Telemedia Magazine issue 46 by annika micheli

billing & engagement for value added services & content

IN THIS ISSUE

ISSUE 46 | £4.99

Loving the crocodile

Affiliate marketing is a key marketing channel for telemedia companies – e take a look at how to work with affiliates and on page 10 hear what affiliates are looking for

GDPR: beware data

With General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) coming into force, we take a look at what that means for your customer data

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PAYMENTS

WORLD TELEMEDIA MARBELLA

World Telemedia Marbella: VAS, affiliates and payments in the spotlight The hot topics in the telemedia world are all set to be debated in a series of high level spotlight session across the three days of the show. Each subject will get a 30 minute spotlight slot on the show floor and will involve presentations, fire-side chats and panel debates. And audience participation is a must. So what is in store? • Virtual Content Provider: next step in evolution? – Here Vladimir Yuzak, Business Development Officer, RGK, will take a look at the concept of Virtual Content Providers, the tools you need to make them work, white label models for VCP and all the benefits it will generate. All, of course, demonstrated through case studies. • mVAS User Acquisition: how to get high quality users – Affiliate Networks are today an effective marketing channel for mVAS providers worldwide as they represent a low risk ecosystem for them to grow their mobile

business aiming at increasing their revenues through a pay-for-performance acquisition. However, there are several market challenges that mVAS Advertisers are facing nowadays. In this session, João Oliveira from MOBIDEA, will take a look at how to find hot markets, how to monitor and control traffic sources; delivering the best service and learn how to have an extra marketing budget by monetising traffic you receive and that you are not able to convert on your products. • Affiliates: how to maximize user acquisition with performance networks – Here Kimia will talk us through implement technology to detect traffic sources, establish whitelist/blacklists and improve churn rates and ARPU; how to entrust experienced Media Buyers with vertical expertise and advanced >> 3 WORLD TELEMEDIA MARBELLA

World Telemedia Marbella: Country Updates give world tour of telemedia business hotspots World Telemedia Marbella continues the event’s theme of offering unrivalled insight into international telemedia markets with its Empello-sponsored Country Updates. This year the range of countries covered has been extended to cover the up-and-coming markets and offers a chance for delegates to understand some of tomorrow’s key markets.

As well as looking at Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Australia, this year’s Country Update programme is also looking at the likes of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt. Each of these Middle Eastern markets are full of, well, Eastern promise – but they are also is Muslim countries, so regulation is a whole different ball game. Empello’s experts and those from TPay will >> 3

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M-payments forecast Ahead of World Telemedia Marbella, we take a look at what is in store across the mobile payments landscape >> 13 PAYMENTS

Charge to mobile forecast Focussing in on charge to mobile, we assess where the UK charge to mobile is at, what hurdles it still faces – and how tickets and charity became poster-boys for the payment tool >> 15 PAYMENTS

M-payments round-up We take a look around the world at some of the other mobile payments services that are being pushed in different markets >> 16 PAYMENTS

Why wallets? Mobile wallets offer so much more than just a place to stick your virtual cards. Find out how to make wallets part of the payment and marketing process >> 18

9-11 October 2017 Show Preview – Pages 4-7

WORLD TELEMEDIA MARBELLA

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In the Spotlight

<< 1 technology to scale rapidly and sustainably; how to ensure your creatives are providing the highest conversions possible; and how to monetize every click worldwide regardless of where your offering is available • Carrier billing – Carrier billing provides secure payments with an enhanced user experience, so what trends can be identified to illustrate successful market penetration across the globe? Stefan Kostic from Centilli will be looking at seamless payment flows; secure one-click enablement; secure in-app payments; and subscription management. • The Value Of Monitoring Services – compliance has never been more important and MCP is on hand to talk through all aspects of ad monitoring, mobile compliance, fraud tracking and misleading flows. The

WORLD TELEMEDIA MARBELLA

company will also be talking in detail about FKAD – Federated Kids App Database – a database of ‘cleaned’ kids apps, allowing the user to up and download the latest kids apps to block PRS advertising. Federated, because many users can gain the benefit from each other’s aggregated kids apps, as well as those loaded by MCP. • Mobile Apps & VAS - opportunities ahead – Rohin Ravindran, Director, 12 Telecom will be looking at “Understanding OTT communication services” and moving beyond customer engagement and competing with Whatsapp and Skype. He will help you transform your app into a mobile wallet (open and closed loop), as well as offering an overview of value added services that maybe offered to end users for customer loyalty through analysis.

Country Updates

<< 1 be able to guide you through how to tread lightly and exploit these burgeoning new markets. Alongside this, there will also be deep dives into other developing markets in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia and, the mother of them all, Russia. Again, these Eastern European markets are all ripe for services, but again doing business in them is not like doing business in the West. Here Empello and collegues from Oxygen8 and DIMOCO will be able to help you steer a steady path into these new pastures. The format of the Country Updates will follow the tried and tested formula that will take each market and look in detail at the market overview; top services; major content pro-

FOR DETAILS OF THE TIMES CHECK OUT THE SHOW PREVIEW ON PAGES 4, 5, AND 6 AND AT WWW.WTEVENT.CO.UK/ EVENT-OVERVIEW/ EMPELLO-COUNTRYUPDATES/ viders; billing and subscription options; carrier and regulator rules; compliance; marketing and ad flow. Each will feature examples and case studies to light the way and, perhaps, most important of all, will rely on questions – and comments and real-life experiences – from you, the audience. These sessions proved to be extremely popular at last year’s event and Empello have promised an even stronger line-up for World Telemedia 2017, so be sure to drop by the Empello Country Update Theatre.

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PRS and carrier billing services has become essential. Taking call handle off the hands of the operators and aggregators – and to some extent the regulator – is one of the key tactics for making PRS stronger in the UK. And to do that needs a range of technologies and services. Companies such as CoCase have been set up to handle this sort of traffic, but customer services goes deeper than that and is an issue that affects the whole industry. How to actually handle customer calls is a vital part of the process and technology has a role to play. Chatbots are already starting to garner attention amongst the public and consumer facing businesses – but are they the answer? As we shall hear at the show, chatbots have a lot to offer, but are they the way forward for handling some of the more subtle issues with consumers? Angry people don’t want to talk to machines, but there is a role for them to play. Learn more at the show from the likes of Text121Chat.

Content

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CARRIER BILLING & ENGAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES THAT DRIVE VALUE ADDED SERVICES & MONETISE CONTENT

As ever, World Telemedia will be awash with service provider, aggregators and operators looking to push the next big thing. Within the content arena there is a growing push towards helping publishers find new channels to eyeballs, especially for video content as a spin-off to mainstream content. These days no news organisation can rely on words alone and viral video is becoming the medium of choice for many. Naturally the telemedia sector has the skills to manage and deliver this – and to monetise it where necessary. But how do you monetise this viral content? This is one of the most vexatious issues around in media currently: creating video content is expensive and time consuming, yet the public’s thirst is for it to be free and shareable. So how do you monetise that sharing process and where it leads? I don’t pretend to have the answers, but at this year’s world telemedia companies such as 12 Telecom, BaseBone and MEF will delve

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into how to make this happen, with the great and the good of the industry discussing how to make this happen.

Marketing and promotions

Marketing and promoting services – and marketing and promoting things around viral content for others – is, as we have seen above, becoming one of the key business drivers in the European telemedia sector. While many get to grips with affiliate marketing, we will be hearing from leading affiliate agencies about the process of getting it working and how to make sure that in that web of affiliates, things aren’t going wrong. Much as we have seen in the area of fraud and hijacking, ad traffic can also be hijacked and ads can be hijacked – so what can you do about it? At the show you will learn from the experts at Kimia, Mobidea, T2, Atlas and International Premiums, among others, as to what is on offer and how to implement it. While affiliate marketing offers much – and is one of the key themes again at this year’s event – looking beyond that to other forms of promotion and marketing is going to be key. And one of the key topics is going to be how to make sure you stay on the right side of the regulators with all these processes across borders. As ever, Empello will be on hand to talk you through how markets work in all regions where you can operate and how to get yourselves up and running – not just with marketing but with all services – and will be as popular as ever.

