Telemedia Magazine issue 44

Direct operator billing in motion

ISSUE 44 | £4.99

2017: the year of m-payments 2.0

2017 is set to be the year that mobile payments take off –but they won’t look like you think

Brand values

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The rise of mobile payments will not only see new ways to pay, but also see payments become a brand issue PAYMENTS

Charge to mobile use doubles with a third of consumers using it in 2016 The number of people using charge to mobile to pay for things has doubled in the past two years, with more than a third of people globally making payments to their phone bills, according to this year’s Mobile Money Report from global trade body Mobile Ecosystem Forum in association with Wirecard.

And it appears that consumers all over the world have embraced the carrier billing habit. The research shows around a third of users in all the countries surveyed pay this way, with Nigeria top at 42%.

The numbers are encouraging for the ‘carrier billing’ industry, which has

worked for many years to encourage this alternative payment method. Carrier billing presents a convenient alternative to credit and debit card payments.

In most cases, the payment completion process is faster. It also presents under 18s and unbanked customers with a genuine

payment option for digital goods. But carrier billing has its challenges. It works best when it’s available across all (or most) operators in a territory. This is not always the case.

In 2016, the market undoubtedly made great strides. Notably, Apple >> 4 GAMING

DIMOCO and EnergyBet partner to bring carrier billing to iGaming market DIMOCO Carrier Billing and EnergyBet have formed a partnership to provide the vast iGaming sector with the easy to use charge to mobile payments that many other digital entertainment industries already thrive on.

The partnership between EnergyBet, the award-winning sportsbook and casino operator, and DIMOCO, a leading payment institute for carrier billing, enables online gambling customers to tap into carrier billing to experience the easiest and

most efficient mobile payment option. Players can use smart phones, tablets, laptops, PCs and connected TVs, securely identified via their carrier networks, to instantaneously participate in the iGaming experience. >> 4

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

Wallets: taking payments out of payments

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23

The rise of the m-wallet is going to see payments become seamless and easy –and part of the loyalty play

FEATURING

MESSAGING

Consumers want SMS chatbots

A survey by OpenMarket finds that a growing number of humans want to talk to robots >> 09 MESSAGING

Square 1 makes SMS easy for SMEs

Square 1 launches an SMS campaign creation dashboard that makes it easy for SMEs to build SMS services >> 09 CONTENT

GRABR launches BLINK

GRABR rolls out easy to use content distribution platform for third parties >> 10 ADVERTISING

Get with the programme

Programmatic advertising is all the rage, but how do you make it work? >> 12 SPORT

Be a good sport

Live sport is ideal for selling mobile content and services – but how do you do it? >> 19 INDUSTRY

Mobile World Congress Preview

A look at what the key themes for telemedia are at the show to end all shows and some key newbites to look out for >> 17

Driving Value Added Services and Monetising Content

2017 Event Brochure Inside – Page 13-16

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REGULATION

PSD2 could boost charge to mobile as it makes other m-payments more tricky The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) European ecommerce rules to tighten up the security of online checkout threaten to make buying things on mobile – and on desktop – much more time consuming and could see an end to all forms of express checkout. But they could be a boon for charge to mobile.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has brought forward proposals for how it will implement what is called strong customer authentication (SCA). The plans include a “one size fits all” approach where every online transaction over €10 will require additional steps at checkout such as entering passwords, codes or using a card reader.

Independent consumer research carried out in five European countries on behalf of Visa, highlighted that 95% of European consumers spend more than €10 when shopping online, via mobile, apps and desktop, meaning that these measures would affect millions of shoppers.

These steps would be felt most strongly in the UK, however, as UK consumers are the most prolific online

shoppers of those markets surveyed – 63% regularly shop online, compared with the European average of 51%.

For UK online shoppers and retailers, the changes are likely to lead to more frustration and more cart abandonment. In fact, the survey found that more than half (52%) of consumers would abandon purchases if more steps were added to the checkout.

