USSD, SAT push, affording them a strong position when it comes to engaging customers. Owning the channels, however, does not mean they are necessarily utilised to their full potential. Every channel requires bespoke expert optimisation for

PAYMENT CAPABILITIES

Some 87% of consumers in emerging markets state they are willing to pay for high-value digital services via mobile devices, according to an m-commerce report commissioned by Upstream. With 80% of people in emerging markets being unbanked, mobile operators are able to provide the ubiquitous solution for consumers paying

The right use of operator customer data can really help unlock improvements in payments, customer acquisition and better targetting of digital services and offers each market and offering. Our experience shows that partnering with mobile marketing experts can improve the effectiveness of MNO channels in customer acquisition by more than 20%. Operators also play a critical role with respect to providing internet access in developing markets. A recent Ericsson report found that in Nigeria mobile broadband infrastructure is used 70% of the time when consumers access the internet, across any device. The prevalence of mobile broadband in emerging markets opens up opportunities to use MNO infrastructure such as header enrichment for marketing purposes. This technology enables user authentication over an operator-provisioned mobile broadband connection. Working with digital marketing experts can help operators leverage their infrastructure to optimise customer acquisition flows. Upstream experience shows that the steps consumers need to take to subscribe to a service can be reduced from nine to two, thereby reducing sign-up time by up to 80%. Even better, customer acquisition costs can be reduced by up to 90% when using an optimal digital flow with header enrichment.

for digital services. When it comes to payment cards, the combined reach of Visa, MasterCard and Amex is currently at 18% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa. While M-Pesa was a runaway success in Kenya, mobile money payment options only reach 11% of mobile phone users in emerging markets. That said, the most trusted and preferred payment method is direct operator billing, with 45% of consumers in these markets expressing a preference for this payment method. It is available to anyone who has a mobile phone and it utilises a consumerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s airtime balance as a reliable form of digital currency. The majority of mobile consumers in emerging markets are on prepaid plans, with an average airtime balance of often less than $2. Hence, offering the right kind of billing plan to suit their top-up frequency habits and corresponding income is critical. The most appropriate way to monetise consumption of digital services is the subscriptions-based, micro-payment business model. A subscription model works well, but to really make it effective, the payments have to be small and occur more often, more commonly known

as micro-payments. Working with a technology partner who really understands the needs of consumers in emerging markets, and who can provide the right platform and consumer data, typically can increase the percentage of successful charge rates by up to 50%.

CUSTOMER DATA

On top of all this, mobile network operators have access to a wealth of data from their customers, from spending patterns and habits to their browsing preferences and demographics. The right use of operator customer data can really help unlock improvements in payments, customer acquisition, and better targetting of digital services and offers. In conclusion, mobile network operators are exceptionally well placed to secure a significant share of the $70-billion digital opportunity in emerging markets. Trust in their brand is strong, they have unparalleled consumer reach and they hold the key to payment offerings for unbanked consumers. However, these unique assets are not always leveraged to their full potential. It helps a great deal to partner with a company that has deep mobilecommerce expertise, and can assist in maximising revenues and place operators at the top of the digital pyramid in developing markets. Marco Veremis, chief executive and co-founder of Upstream, a leading mobile commerce platform For more information see www.upstreamsystems.com

Driving value added services for voice and mobile

TELECOMS

Get your self connected

Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) is becoming the new competitive battleground for telecoms service providers and there is much to be won – not least a giant opportunity to take telemedia conferencing tech into the enterprise world. Frank Paterno, senior director, global carriers, PGi explains the opportunity The telemedia industry pioneered the call centre and used much of the tech needed to make conferencing a reality from its very early days. Today that conferencing trend is on the up, with it becoming an essential tool across most businesses. And once again there is an opportunity for telecoms

service providers to make some money, this time tapping into the corporate world. There’s no doubt that the Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) is a hot market. Frost & Sullivan research shows that the revenue share of web and video collaboration services will grow

from 43% of the total conferencing services market in 2015 to almost 65% by 2022. This growth is also evidenced by other revenue figures. For example, hosted web conferencing services are expected to grow at a CAGR of 10% from 2015 to 2022—growth that is all the more remarkable considering that the technology is already used by three quarters of all organisations in the US. Part of the growth is due to competition and innovation in the industry, which has facilitated large-scale deployments