DRIVING VALUE ADDED SERVICES WITH VOICE AND MOBILE BILLING

WORLD TELEMEDIA MARBELLA: LIKE FLOWERS IN THE SUN World Telemedia Marbella 2017 shows just how successful telemedia as an international business actually is. It may be an ‘old’ business – let’s face it it was around before the internet, and was one of the first to leverage the web and then mobile before everyone became obsessed with e- and m-commerce – but it is one that not only continues to delight consumers, but one which moves from strength to strength. As you can see in this issue of Telemedia magazine – and its incorporated sister title Charge to Mobile Review – there is still so much to talk about. While the highlights of the show are, to my mind, the staggering array of countries covered in the Country Updates (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kosovo to name but a few), what really sticks out is

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or SMS 2.0 are all starting to offer new and interesting ways to create, disseminate and monetise services for consumers. And this is the beauty of this show – which we have also tried to encapsulate in this issue: technology keeps moving things forward and as it does, new markets and new geographies open up like flowers in the advancing dawn. All you have to do is work out which ones you are going to pick. And that is why you HAVE to be at World Telemedia Marbella on 9-11 October.

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that the technology that is being talked about here in the magazine and in the show’s Spotlight sessions, continues to move on pace – and move on within all these new countries as well as all the ‘old’ traditional ones where telemedia has long thrived. Affiliate marketing is a great example. It has provided a new and healthy route to market for many services and, off the back of the pay-per-click ‘power marketing’ world, has breathed new life into many companies and allows expansion into these new regions. Similarly, soft switches, OTT messaging services, charge to mobile payments and (though only just starting to be talked about) Rich Communications Services (RCS)

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MARKETING & PROMOTION

Loving the crocodile Affiliate marketing is becoming an essential part of the promotions mix for telemedia services, but how do you do it – and is it as dangerous as farming crocodiles? No, not if you do it right, finds Paul Skeldon “Using affiliates is like keeping crocodiles if you are a manufacturer of handbags – yes, their skin is gets you lots of money from handbag sales, but they can kill you if not kept under control.” This is how Jeremy Flynn, from Empello eloquently expresses most telemedia companies view of affiliate marketing, but there is no getting away from the vital role they now play in the market. Without affiliate or performance marketing techniques, many of the services that are growing PRS revenues (see page 24) would not be gaining the kind of use that we are seeing. So, with the industry having to keep crocodiles, how can they best play with them? “Affiliate marketing carries risks that need to be managed carefully,” agrees Luke Stagg, performance director at SB7. “A lot comes down to experience of knowing where the problems can occur and having a sensible risk control plan in place. You are essentially tasking a third party with the incentive of getting a user, with the affiliates earnings being delivered from profit margin between their spend and the pay-out per user. You have to be on alert for high risk affiliates using aggressive advertising tactics to promote services.”

GOOD FOR BUSINESS

While there are still fears – real and imagined – around affiliate marketing, it still does have a role to play in the process of marketing PRS services. “It’s the future, for good and bad, aside to broadcaster channels and media partners, they are be de-

fault way to promote nowadays and the majority/only option to most,” says Keven Dawson, CEO of Tola Mobile, part of the Oxygen8 Group. “For most it’s the only way, if done effectively, then it’s the most spontaneous and compelling mechanics for merchants.” Many services providers and aggregators recognise that the future lies with using affiliate marketing to some degree. “Affiliate marketing can provide excellent results, but an advertisers reliance on affiliates is potentially a short-term option,” says Stagg. “Affiliates should be used to complement a blend of channels rather than as a singular source of users.” But there is more to affiliates than many realise. “It’s a microcosm of all marketing channels in one,” says Helen Southgate from Affilinet. “Rewards and incentive sites and content and price comparison sites are all affiliates. As are Email marketing companies. Affiliates are also in social, loyalty and blogs. Even the MailOnline – which is becoming one of the worlds hugest affiliates – mumsnet and Nectar are affiliates and networks connect your ads to these.” The key to

making this happen lies in the technology that can assess the vast amounts of data generated in the digital world and matching the right ads to the right content. Done right this delivers the kind of performance marketing lift that attracts so many brands, publishers and content providers to use the marketing channel.

LOOKING FOR BUSINESS

So what should telemedia businesses be looking for when they are trying to work affiliate marketing into their day-to-day promotions? “As a content provider/advertiser, we are looking for affiliates that are ‘playing the long game’,”

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says Stagg. “An affiliate that appreciates the time and effort we as advertisers put into platform development and the stability of our offers. An affiliate that appreciates that we have a reputation to protect when advertising our offers.” Stagg continues: “Affiliates are typically experts in a specific style of advertising – social/ email/display and so on. We are looking for affiliates to deliver creative approaches to marketing our services in their traffic sources. Be it via niche targeting, a clever pitch, or even a new style of promotion/ creative. We have a number of long term affiliates that have delivered consistent results for us, however we don’t see a lot of new affiliates joining to advertise our mobile content offers.” Stagg also outlines how best to work with affiliates: “We’d like to develop closer relationships with affiliates. If an affiliate has an advertising angle which they think will work well, but to complete the experience they need the landing pages to work in a certain way, then approach us and we can look at getting it built. If an affiliate believes their advertising can be supported in any way by our product just let us know.”

panies are huge, there are still risks. “Unfortunately, new issues continue to appear, a lot of issue lies with a near no-regulation landscape to manage and control wayward affiliate activities,” says Dawson. “Merchants can contract them to the moon and back on what is or isn’t permitted, but the entire industry is dependent on monitoring tools to capture whatever percentage of rogue behaviour it can and to bring a halt to proceedings. Unfortunately, it is often only ever (at best) a partial address of their activities and hey soon reappear in another guise in no time.” “Affiliates within affiliate networks are getting worse, and cleverer,” agrees Flynn. “Globally we are seeing more iframing – leading to charging without consent – than ever before. And, frankly, the ad networks are not doing enough to spot rogue affiliates and chucking

them out. All the risk falls onto the merchants.” But there are answers. “Affiliate marketing requires L2s to have competent DDRC policies in place,” says Stagg. “The reputation of many affiliates in the industry is poor and that is not without reason. Many believe that working with affiliates requires tight controls, placed at all levels from initial communications with affiliates, IOs, creative approvals, sales caps, performance monitoring and programmatic controls.” And a strict policy in the event that any risk should present itself. There is currently an unofficial channel between some L2s that passes on warnings regarding bad experiences with affiliates and publishers. “Previous attempts to formalise this hasn’t worked, but we believe it is a useful tool to have in the DDRC kitbag even at

an unofficial level,” says Stagg. “There is a role for L1s to play here as well – not to on-board L2s that don’t have an effective affiliate DDRC strategy in place.” Proper affiliate networks will do all they can to prevent these issues. Overall it offers clear advantages. Media companies are being hit hard by ad blockers, with 13% of publishers see ad blocking as a problem and even the mighty Guardian newspaper in the UK has resorted to putting pop ups in articles asking readers for ‘support’ to produce more of the sort of content they are reading at that moment. Here again affiliate marketing holds the key. “13% of these companies say they are moving into affiliate marketing as a result,” says Southgate. “22% of adults online are blocking ads and media companies are seeing a similar 22% hit on revenues.” Southgate continues: “The

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opportunity in affiliate marketing now is around data feeds, rewards, cash back and price comparison to get that ad rev that would have gone to these media companies, that is why Mailonline recognises this and is becoming an affiliate. 70% of new signups to Affilinet are now content websites like BritMums and other influencers and bloggers. Social media drives traffic to them and now they get ads through affiliate to monetise: this is where the new money is going. ”

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Top affiliate traffic sources 2017

Where to get high-quality traffic? This is an eternal problem in affiliate marketing both for new players and experienced marketers. Here Dmitrii Zotov, co-founder of Affise Performance Marketing Platform, takes a look at the best ways and places to get the traffic you need Actually, there is no common answer to this question, as it depends on so many factors such as your niche, geo you are working in, your target audience, and so on. That’s why one and the same advertising campaign may have success on one traffic source, and be an absolute fail on the other. For example, YouTube is a huge traffic source from where you can drive a great number of potential clients to your offers. What you should realize is that all these people have one feature in common: they consume videos. So if your offer doesn’t contain any video content, then probably YouTube is not what you are looking for. And vice versa: if you are offering high-quality and informative video content, YouTube will be the right place from which you can drive traffic. So the message is: the more you understand your potential client – who are they, what they do, where they live – the better traffic source you can find for a particular type of audience. And don’t be afraid to test different traffic sources. Even though you may be losing some money on A/B testing in the beginning, you will definitely benefit much more once you understand what is working for you and what is not. As there is an enormous number of traffic sources nowadays, sometimes you may get lost while choosing a perfect one for you. But basically, they can be divided into two major groups: paid traffic and free traffic. Free traffic is the most tricky one. It may sound good, but

it demands a way much more efforts and time from affiliate marketer. You can get free traffic by doing SEO, driving traffic from your personal blog or improving your social media or email marketing strategy. Practically, it may take you years to rank a site on page of search results or make your blog this popular so that it becomes a traffic source itself. Unfortunately, in affiliate marketing it’s not a good option at all. Affiliates can not wait for so long, as in several years the offer may no longer exist. So in this article I will concentrate on “must try and use” paid traffic sources, as they can help you get highly targeted traffic fast and receive much more conversions.