In practical terms, the proposals would mean an end to express online checkouts for consumers. This would includes one-click checkouts even at stores where consumers shop regularly, and no more fast, automatic in-app payments where cards are already stored. Across Europe, express online checkouts currently make up half of all

today’s total e-commerce sales, according to Visa’s data.

However, PSD 2 has a hard-won telecoms exemption clause in it that will make charge to mobile mobile payments from a registered device easy to do and for purchases such as carparking and the like, charge to mobile suddenly looks much more attractive.

According to Kevin Jenkins, UK & Ireland Managing Director at Visa: “The extra steps of authentication will be required for every online purchase made using webbased and mobile wallet services through either a browser or retailer’s app.

In practice, this means no more express checkouts or quick in-app payments from mobile.”

Jones continues: “Our recent Digital Payments

study revealed that 65% of UK consumers cited greater convenience as a key benefit of using wallet services, whilst half pointed to one-click payments as a benefit.”

Rory Maguire, MD of AIME, says: “I think the EBA “one size fits all approach” is OTT. Amazon for example allow one-click payments only for logged in users with delivery to the registered address. Change the address (where fraud occurs) and they take you through a new security loop. They could improve the security with a text based PIN loop, but it depends if the EBA will allow the oneclick to remain while the users delivery details are unchanged.”

It will however affect payments where twofactor authentication is not present such as car parking and the opportunities for mobile payments to provide a more convenient payment method start to emerge.

“There is a “however” however,” says Maguire. “and that is the rise of the “payment denial” that is now seriously affecting Charge to Mobile. One network put in a no-quibble refund for any of their consumers who complain about a charge to their bill.

Calls have shot through the roof. The MNOs have to put in place irrefutable payment mechanisms and be harder on their consumers who try the denial otherwise parking will never fly.”

WALLETS

Veoo finds that consumers are hungry for m-wallets and digital loyalty schemes New research commissioned by mobile consultancy, Veoo and its US partner Vibes, highlights that there is a big opportunity for Mobile Wallets here in the UK. The survey shows that the value proposition for mobile wallets is definitely understood and could accelerate as there is still a big appetite for physical loyalty cards and reward programmes. This research was commissioned in the UK and US and show comparisons between the two markets, over 2000 adult

loyalty card holders were surveyed.

The research found that one in four respondents in the UK are already using mobile wallet solutions to store offers/coupons, airline boarding passes, loyalty cards and tickets.

Additionally 95% of respondents have anywhere between 1 to 10 physical

loyalty and reward cards and 90% of them use these cards on a monthly basis.

However, retailers be aware, nearly half of those surveyed (43%) would stop signing up for new loyalty cards if they could not fit them into their physical wallet.

Survey results are illuminating and show what the

future holds for mobile wallet adoption. It shows how awareness, perceptions, and adoption of mobile wallet solutions has grown.

In particular the research looks at consumer expectations around plastic loyalty

cards, influencing factors, and explored the question of whether consumers really want more cards in their physical wallets.

FOR MORE ON WALLETS SEE PAGE 23

Direct operator billing in motion

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PAYMENTS

Charge to mobile use doubles

<< 1 began to support carrier billing on its app store. It did so discreetly, and with little publicity. But the option is now available with selected carriers in Belgium, Germany, Japan, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, there was industry consolidation among the providers of charge to bill.

In 2016, Austria’s DIMOCO acquired Italy’s Onebip, while Bango acquired USbased BilltoMobile from Korea’s Danal. These two companies, along with the VCbacked Boku, DoCoMo Digital and others, can offer content providers hundreds of global connections. And these companies’ own numbers reflect growth in the market.

The question now is how high the market can aim.

Some analysts have made bold claims. A report by Ovum said mobile op-

erators could command a $142bn mobile billing market by 2020. But it did caution this would only happen if stakeholders committed to realistic revenue shares, universal connections and consumers marketing.