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across organisations, enabling every employee to access and use collaboration technology. In the past, these services were often reserved for select groups, thanks to their high cost and named-user licensing; today UC&C tools are packaged in ways that make them accessible to all employees who need them. Indeed, another recent Frost & Sullivan survey of more than 400 IT decision makers in the US shows just how popular UC&C technologies are among companies of all types and

sizes. Seventy-three per cent have already deployed web conferencing, 65% use standalone audio conferencing, 61% deploy desktop video conferencing, and 37% give softwarebased UC clients to some of their end users. There is still ample room for expansion, however, as successful telecom Service Providers continue to find new ways to leverage their strengths and accelerate their business. For companies that have not yet deployed UC&C technology, doing so is a top priority in the

coming years in order to remain competitive in a transforming market. As for the companies looking to grow UC&C usage within their organisations, the focus is on extending these technologies to more users, at more locations and in more job roles, in order to improve productivity, drive collaboration and innovation, and maximise their return on investment (ROI). SPs that can speak to these buyers by offering a distinct set of services at a compelling price point—as well as excellent support, upgrades, and training— will be able to take advantage of these growth opportunities for years to come. The UC&C space is a lucrative and logical point of focus for SPs, since collaboration solutions can be co-branded or white-labeled and adapted to meet language demands and other regional requirements. UC&C provides a foolproof opportunity to leverage the brand and existing customer base, all while offering customer value in the form of unlimited chat, presence, peer-to-peer calling, multi-party video, file sharing, screen sharing, and online meeting solutions. In short, UC&C is easy to sell, easy to install, and easy to use. The trick, of course, is communicating the UC&C value proposition to new prospects and existing customers. For users, UC&C means enhanced communication and collaboration and, by extension, a more successful organisation. Unfortunately, Frost & Sullivan research reveals that while SPs generally excel when it comes to technology, they could stand to see significant improvement in one critical area: sales and marketing. This is especially true for smaller SPs, which often struggle with adequately marketing their UC&C services—especially compared with technology

Service providers can tout their high-quality and cost effective network services across borders – but more than that they can now start to offer customised services to each client giants that have significant marketing budgets. This breeds confusion and disinterest among buyers, which slows the overall sales timeline and negatively impacts the bottom line. Service Providers can tout their high quality and costeffective network services and business communications support, their varied offerings for specific industries, and their extensive geographic reach across regions, countries, and continents. But one of the biggest problems among SPs is the struggle to streamline and maximise the sales process. By teaming up with an experienced vendor that has the ability to offer best practices and well-designed services across the board — from market segmentation analysis, pricing and packaging, and lead generation to sales enablement and support for digital channels — SPs can focus on what they do best: delivering a robust suite of services to meet each customer’s needs, 24/7. A good vendor can also help SPs with advertising and content generation, to populate marketing pages and social media and drive more qualified leads while enabling their sellers. By leveraging a vendor’s professional services for sales and marketing support, SPs also benefit from the vendor’s development and design experience. Providers can use prepackaged services right out of the box for configuration, price, content delivery, and messaging, or they can be modified to incorporate specific branding and packaging unique to the SP. Either way, sales conversion rates will increase, upsell opportunities will grow, and sales

cycles will shrink. In the contemporary UC&C space, the best vendors are taking it one step further by offering customised services to help SPs design, develop, and launch marketing and sales plans specific to their needs—whether focused on certain industries, geographies, customer segments, software applications, or other criteria. This makes it even easier for SPs to benefit from their chosen partner’s experience in the market, take advantage of proven best practices and content, reach out to new prospects via various channels (including those they may have less experience with, such as social media), speed sales cycles, and improve ROI. In this competitive environment, where Carriers are looking to effectively tackle the UC&C market, re-focusing the sales and marketing efforts will remain critical to success. The most progressive Telecom Service Providers will continue to find new ways to leverage their strengths and accelerate their business. Leveraging and deploying UC&C technologies should be a priority in the coming years, in order to help Carriers to remain competitive in a transforming market. Frank is the Senior Director of Global Carriers at PGi, the world’s largest dedicated provider of collaboration software and services.

Making interactive communications pay

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Number cruncher This issue we take a look at how Telefonica O2 and analyst MobileSquared each view charge to mobile. On the left we can see how Telefonica’s analysis of the change to mobile market shows that a lot of people want to try mobile payments, but they abandon them as they are a poor experience. Telefonica also suggests that mpayments is a man thing (though not completely) and below that we can see how it is more likely to be the 26-55 year old segment – a pretty broad spread. On the Right we have MobileSquared’s view of how consumers that already use their mobile to pay are 10 times more likely to use charge to mobile, while below the analyst outlines the potential areas – and their value – for C2M. MobileSquared also shows where people are most likely to look to use charge to mobile to do the spending.

More news, views and analysis at www.TelemediaOnline.co.uk

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