SOCIAL MEDIA TRAFFIC

Social networking websites – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, WeChat, Weibo, QQ, VK – is one of the most popular traffic sources with a huge number of users. Almost everyone on Earth uses one or

another social network, so the engagement rate there is really high. Social media companies collect a scope of their users’ information and allow advertisers to use it to target their campaigns in the most efficient way. That’s why there you can find the exact audience you are looking for. Moreover, people use social medias very often to find interesting articles and information, communicate with each other, or just to consume video and other entertaining content. The users are relaxed, thus it is much easier to sell them a product or service that they are into.

PAID SEARCH

When we talk about paid search we usually mean advertisements that are placed on Google, Yandex, Bing, 7search, Yahoo and Baidu. The last one is perfect when you are dealing with Asian market, by the way. Paid search has also high engagement rate, as every day we use one or another search engine to find necessary information. That is why the audience there is already

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prepared to buy something and just looking for best solution for themselves. So you may be the one who can solve their problems by offering your good or service to them. That is why the conversion rate is pretty high. However, such kind of advertising is quite expensive and you need to know how to work with it. Thus if you are a new player, I recommend you not to start with this particular traffic source, as you may lose your budget in no time if something goes wrong. Some affiliate marketers refer YouTube to search paid traffic as well. I can not help but agree with them as tons of people are visiting it to find some information or just enjoy their time. As I have already mentioned, Youtube has its own unique audience, that differs from those of other search engines in the way that they consume only video content. But still YouTube is a great place to be and the traffic is really cheap in comparison to the other search engines.

Surely, you can create advertising content to a particular website on your own, which will be the cheapest way. But in this case you always risk that it would not match that perfectly to a website. Another way is to contact editors of the website you would like to place your ads to, as there is an increasing number of those who have their own Native Advertising Departments. For an advertiser it means not only a very high-quality content, but also a huge cost for it. But there is a happy medium. Outbrain, Taboola, ContentAd - these are native advertising networks, that offer their services of both high quality and good price.

MOBILE TRAFFIC

If you need to drive mobile traffic to your offer, you should consider working with the largest mobile advertising networks (InMobi,

Millennial Media, Google Admob, Go2Mobi). As they deal with a huge number of app publishers, you will surely reach your target audience there. Moreover, all the networks use generally accepted standards for creatives, so you may use one and the same creatives in several different ad networks. Provided you have chosen the right advertising space and approach, your offers may be very profitable. For example, video format has become a real trend in mobile advertising. Unlike banners, video delivers much more information in one message, thus facilitating higher engagement rate. There are even separate ad networks that are concentrated on displaying videos at mobile apps and sites: Vungle, Adcolony, Fyber etc.

POP TRAFFIC

Pop-ups, pop-unders are such advertisements that open up in

parallel with a web-site a user is visiting. So when you close the current page, you automatically appear at the advertising one. This kind of traffic is relatively cheap, but there is a bad news about it: you can not target the audience, so very often your offer pops up to absolutely irrelevant users. Basically, pop traffic is not really popular among affiliates, as this kind of traffic is considered by the users as vigorous marketing. Nevertheless, it does pretty well for some offers in different verticals. So if you suppose that it may work for you, here are some great pop traffic networks you may try: Zeropark, PropellerAds, PopAds, PopCash. As you can see, there are so many traffic sources in affiliate marketing, and this number is increasing from year to year. What was working ten years ago may not be useful in 2017. So don’t

be afraid to test different traffic sources, both listed above and other, and wisely choose ones that meet your requirements, goals and budget. Best of luck to you, guys! Dmitrii Zotov is a co-founder of Affise Performance Marketing Platform

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NATIVE ADVERTISING

Native advertising looks and works as a content on the website. It means that if it is Facebook or Twitter, it would look like an ordinary post in the news feed; if it is an entertaining or news media, native ads would match its format and style and look like an editorial content. That is why users are more likely to rely on the information it contains and become more loyal to a particular product or service that is advertised.

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Direct operator billing in motion REGULATION

GDPR: When data becomes a problem While the UK frets about Brexit, the rest of the EU has turned its attention of GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation – and what it means for the digital business world that has build itself on, well, data. Paul Skeldon finds out what GDPR is and what it means for the industry Data, it has long been said, is the new oil. In the digital age, most businesses, merchants and brands function because they have invested a vast amount of money in collecting user data. But, while that was a key strategy for building business, it could all come crashing down in the next 12 months. Why? Because of the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – and the UK’s equivalent, post Brexit – could force many of them to delete vast swathes of it. The basic premise of the GDPR is to make it more transparent for consumers to see what data a company has on them, as well as introducing a new fines regime for those that breach it. The idea is to protect consumers from brands that may misuse their data, but also to help them manage how the data that they may allow to be stored is actually put to use. If you are wondering if you will be impacted by the new legislation which comes into force on 25 May 2018, ask yourself if you are already subject to the existing 1995 Data Protection Act. If you are, the GDPR will impact you. The question, of course, is how?

Elizabeth Denham, the UK’s information commissioner, who is in charge of data protection enforcement, says she is frustrated by the amount of “scaremongering” around the potential impact for businesses. “The GDPR is a step change for data protection,” she says. “It’s still an evolution, not a revolution”. She adds that for businesses and organisations already complying with existing data protection laws the new regulation is only a “step change”. GDPR will not only require companies to pull together data so consumers can easily see what data about them is stored and where, but it will also give consumers greater access to the data. At present a Subject Access Request (SAR) allows the brand or data ‘owner’ to charge consumers £10 to access the data. This is being scrapped. Under GDPR, when someone asks a business for their data, they must stump up the information within one month. Everyone will have the right to get confirmation that an organisation has information about them, access to this information and any other supplementary information. And it will have an impact. A study by OnePoll in the UK found that almost half of UK consum-

ers plan to exercise their new rights over their data when GDPR comes into force. It questioned 2,000 UK consumers between May 24 and 26 2017, and found that 48% planned to wield their new rights over personal data. A third (33%) said they would exercise the right to have their data removed by retailers, while 33% would ask retailers and brands to stop using their data for marketing purposes. Almost one in five (17%) said they would challenge automated decisions made by retailers and 24% said they would access the data that retail companies hold about them. And this is the challenge: “The problem is that GDPR demands in effect a single view of all customer information – and that means pulling together data from multiple diverse systems, a task deemed too expensive and too complicated to be justified only for a compliance exercise,” says Peter Ruffley, Chairman at Zizo. But Ruffley sees it as a massive opportunity for businesses, rather than a disaster. “This single view is something that retailers have been demanding for years; a trusted, accurate information resource that could and should underpin digital transformation initiatives. So why shy away from

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FIND OUT MORE IN THE GDPR SPOTLIGHT SESSION AT WORLD TELEMEDIA CONFERENCE IN MARBELLA, 9TH – 11TH OCTOBER this opportunity? GDPR is about data – and that data is owned by the business. With the right approach, GDPR can actually unlock the door to vital digital transformation projects and define corporate strategy.” There is another upside too, stresses Purple Wifi’s Gavin Wheeldon. One of GDPR’s headline rulings, the introduction of ‘unambiguous consent’ before users’ personal or behavioural data can be used for marketing purposes, should be something that makes things clearer and better for consumers and gets rid of many of the scams that blight industries such as telemedia – and, he says, should be implemented across the industry now rather than waiting for 2018. Demonstrating how important this is – and throwing a whole new light on Ts&Cs and the need to protect consumers, Purple conducted an experiment. It added in a clause to its wi-fi Ts&Cs that would require users to, at Purple’s discretion, clean portaloos at local events, paint snail shells, remove animal waste, and hug stray cats and dogs – and 20,000 people still signed up. The company says the results highlight the importance of GDPR in bringing fairness and trust to the digital economy. Chief executive Gavin Wheeldon said: “WiFi users need to read terms when they sign up to access a network. What are they agreeing to, how much data are they sharing, and what license are they giving to providers? Our experiment shows it’s all too easy to tick a box and consent to something unfair.”

Charge to mobile round-up

How is charge to mobile doing in the UK–and what can other regions learn from the successes and failures here?

Global M-payments round-up

So what is charge to mobile up against across the world from PayPal, Amazon and more?

Why Wallets?