The study also found that charge to mobile is part of a groundswell of use of mobile payments globally in 2016. The study shows that nearly two fifths of shoppers have used their phone to pay in a shop in one form or another.

The 18% figure reflects a big spike in ‘physical’ mobile transactions. Two years ago, just 8% had completed an in-store payment with a handset. Apple Pay is one obvious reason for this upturn. Now available in 13 countries, the service has greatly improved awareness of the mobile wallet.

But the biggest impact has come from China.

The research reveals 38% of Chinese consum-

ers have made an in-store mobile payment – nearly double the global average.

This is thanks to mobile wallets such as Tencent/WeChat and Alipay. Their users frequently make QR-code based payments with these products in physical stores.

While in-store mobile payment gathers momentum, mobile shopping on apps and sites has gone fully mainstream. The study found 78% of people had made a purchase by mobile in the previous six months – that’s up four per cent on the figure for 2014.

Despite the general good health of mobile payment, banking and commerce, the old hurdles remain.

Cart abandonment is still high, for example. The research reveals 58% of people have started to pay for something via mobile, only to abandon it before checkout. 31% said this was because they were asked for too much sensitive infor-

mation, while 21% said the process was too long.

Christian von HammelBonten, Executive Vice President Product Strategy at Wirecard, explains: “Today, consumers use smartphones to manage their entire lives: to play games, chat, check their finances, purchase products and order services. Chinese users are at the forefront of this ongoing trend. This comes at no surprise as we enable our customers from the beginning to benefit from this trend with our financial solutions. Yet the report shows also the whole ecosystem still needs to improve and that is what we are working on with

MEF and its partners.”

Rimma Perelmuter, CEO at MEF adds: “The adoption of mobile money continues to advance. In developed markets, mobile payments and banking are driving a revolution in convenience.

In growth markets, they are giving millions of people access to financial services for the first time.

It’s important that the industry builds on this momentum. The research shows we can still do more to improve payment flows, improve consumer trust in mobile money to allay privacy and security concerns. But overall, the news is good: mobile remains the key driver of online commerce.”

connectivity to the billing platforms of the major telecoms networks.

“DIMOCO’s extensive European presence and FinTech philosophy position the company at the forefront of mobile technology,” said Marcin Sapinski, CEO of EnergyBet. “DIMOCO is the natural partner to further enhance EnergyBet’s market position as the innovative and award-winning sportsbook.”

“After two years of European-wide development, DIMOCO is officially activating carrier billing within the iGaming industry, with only the locally

regulated iGaming operators having the opportunity to take advantage of this payment method,” said Rafal Nowak, program director, iGaming at DIMOCO. “We selected 10 markets for initial tests with the most innovative iGaming operators and decided to kick-off our initiative in the homeland of online gambling – the UK. With EnergyBet as our inaugural partner, this is the first time carrier billing will be integrated and activated with a serious international iGaming operator and licensed in multiple territories across Europe.”

GAMING

DIMOCO and EnergyBet partnership << 1 Carrier billing offers an unmatched convenience and customer satisfaction compared to traditional payment methods, such as credit or debit cards.

The result is a significant increase in customer retention and conversion rates for providers, such as EnergyBet. Leveraging DIMOCO’s direct billing connectivity to the major telecoms networks, such as Vodafone, 02, EE and Three, EnergyBet will gain billing reach to more than 70m UK mobile numbers, in a market worth more than £4.6bn, according to the UK Gambling Commission.

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Players are shifting to an increasingly mobile world, consuming a wide range of digital services, such as iGaming, on their mobile devices. The online gaming customer is not typically sitting at his laptop or PC, but rather walking down the road to place a bet at their local betting shop, while accessing their mobile device. This partnership provides users with a simple, hassle-free and quick payment option that everybody literally already holds in their hands.

Consumers are likely to be already familiar with the concept of carrier billing. It is one of the top

three payment methods at Facebook, providing the recognition factor with a large swathe of any gambling operator’s potential audience.