Mobile wallets have much more to offer than just payments. Here we take a look at how to turn payments into something really special

PAYMENTS

M-payments forecast: the road ahead Forrester analysts Shaurya Priya and Jacob Morgan, with Sanjeev Kumar and Rachel Birrell, outline what mobile payments are going to be doing across the EU-7 between now and 2021 – and its is good news: m-payments are going to grow by 23% Mobile payments include three types: mobile inperson payments; mobile remote payments, such as purchasing via an app when the consumer isn’t physically present with the seller; and person-to-person or peer-to-peer (P2P) payments. Among the three types, mobile in-person payments will grow the fastest, increasing almost fivefold between 2016 and 2021, from €4.6 billion in 2016 to €22.8 billion in 2021; they will account for nearly 16% of all mobile payments in the EU-7 (see chart). The launch of European mobile payment platforms, such as BNP Paribas’ Wa! in France and PayPal’s collaboration with Vodafone Wallet to enable in-person payments in

Italy, as well as the market entry of technology giants like Apple, Google, and Samsung have led to greater consumer awareness of and opportunities for mobile in-person payments. The wide availability and uptake of contactless payments across Europe mean consumers are ready to adopt mobile payment, although their payment habits remain a hurdle to overcome. The rapid compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38% through 2021 reflects the higher transaction values that are possible with mobile in-person payments — device-based authorization, such as entering a pass code or using Apple’s TouchID, allows users to bypass contactless transaction limits.

For devices without this capability, the increase in contactless transaction limits will still drive growth, as mobile inperson payments can now be used for higher basket values.

REMOTE PAYMENTS

We expect mobile remote payments to remain the largest mobile payment segment by some margin. They accounted for nearly three-quarters of mobile payments at the end of 2016 and will still account for two-thirds of mobile payments at the end of 2021. Mobile remote payments will grow at a healthy CAGR of 20% during the forecast period

of 2016 to 2021. Why? Mobile remote payments provide real utility for retailers and customers. In-app payment buttons and online checkout buttons enable easy purchasing, without the need to enter payment details or delivery and billing options. As a result, retailers are seeing the benefits of increased checkout conversions and are integrating more payment options into their apps and mobile-friendly websites. Retailers are also offering more features like Starbucks’ “Order Ahead,” which allows users to bypass queues, or consumerfriendly services like click-

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF M-PAYMENTS AT WORLD TELEMEDIA CONFERENCE IN MARBELLA, 9TH – 11TH OCTOBER and-collect. This blurring of online and offline retail is ideally suited to mobile devices, and we see an increasing number of people using their smartphones for online shopping.4 The EU’s second Payment Services Directive will enable retailers to offer customers direct-credit payment options, and we expect this to drive some growth in mobile remote payments as a result.

PEER-TO-PEER

Domestic P2P payments/ informal lending and cross-

Direct operator billing in motion

PAYMENTS

border P2P payments made up nearly 15% of total mobile payments in 2016. We expect P2P payments to remain popular, to retain a steady market share, and to account for 17% of all mobile payments in 2021. This segment’s market share will remain steady, with apps like Swish in Sweden enabling consumers to transfer money to each other instantaneously as well as offering useful features like bill splitting. 2016 saw the expansion of the Jiffy P2P payments solution in Italy, with 23 banks now using the service. In the UK, P2P solutions like PayM, Barclays’ Pingit, and Zapp are yet to make it in to the mainstream, partly because these solutions offer little

PAYMENTS

incremental utility over existing faster payment bank transfer methods. Cross-border P2P payments, meanwhile, will have a CAGR of 28%. Banks and established money transfer agents still conduct most crossborder fund transfers. However, digital disruptors like TransferWise are making inroads and can offer cheaper, reliable money transfer services to consumers and small businesses. Money transfer disruptors offer greater convenience than the existing methods as well as a cheaper alternative to banks, and Forrester believes that P2P currency exchange firms represent a small but serious threat to incumbent firms.

Contactless mobile the future in store? While mobile payments are set for big gains in P2P and remote payments, the increading use of contactless to pay in shops – coupled with Apple Pay removing its £30 limit in the UK – are set to see mobile payments rocket in-store. In-store mobile contactless payments totalling £370 million were made in the UK in the first six months of 2017, according to the latest transaction data from payments processor Worldpay. The use of mobile devices to make in-store payments has been growing steadily since the UK launch of Apple Pay in 2015, but according to Worldpay it is only really in the past 12 months that the technology has begun to gain widespread acceptance beyond ‘early adopters,’ further fuelled by the launch of Android Pay in 2016 and Samsung Pay earlier this year. The lifting of the £30 limit on contactless Apple Pay payments in many stores has also helped. Monthly spending on mobile devices has risen by 57% in the past six months (£46 million spent using mobiles in January 2017, compared to £74 million in June 2017), while mobile’s share overall in-store transactions has risen from 1.18% at the end of 2016 to 2.04% in June 2017. Spending on all forms of contactless systems now accounts for 38% of all noncash transactions in the UK. Total contactless spend in 2017 reached £9bn up to June, compared to £10bn throughout the whole of 2016. James Frost, UK CMO, Worldpay, commented: “Mobile spending has shaken off the novelty tag, and is breaking its own spending records virtually every month. Granted there’s still some way to go before we start cutting up our cards and chucking away our wallets, but it’s easy to see why everyone from start-ups to tech giants is eager to have a stake in the technology.”

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

Charge to mobile forecast:

Ticket to ride and charity begins at home Charge to mobile services in the UK are driving the PRS sector forward as a whole, but there may be trouble ahead – and only charity can save us, warns Paul Skeldon According to the latest UK PRS market forecast from Mobilesquared, operator billing and Payforit drove growth in 2016/17, generating £168.4million and accounting for 24% of the market. This may not be as much as PSMS and voice shortcodes, which garnered revenues of £249.8million and 35% of the market, but growth in charge to mobile is what is driving the sector upwards. Year-on-year, operator billing and PFI continue to drive the market forward, with revenues increasing 31.4%, supplemented by mobile (including PSMS and voice shortcodes) which experienced revenue growth of 11.3%. But all other payment types, including charity donations, experienced a year-on-year decrease. Directory enquiries experienced the greatest decline of 21.4%, with 087 customer service, low cost international or reverse charge calling, and voice-based information services all experiencing a decline in revenues of 10-12%. But this is all set to change. Operator billing and PayforIt is expected to overtake mobile (PSMS and voice shortcodes) and provide the greatest contribution in terms of revenues (32% of total market revenue), generating an estimated £213.8

million. This compares to a projected £182.3 million for mobile (including PSMS and voice shortcodes), which will account for 27% of total spend. Charity donations is estimated to account for 19% of spend (from projected donations of £124.4 million), leaving voice PS/09 & TV red button (£54.2 million), directory enquiries (£47.1 million), and voice 087 (£43.7 million)

competitions and quizzes and adult video services. Voice revenues are forecast to maintain their downward trajectory, with directory enquiries most affected (28%), with voice PS/09 & TV red button and voice 087, projected to drop 10% and 13%, respectively. But operator billing growth appears to be slowing down. While it is set to be the highest

as m-ticketing in the PSD2 regulations (see page 20) is hoped to see this technology hit the mainstream mass market with the associated growth. Still to be passed by the European Parliament – and with obvious Brexit issues for the UK market – the European Commission has agreed that charge to mobile can be used for

contributing a combined 22% of total spend. In terms of revenue change, operator billing and PayforIt is expected to experience the largest year-on-year increase of 27%, ahead of charity donations (8%). Mobile (PSMS and voice shortcodes) is expected to drop 27% year-on-year, prompted by the lack of new subscribers attracted to non-broadcaster

growth part of the market, at 27% it is down on the 31% the previous year, and well down on the 55% the year before that. The reason seems to be that it has hit a ceiling. All those that are going to pay for things with charge to mobile in the UK already are. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The move to allow C2M for quasi-physical goods such

content, voice services, charity and ticketing. A €50 per ‘call’ limit is likely to be imposed, along with a €300 per month cap for consumers using these services. The €50 transaction limit is likely to be expected by networks to be implemented by the provider of the voice service or the aggregator/ API for text and Charge to Mobile services. Telecom providers will have

LEARN MORE ABOUT CHARITY & CHARGE TO MOBILE AT WORLD TELEMEDIA CONFERENCE IN MARBELLA, 9TH – 11TH OCTOBER to determine how they impose a monthly limit on their consumers for the exempted products. Our understanding is that this is a technically complex area. There is still a push elsewhere for voice services and, in particular, directory enquiry services to be taken totally out of scope on the basis that a high spending consumer may be unable to make a DQ call towards the end of their billing month. This will contradict another EU regulation for Telecoms on uninterrupted service delivery. Also the €50 limit goes against the increase that Ofcom is permitting on 090 voice calls from 1 July 2015 to £45 cap. We put the rumours to Rory Maguire, MD of AIME, who comments: “AIME was concerned originally that the PSD revisions that brought in reference to “Digital Content” would inadvertently be interpreted to exclude voice services from the exemption and therefore be treated as a payment service. The current exemption allows for premium voice to a maximum of €50 per call.”

Direct operator billing in motion

PAYMENTS

Mobile payments round-up

DOCOMO Digital sets its sights on the sharing economy by launching the first free transaction network

2017 has been a pivotal year for mobile payments – from charity donations to a raft of new payment tools coming on the market. And all against the backdrop of it being the 10th anniversary of contactless card payments. Paul Skeldon takes a look at what has been happening over the past few months A lot has been happening in mobile payments in 2017. This year, the 10th anniversary of the first contactless card payment, has seen some consolidation in the burgeoning mobile payments space, and the launch of several mainstream brands getting in on the act. Oh, and some rebrands as some of the pioneers of m-payments keep trying to make it work. Globally, mobile payments are gaining

ground in all sorts of marketplaces, especially in Africa. The accepted wisdom that it can empower the unbanked has gained a lot of credence and from that has come a whole wealth of payment apps. What is most interesting is that carrier billing is starting to come through in areas such as the Middle East too, especially for Google Play. Yet still mobile payments fails to explode as a thing. More, it starts

to become just another way to pay. The lifting of the £30 limit on contactless Apple Pay payments has seen it start to pull ahead of rivals – and of cards – but other than that, mobile hasn’t become the way to pay, but one more way to pay. That said, mobile payments around the world has been moving forward and is doing really well. Here are some of the key things going on right now.

Charity text donations remain largest sector in the UK phone-paid services market

Strong growth in operator billing and increased consumer satisfaction levels are the highlights of the Phone-paid Services Authority’s Annual Market Review for 2016/17. The review, produced by Mobilesquared, highlights how charity donations continues to be the largest market sector with £115m donated via text with mobile-based revenues as a whole making up 75% of the market. Jo Prowse, Chief Executive of the Phone-paid Services Authority explains: “This year’s Annual Market Review shows positive growth in a number of areas including operator billing which is up 31%. The report highlights that people like the convenience of paying for goods and services through their phone bills. The continued popularity of donating to charity by text highlights the convenience and trust people have in phone-paid services when they are delivered well.

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

PayPal makes moves on mobile

DOCOMO Digital has launched NOMO, a payments platform designed for the sharing economy From safeguarding services and online KYC features to loyalty programmess for vendors, NOMO provides everything marketplaces need to scale internationally by giving them access to the first free wallet-to-wallet payment network ever developed for gig and sharing economies. Independently developed, NOMO promises to revolutionise the way sharing economy platforms interact with users selling goods and services on their platform. By connecting with any traditional online payment solution, NOMO provides maximum agility to handle international pay-outs, multi-currency wallet management and best-of-class financial reconciliations reports.

PayPal, which let’s not forget started out as a mobile payment tool, has made moves over the summer to garner more leverage in the mobile space. In July, Apple enabled PayPal as a billing option for purchases in the App Store, Apple Music, iTunes and iBooks. This allows for greater choice when purchasing apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books, as well as Apple Music subscriptions and iCloud storage. Perhaps more interestingly, PayPal has teamed up proximity payments provider Thyngs to allow people to pay using PayPal by scanning objects. Thyngs is an QR and NFC scanning mobile payment tool that aims to turn, well, things into payment points. Already working in the charity sector, the company aims to make it easy to pay for things by just tapping one’s phone against whatever one wants to buy to pay for it. Thyngs will add PayPal as a new core payment method for businesses using its tap and scan cashless payment solutions on items such as product packaging and direct mail, and in person.

Xpress Money and TerraPay partner for realtime international money transfers to m-wallets in Africa Xpress Money, a money transfer brand, has partnered with TerraPay, the world’s first mobile billing switch, to enable real-time international money transfers to mobile wallets in Africa. Through Xpress Money’s network of 200,000 agent locations in 165 countries, migrants across the globe will be able to send remittances safely and instantly to widely used Mobile Money services in Africa. In the initial rollout, customers can send remittances to any mobile number or bank account in Nigeria as well as directly to Vodacom M-Pesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel Money and Zantel Ezy Pesa wallets in Tanzania by visiting the nearest Xpress money outlet across 165 countries. Ambar Sur, Founder & CEO of TerraPay explains: “TerraPay has brought mobile wallets mainstream by interconnecting them with the extensive global network of Xpress Money for cross border money transfer.”

Physical goods payments on phone bill for Amazon go live in Japan Amazon customers in Japan with a KDDI or NTT DOCOMO mobile phone account can now pay for physical goods from Amazon.co.jp, by charging the cost to their mobile phone bill. Adding carrier billing as a payment option increases choice for customers in Japan, making it easy to complete purchases. Selecting this payment method enables instant purchase completion, without needing to register card details online. Bango technology ensures reliability, security and customer success when paying with carrier billing.

Direct operator billing in motion

PAYMENTS

new world, many are now seeing payments as an opportunity – and wallets offer something special. So here are five reasons why mobile wallets are exciting.

Why wallets? With 92% of US retailers expecting to maintain or increase investment in payments over the next 12-18 months, according to Ovum, why should everyone be excited about mobile wallets? Here André Stoorvogel, Director, Product Marketing – Payments, Rambus explores the five major reasons why digital wallets makes sense The payments landscape is evolving rapidly as emerging technolo-

gies and trends are As retailers, brands and changing expectations of merchants look to find the paying experience. their place in this brave

1 Minimize transaction fees When processing debit and credit card transactions, retailers are subjected to ‘transaction fees’. These fees can be high, particularly for larger retailers, so working to reduce them makes commercial sense. One potential strategy is to introduce a storebranded, closed-loop payment card. To see any reductions in interchange costs, however, consumers actually have to use these store card. On top of this, retailers must factor in the costs of manufacturing and issu-

The pass-on power of the wallet While André Stoorvogel, Director, Product Marketing – Payments, Rambus identifies five key reasons that mobile wallets are interesting to brands and payments providers, research by Urban Airship finds that they also have an uncanny pass-on power too. Analysis of more than one million Apple Wallet coupons and loyalty cards of major retail brands shows that for every mobile wallet pass a customer installs, it is shared and added to 3.3 other mobile devices on average—a 4.3X share rate. More than three-quarters of retailers’ installed passes were the result of sharing versus being created and distributed through their marketing channels. “This data shows Apple Wallet passes unlock network effects for business growth, lowering the cost of customer acquisition by offering an incredibly simple path for customer referrals and repeat business,” says Brett Caine, CEO and president, Urban Airship. “Best of all, any size business can implement mobile wallet passes, which are 10-25X less expensive than traditional plastic cards and offer dynamic updates and lock-screen notifications for expiration alerts, location-aware reminders, new loyalty levels achieved, and much more.” Mobile wallet coupons see a higher rate of sharing than loyalty cards at 5.3X versus 3.9X on average. The% of passes shared varied across brands, with the top-half of retailers seeing 46.4% of passes being shared on average, while the bottom-half saw 17.4% of passes shared on average. Regardless of the brand, shared mobile wallet passes multiplied the total number of passes installed on consumers’ devices. Furthermore, the data shows that sharing is occurring at a peer-to-peer level rather than sharing facilitated by brands or digital aggregators, as 95% of shares were to seven or fewer devices. Every Apple Wallet pass includes a built-in Share link on the back, facilitating easy sharing among family and friends, and it’s a feature consumers are using in droves.

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

ing of physical cards. A store card within the digital wallet can reduce costs by making less transactions subject to fees. The retailer can also push in-app discounts when using the store card to encourage adoption, driving brand engagement, recognition and loyalty. Also, provisioning the card digitally removes the costs of manufacturing and issuing physical store cards. Enhance experience and engagement Despite the rise of the ecommerce giants, 75% of all retail sales are still predicted to take place in-store by 2025 (Source: New York Times). The way these sales are conducted, however, will be profoundly different. Part of the ongoing primacy of in-store is due to the rise of the ‘experience economy’, in which consumer purchasing behaviour is driven by the quality of the overall purchasing experience rather than simply the good itself, finds The Guardian. A digital wallet enables retailers to deliver a powerful and engaging in-store offer to tap into the demand for this experiential economy. For example, retailers can simplify the complexity of managing value-added services by digitizing credit cards, gift cards, loyalty points and coupons into a single, secure platform. By securely converting and managing various digital values, consumers can then pay with credit, points and coupons in

and in-app notifications can replace flyers, and digital receipts can be stored in-app. For retailers, a mobile wallet is a vehicle to a considerably more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable future, while delivering increased consumer engagement, loyalty and insight. Improve security and mitigate risk Digitise physical cards Recent years have and receipts challenged the retail The plastic store and Streamline checkout sector with an increasing In-store assisted checkgift cards, cardboard out systems simply coupons, paper receipts number of high-profile data breaches. With the don’t work for modern and print advertising average breach costing consumers. 86% of con- generated by retailers sumers avoid stores with have huge monetary and $4 million, many retailers are moving to bring environmental costs. long queues, and 38% Digital wallets directly payments in-house to have abandoned a puravoid theft of customer reduce these costs and chase due to excessive queuing time, according are more effective. Cards payment credentials, transaction history and can be digitalized, taito a study by MyCustomerand Essential Retail. lored push notifications identity, says research a single transaction, controlling the ‘payment mix’ according to their requirements. In addition, digital wallets give retailers the opportunity to utilize emerging technologies such as augmented reality to further drive engagement, or leverage consumer data to provide smart recommendations.

Digital wallets with a Virtual Point of Sale enable customers to check out via in-aisle payment, eliminating the need to queue. It also frees up staff to be redeployed elsewhere in store, increasing efficiency and customer satisfaction, while simultaneously reducing costs.

TO LEARN

by SecurityIntelliMORE ABOUT gence. PAYMENTS – AND Digital wallets, WALLETS – however, incorCHECK OUT THE porate various SPOTLIGHT SESSIONS technologies and AT WORLD TELEMEDIA techniques to MARBELLA, enhance security and 9-11 OCTOBER. mitigate risk, reducing the likelihood and impact of breaches. For SEIZING THE MOBILE example, tokenization OPPORTUNITY replaces traditional priIt is clear that digital mary account numbers wallets can deliver an (PAN) with unique iden- enhanced experience, tifiers called payment reduced operational tokens to protect trans- costs, increased revaction data and mitigate enues, and improved fraud. payment security. Importantly, retailers The challenge for recan layer security to tailers will be to accelermeet their requirements ate time to market and and maintain simplicity provide a seamless and and convenience usabil- enhanced experience ity of payment, which from the outset. remains imperative to For further information customers. www.rambus.com

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Direct operator billing in motion

PAYMENTS

AIME wins major regulatory breakthrough

with its members, a legal analysis of the definition of a “payment transaction” in relation to voice, text and direct to bill charged services. The new PSRs2017 wording discusses “payment transactions” made as a result of the consumer’s access to from the same financial AIME have also been a chargeable service and regulatory exclusion as the successful in ensuring their subsequent payment network operators. that the pricing is set in There is now the lesser Sterling instead of Euros to to their telecom operator for that service. AIME berequirement for interavoid continuous reconmediaries. Those who figuration of systems and lieves that the consumer cannot purchase any just handle payments consumer pricing as the service that’s delivered €/£ rate fluctuates. as a result of telecom via voice or text comAlthough AIME has inoperator services confluenced these two major munications without the tained within the PSR’s network operator supplywins there is still a con2017 exclusion need to register with the FCA as a siderable amount of work ing that communication bundled with the service. to be completed with party that benefits from As a result, the network the FCA on how a fixed the exclusion. They will operator is reselling that line retailer can possibly also need to provide an annual audit showing how monitor and control each service and not facilitatthe PSRs2017 limits were ‘individual subscriber’ on a ing a payment service any managed. Some of AIME’s multi-user single number more than a supermarket who sells branded goods intermediary members - such as a business or is not running a payment household. Consider the are already authorised by the FCA for other lines scenario of a family using service for the brand. This the home phone to access means that voice and text of business that they delivered services are not conduct, such as eMoney, services such as direcpayment transactions unbut wish to keep the lines tory enquiries, the local plumber and informader the PSRs and thus do of business separate. tion services. How does not fall under the imposed The limits imposed on the telecoms provider limits. telecom operators and monitor and control dad’s their intermediaries who All mobile networks utilise the exclusion in the usage without stopping will experience significant PSR’s relate to a restricted mum’s when the £240 technical challenges, and list the products supplied limit is reached? AIME’s costs, to monitoring and to their consumers. Digital discussions so far with the controlling each individgoods and services, voice FCA raise concerns that ual subscriber’s monthly services, charity donations there is a lack of telecoms spend. They will need to and tickets will have a knowledge inside the monitor long dial nummaximum cap of £40 per regulator. However, the bers such as 08 and 09 transaction and £240 per original problem has ema- prefixed ranges, shortcode month for each individual nated from Brussels. voice services such as 118 subscriber. AIME is also undertaking and their own ranges,

AIME has influenced major changes to a section of the UK Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs2017, the UK’s implementation of the PSD2 rules)) with estimated savings to the telecoms industry of £250k in the first year alone. Rory Maguire explains

The PSRs2017 were laid before Parliament on 19th July. Significant and beneficial alterations have been made to an area that excludes telecommunication operators from financial regulation for their micropayments facilities, providing they remain within tight limits. AIME and other trade bodies have worked hard to deliver the message to Ofcom and HM Treasury about the financial impact to businesses as a result of this regulation, without the corresponding consumer benefit. AIME’s members were concerned that the valuable intermediary chain may have been required to be authorised or registered as Payment Institutions with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This change would have significant financial, operational and client safeguarding implications. Due to the tireless lobbying, input into the consultation process and numerous one-to-one meetings, this risk has now been removed and intermediaries benefit

AIME SPOTLIGHT SESSION AT WORLD TELEMEDIA CONFERENCE IN MARBELLA, 9TH – 11TH OCTOBER

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

A global provider of payment and customer engagement solutions. shortcode text services and direct to bill services. This information only comes together after the month has ended in order to write the bill. At this point the consumer may have exceeded £240 – by choice – but the network has been put into a breach of the PSRs2017 by not seeking Payment Institution authorisation. The mobile network operators are currently investigating ways to enable them to monitor consumer’s aggregate spend on third party products. One network is considering moving all text based activity over to their direct to bill platform. This helps with spend monitoring but causes significant issues for intermediaries and merchants. AIME’s concern is that network operators find individual and differing solutions. This could fragment the mobile payments industry, stifling growth and forcing existing merchants to migrate services to other payment mechanisms. Whilst a significant battle has been won, the PSD2 war is not over! UK intermediaries can sigh with relief. AIME will continue to fight on behalf of their mobile network operator and fixed line network operator members. For further information www.aimelink.org

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SECURITY

“Everyone is selling something, if you can’t see what people are selling, maybe you’re the cart.” Wise words, but increasingly prescient. Here Declan Pettit, director, Monitoring & Compliance Partnership outlines the scams that are facing operators, merchants and consumers and what you can do about them

Trojan Bugs

it’s all Greek to the average consumer

It’s a mobile content Industry truism that appealing to someone’s greed, lust or vanity was a sure-fire way of securing subscribers. But, as in any industry involving emotive buying factors, it doesn’t take long for murky malfeasants to muddy matters. Just when regulatory bodies and mobile operators managed to get a handle on ‘misleading flows’, the scammers have upped their game – and consumer jeopardy – with a stream of fraudulent flows. Malware – code surreptitiously inserted on your phone with the intention of stealing your ID and/or your money – seems to hog the headlines. Rightly so, one could argue, considering the large-scale potential damage to any one consumer. It is concerning that over the past year, we have seen a rise in fraud through mechanics such as App Malware, Click-Jacking and iFrame Masking. Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF), is the general descriptive term used for an attack

that occurs when a malicious web site, email or program causes a user’s web browser to perform an unwanted action on a trusted site for which the user is currently authenticated – such as an app subscribing to a PRS service without the knowledge or consent of the user. Obviously, the success of a CSRF attack is limited to the capabilities exposed by the vulnerable application and in this example, the defences of the billing platform to detect and reject such attacks. Attacks from a single app may purchase multiple services, after immediate download or over a period of time. With users being billed without their consent or knowledge, network operators are understandably concerned about consumer harm and consequential brand damage. From everything we are seeing, it is turning into a worldwide issue.

AFFILIATES BEWARE

A recent example to reduce consumer risk is EE’s proposal to ban services trafficked on

a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) model. This move assumes that the CPA formula has a high risk of being intercepted by affiliate fraudsters because the advertiser is only accountable for the ad once the acquisition/action has occurred. And even at that point, the advertiser is unlikely to discover that the affiliate lead was obtained by fraudulent means. Whilst it obviously helps not to incentivise the affiliate to, for instance, ‘auto click’ the consumer through a payment process without their knowledge, this proposed solution may well impact the Charge to Mobile industry. Banning CPA means advertisers are left with the Cost Per Click (CPC) model as their only viable alternative to attract traffic to their site. CPA had overtaken CPC as the preferred pricing model for advertisers because it allows immediate calculation of the acquisition rate by only attaching a cost to an ad when an acquisition/action has been successful. Going back to a CPC model would

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mean Advertisers spending months calculating an ‘effective CPA’ by working out the click through rate, the eventual acquisition rate and then reverse calculating the true value of the click. Crucially, the problem here is that the risk is transferred from the Affiliate onto the Advertiser and while this may help to stem the recent tide of fraud (i.e. users being billed against their will and knowledge), it is likely these rogue affiliates will resort to other forms of malpractice in an attempt to get the user to click on the call to action to take them to the Advertiser’s landing page. Practices like content locking, ransomware and general misleading advertising will get the consumer to the landing page. Job done as far as they are concerned. The Affiliate Networks need to be careful here as authorities are suggesting (at the moment…) that Advertisers engage with Publishers directly to purchase traffic (still on a CPC basis). This could instigate an even bigger shake-up in the on-

line advertising market – rendering, potentially, the Affiliate Networks redundant.

NEEDLING PINS

Another example of recent action taken to combat fraud is Three’s insistence that PIN authentication is required on Payforit (the UK Network Operators’ mandated payment protocol for certain services). PIN authentication has a lower conversion rate than ‘one-click billing’ because more ‘friction’ in the payment process reduces the conversion rate. This move will push acquisition costs higher and acquisition rates lower, demanding more (not less) traffic to continue to achieve commercially sustainable acquisitions. To get around this we are likely to see an increase (not a decrease) in dubious marketing

techniques to get consumers to continue through to the Advertiser’s landing page. Fraud has also hit popular social media apps; examples have been found on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. Many times the initial interaction comes from the consumer’s address book and triggers the activation of a subscription to some unsolicited service such as weather or horoscope updates. Brand damage not only impacts the PRS value chain but large brands such as Carrefour, Lidl and Ryanair. Reported cases of unsuspecting users being subscribed to services via an offer for the chance to win relatively substantial prizes by simply participating in a survey or quiz, stretch down to Australia. Warnings are beginning to be posted on-line; for instance Facebook on their “Social Life” page.

So, well-meaning attempts discussed above; changing advertising models, limiting billing options, white listing solutions for apps and embedded malware filters or machine filters such as ‘Captcha’ are all commendable and necessary attempts to address this fraud – their ‘side-effects’ notwithstanding. It is also important to measure the extent of fraud or potential exposure to fraud. Fraud is a highly emotive subject and it requires the Industry value chain to work collectively on making assessment of scale, sharing information and implementing security measures necessary to reduce exposure. This sharing of information needs to be done on a global basis, to safeguard the future interests of Industry – because squeezing the bubble in one market means it pops up somewhere

VISIT MCP ON STAND 3 AT THE WORLD TELEMEDIA CONFERENCE IN MARBELLA, 9TH – 11TH OCTOBER. HEAR DECLAN SPEAKING IN THE SPOTLIGHT SESSIONS else. One thing is for certain, the fraudsters are not going away and seem always be one step ahead. We at Monitoring and Compliance Partners (MCP) do not have a ‘quick fix’ solution either – because goal-posts keep moving. But ongoing proactive vigilance via automated scanning tools can help to stem the tide while, at the same time, help to sustain revenues for the majority of the well intentioned value chain. For further information monitoringcompliancepartners.com

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PREMIUM RATE SERVICES

The ups and downs of PRS Across the globe PRS continues to be a force to be reckoned with – but some traditional stalwart areas are declining. Paul Skeldon takes a look at what new services are coming along to take their place Premium rate services are booming worldwide. In most markets the number of consumers using them is on the rise and, while some services have seen a drop off, many new ones are coming along to take their place. From a business point of view, many of the issues that have long dogged international PRS are to some degree abating and this is making running such services all the more attractive. According to KWAK CEO Josef Bruckshlogl “If I look at the PRN markets today there’s hardly - at least as I know it from my experience with KWAK - any PBX hacking happening anymore today. And in the few cases if some old fashioned fraudster gives it a try, our fraud detection systems identify this kind of fraud-traffic within minutes and block the payments.” He continues: “Also highjacking is not that frequently happening anymore as it used to happen in the past. Since the speed and quality of information between the carriers is accelerating highjacks are exposed rapidly within the market.” And finally, says Bruckshlogl, the price-lists full of mistakes have disappeared thanks to all the ambitious arbitrageurs who forced the global carrier-community to work more professional or being punished by arbitrage. And at the end of the day this development driven by IPRN was pretty important for the overall quality and balance of today’s telecom-markets. The fact that value creation with wholesale markets is slightly

improving despite heavy competition has one of its important reasons within the IPRN segment and its entrepreneurial players who punish prices below the market interconnection rate immediately and costly. Maybe it’s about these positive development and aspects why more and more entities within international telecom markets are becoming eager to collaborate with IPRN providers to improve and widen their services and take advantage on their know how and experience within the fields of fraud preven-

tion, call patter analysis and risk management.

NEW SERVICES FOR PRS

While the business side of PRS seems to be getting its act together, the kind of services that PRS is being used for is also changing across Europe. While figures are hard to come by (we really need to do an International PRS survey), we can look at perhaps the most extensive bit of work done in how PRS is used: the UK’s PRS Annual Market Review, conducted by PSA. While the numbers pertain to

the UK, the trends are indicative of how PRS is being used across the developed word; here’s how: • Gaming and lotteries – Operator billing continues to contribute significant revenues to the gambling and betting sectors. Revenues increased 9% from FY2015-16 to FY2016-17 to £59.1m. Operator billing will not become a replacement for credit card or PayPal, but an alternative payment mechanism for acquisition and basket abandonment. Industry believes the revenues would be considerably bigger if spending caps were removed. In FY2017-18 the service is expected to grow 39%, the most of any of the 18 phone-paid services categories, attributed to the sustained organic growth of gambling and betting via operator billing, but also due to the expected introduction of “society lotteries”. • Social network games – Gaming on Facebook continues to

generate significant revenues using operator billing as the payment mechanism. Revenues up from £60.5m in FY2015-16 to £66m in FY201617, an increase of 9%. However, according to the consumer research the number of users have dropped from 5.3m users in FY2015-16 to 4.1m users in FY2016-17. • In-app and in-game charges to phone bill – The rapid revenue growth between FY2045-15 and FY2015-16 has not been sustained, with the sector growing 6% in FY2016-17 and generating revenues of £46.2m. Traditional subscription games services continue to experience a decline in revenues. Pricing models becoming increasingly disparate between some L2s, with subscription models both increasing and decreasing depending on the merchant,

with weekly charges now ranging from £0.99 to £4.00. Revenue growth predicted at 3% in FY2017-18 as increased competition in the games market from white-labelled subscription services is expected to drive prices down. • TV Competitions and quizzes – Broadcaster competitions represented the fastest growing service within the phone-paid services market (excluding online competitions and quizzes) in FY2016-17, having experienced year-on-year growth of 34%. Industry research reveals this this growth has been driven by radio broadcasters capitalising on the decreased number of participants entering TV broadcaster competitions, as consumers seek instant gratification. Changes to TV competitions, most notably an increase in the cost to participate, coupled with

increases in the cost to enter the National Lottery, are fuelling the rise in popularity of radio competitions. A £2 entry price point for a broadcaster competition – in line with the National Lottery price – is viewed by industry as the ceiling. • Non-TV competitions and quizzes – Artificially high revenues of £69.9m represents an increase of 132% between FY2015-16 and FY2016-17, generated from companies ramping up their advertising spend in the first half of FY2016-17 in advance of the special conditions introduced by the Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA), and the PayforIt (PFI) mandates from mobile operators in Q3 FY2016-17. Advertising of online competitions has largely stopped as conversion rates dropped to between 2%-5% from Q3 FY201617, although a small number of

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L2s have persisted and are starting to discover successful flows and acquiring new customers. Online competitions account for approximately 90% of revenues, with offline competitions 10%, in FY2016-17. However, in FY2017-18, offline competitions will account for around one-third of revenues. Revenues in FY2017-18 are projected to plummet 72% as limited new customers leaves the majority of merchant revenues coming from residual user spend.

Why do people stop using PRS?

While there are many new users of many new services that are putting money into the PRS marketing, it is important to know why people stop using services. According to PSA in the UK, trust continues to play an integral role in the usage of phone-paid services. The consumer research points to a growing level of mistrust among phone-paid service users. Seventy percent of phone-paid service users said trust influenced their decision-making process with regards to the usage of phone-paid services – up on the previous year’s figure of 66%. But when phone-paid service users were asked whether their trust had been compromised during the previous 12 months, 32% claimed it had – up from 29% in FY2015-16 which equates to 7.3 million users. Overall, 55% of phone-paid service users are either satisfied (40%) or very satisfied (15%) with their content or service – which is an increase of 6% on last year’s research findings. This broadly translates to the number of users that have maintained or increased their usage. The number of users that were dissatisfied (8%) or totally dissatisfied (6%) was 14%. In FY2016-17, 59% of phone-paid service users said that the content or service they purchased was exactly what they were expecting. That figure correlates to the number of phone-paid service users that have either increased or maintained their usage over the last 12 months. This indicates that as long as the content or service is clearly advertised and the consumer is absolutely clear what it is they have purchased, they are increasingly likely to maintain or increase their usage of that content or service. It is therefore when consumer expectations are not met, that issues arise. Forty one percent of phone-paid service users did not receive what they were expecting which either was not a problem (24%) or was a problem (17%). Again,h tis latter figure correlates with the number of phone-paid service users that claimed to have stopped using the service in FY2016-17. Having identified a problem, just under two-thirds of these phone-paid service users failed to act, either because they simply chose not to (34% of total phone-paid service users experiencing a problem), or because they did not know who to speak to (29%). The remaining 37% claimed to either have contacted their telecoms provider (18%), the service provider (17%), or the regulator (2%).

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Making interactive communications pay

TELECOMS

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MESSAGING

A little more conversation, a little more traction If only there was a universal rich messaging app – a cross between SMS and Facebook Messenger. Well, there soon will be. It’s called RCS. And it could change the way brands talk to their customers forever. Rob Malcolm, VP at CLX Communications explains

Virtual success story Setting up a telemedia company is hard – not least trying to get the right telecoms tech in place quickly and easily and affordably. The answer lies in virtual switch technology. Telemedia Magazine finds out why Establishing and growing a telemedia business is never easy. It is hard enough to build commercial relationships, harder still to develop the technical infrastructure to manage it. Choosing a telecoms management platform is a priority in getting your business operational in the shortest possible time. One of the major problems facing both new and existing telecoms businesses, is the lack of fully featured management platforms. The majority of telecom service providers offer only a single feature; voice being the most common. There are SMS platforms available, however they tend to be complex and potentially difficult to use. There are very few telecoms service companies that offer a platform, which supports all the features required by a modern telecoms business; voice, SMS and IPRN number management. IPRN number management is probably the most complex

to manage; with various rate structures, reseller management, IVR services and confidentiality; all having an impact on day to day operations. The use of IPRN numbers is also a critical factor. Suppliers need to be able to control how their numbers operate, impose restrictions from certain destinations and in many cases, limit the amount of traffic. The most significant element in any telecoms business is the reliance on a NOC, to carry out the necessary technical functions and enable the business to operate effectively. Often, NOC requests can be queued for days rather than hours. Smaller companies can suffer a greater impact as they have to use third-party services, to make any switch changes and can incur charges for each request. Instead what is needed is a fully featured platform that supports Voice, SMS and IPRN management, even down to split and hybrid number rating. It also has to offer mobile ready web

management – all in a simple and straight forward to use fully scalable system. One example is Switch2, which is launching its latest management system at World Telemedia in Marbella. The newest version of its number management system has more than 70 new improvements and features, including; Improved rate management, IPRN management tools, fully customisable web interface, auto signup, comprehensive dashboard and traffic source reporting, to name a few. What makes the Switch2 platform interesting is now so evolved that you no longer need a NOC to manage your day to day operational functions. Interconnects, allocation, routing, reporting et al can all be easily performed, directly through the platform and takes only seconds. Such virtual telecoms systems enable business to start operating immediately, built on flexible hosting and can usually be available within an hour. Clients

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receive a dedicated server, IP address and fully supported telecoms platform. From wholesale voice traffic, to multi-level IPRN account management and SMS. These virtual telecoms systems provide the management platforms to establish, support and grow a telecoms business on very flexible terms; no long-term contracts, fully scalable and pay per use. “In the past two years, the media telecoms industry has changed and expanded,” explains Mark Webb from Switch2. “Our systems are in use by more and more companies that established themselves to take advantages of short term opportunities and are now operating successfully as long-term businesses. Some of our clients have seen their start up business grow from a few 1000 minutes per month, to several million minutes per month, all managed through their Switch2 platform.”

Imagine a brand sending a delivery alert to one of its customers. What will the message contain? Obviously, it will tell the recipient when the product will arrive. But what if it also give them a menu of options to change the date, edit the order or call a customer agent? How about a promo video featuring new products? And maybe a map to her nearest stockist? This kind of amped-up messaging channel would be unrecognisable from plain old SMS. It would offer an app-like experience to every consumer inside a chat session – without the pain of downloading a native app. Yes, after 25 years, SMS is getting an upgrade. The world’s mobile operators, handset makers and Google are now working to make RCS (sometimes called SMS 2.0) the default messaging app on millions of phones. RCS brings the functionality of OTT apps like WhatsApp and Messenger to the standard messaging system operators use. Google is currently building RCS into its new Android Messages product, and carriers such as Sprint, Deutsche Telekom, Orange France, Vodafone have committed to making it their native messaging app. Many experts believe RCS will upend the mobile customer care experience. Why? Because it gives retailers the tools to deliver an app-like experience without the cost and hassle of building a native app. But there’s a problem. Consumers may be spending all their time

in apps, but probably not in yours. A Forrester study found that only eight per cent of smartphone owners with at least one retail app used them daily, while 13% said they never opened them. Instead, they are using messaging apps. According to Flurry, time spent in apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger grew by 394% in 2016. But people are not just chatting inside these products. They’re also playing games, watching video, reading news. Unfortunately, most people use messaging apps to stay in touch with friends, not brands. As a result, OTT apps still lack one important quality: ubiquity. Now, most consumers don’t care about ubiquity. But businesses do. They want one channel to reach everyone. This explains why SMS use has fallen among consumers, but soared among companies. We’re all familiar with enterprise use cases: delivery alerts, PIN codes, marketing offers etc. They’re concise, direct and personal – and they save huge amounts of time and effort in customer care. According to analyst Ovum, businesses sent 1.16tn SMS messages in 2016 and will send 1.28tn texts by 2019. As the next version of SMS, RCS now promises to be the universal channel that enterprises can use for an entirely new kind of mobile messaging. Indeed, a 2017 survey by Ovum revealed many are ready. It found 36 per cent of organisations say

they would be interested in using an enhanced SMS service, such as RCS. And more than half would be willing to pay between 1.5 times to three times the price of an ordinary per-message SMS. The justification for the higher price is the probable return on investment. Many of the enhanced features of an RCS message could slash costs elsewhere. Consider the button that changes the date of a delivery. That single click would cost much less than when call centres and agents manage the process. To go further, brands can even use AI-based bots inside chat sessions to converse with customers in natural language. These virtual agents can answer queries not just with text but with images, maps and interactive menus. RCS also makes it easier to measure the effectiveness of mobile activity. It provides read receipts, so retailers can do A/B testing to compare the impact of different approaches.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF SMS AT WORLD TELEMEDIA CONFERENCE IN MARBELLA, 9TH – 11TH OCTOBER Of course, it has to be easy for brands to create campaigns and send these communications. This is where ‘messaging as a service’ companies come in. Already, Google is currently working with a number of brands including Virgin Trains, Subway and Sky on new use cases of RCS, alongside the mobile industry which is working towards a rollout of RCS later this year. The change won’t be instant. It will start with Android on selected carriers, and will take time for users to upgrade. RCS on iOS remains an unanswered question, though analysts believe it’s a matter of time before Apple supports RCS as a fall-back, as it does with SMS. Further ahead is the prospect of building secure card transactions into a chat session. That would genuinely change telemedia forever.

What do you get with the new SMS? RCS brings rich features to the default messaging channel on a phone, including: • Brand messages with their own logos and colours • Include interactive menus • Send messages of unlimited length • Include product pictures, GIFS, PDFS and videos • Do A/B testing on marketing messages to see which is most approach is most effective • Include maps to help customers find you. These can even be instore maps • Build bots that ’talk’ to customers inside rich chat sessions

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Making interactive communications pay

kwak. Number cruncher The latest PRS market review from the UK’s regulator PSA offers not only some interesting insights into how the UK market is fairing, but also outlines for the rest of the world what trends are happening in premium rate. As you can see top left, revenues are now coming from some very different sources: tarot and chat are down, but TV and nonTV quizzes, in-game and in-app purchases using PRS are up. Middle left we see that reflected in revenue terms this year and next. Bottom left we see how this is predicted to change further in 2018. On the right, we see how mobile is dominating payments through PRS over time (top), while the middle and bottom show why people are using PRS and, finally (bottom right) what they don’t like about them.

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