This payment option brings significant opportunity to service providers, including EnergyBet, due to the direct

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

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 Drunken Songs, Julian Cope Fluffer, Viki Vortex and the Cumshots WHAT WE’VE BEEN AMUSED BY Viz top tips on Facebook WHO WE’VE BEEN FOLLOWING @Roryredbox WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING ABOUT Homo Deus SPRING 2017 WILL BRING...

The Unpredictable 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

From small acorns February is always a highlight for anyone working in telecoms: Mobile World Congress, the annual jamboree for the mobile industry comes to call in Barcelona, and literally tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people descend on Gaudi’s home town to showcase all that is great in mobile.

Sifting through what actually is relevant is a trip in itself, as is getting round even the bits of the show that you deem necessary to see, but for the charge to mobile industry and the associated telemedia sector from whence it came, it may be trickier than usual.

Up until now charge to mobile and telemedia has been something of an also ran in the MWC cannon. Not anymore. Today the technology, ideas and principles pioneered by our sector of the decades have shaped what the

UK Premium, National, Toll-Free, Personal & Geo Numbers International PRS, Geo & Toll-Free

mobile business has become. From a small acorn in an less-oft visited mobile field has grown a mighty oak.

Let’s take payments and wallets as an example. Charge to mobile – or carrier billing if you prefer – has been a staple of the telemdia sector for years. We pioneered it.

Now it is one of many key ways in which the mobile phone can be used to pay. The very fact that I can write that sentence is down to the fact that charge to mobile got people using their phones to pay for things.

Add to that the ways in which telemedia services have used first the phone then the mobile to develop novel and innovative interactive services and you start to see how this small backwater of the mobile industry has in fact shaped what the 1000+ exhibitors

at MWC17 are tapping in to.

As this issue of the magazine shows you, we are a thriving industry and one that should be overlooked by the mainstream no more. If you are reading this publication for the first time – and I know that many of you are since we are pushing it to you newbies at MWC – then get involved: we’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, those involved in the sector already you should feel proud to look around the 10+ halls at MWC this year and know that you made much of what is on show happen. www.telemediaonline.co.uk @telemediaTweets @MrSkeldon

Paul Skeldon. editor

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Direct operator billing in motion

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PAYMENTS

2017: the year of mobile payments 2.0 Difficult Second Album, Sophomore Slump, Second Year Blues - it’s not easy maintaining success.

Happily, following its breakout year in 2015, the mobile payments industry has seen continued innovation and growth in 2016. Paul Skeldon takes a look at what 2017 has in store Its been a long time coming, but mobile has finally properly arrived as a payment tool. But in doing so, the very meaning of what mobile payments are has also shifted. Is it using the phone as a proxy for a card a la Apple Pay? Is it using the phone bill to charge things to? Is it part of an app doing something else like Uber? Is it way to send money to friends? Is it a tool for managing your bank account? Is buying your shopping on Amazon using one click part of it?

In reality it is all these things – and more. And it is taking hold around the world. More and more people are starting to use mobile for all of these things and it is changing everything from how people consumer media, buy things, and interact with each other.

According to the latest MEF Mobile Money report, 78% of people have made a purchase using mobile in the past year. Needless to say, there is significant nuance behind this number. Consumers paid for physical goods more than any other product type: 36% of people have purchased physical products via mobile – a rise of a third

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strides. Notably, Apple began to support carrier billing on its app store.

It did so discreetly, and with little publicity. But the option is now available with selected carriers in Belgium, Germany, Japan, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Microsoft also drove things along using carrier billing for its Windows 10 downloads all over the world. The future is bright for carrier billing in 2017.

IOT AND ‘INVISIBLE PAYMENTS’

Providing the consumer with a truly frictionless experience is the holy grail for the payments industry. This has already been achieved inapp with platforms such as Uber, but has yet to be translated in-store.

“In the IoT era, however, we are moving ever closer to delivering a seamless in-store CHARGE TO MOBILE experience. Beacons, on the number year on has 7.69 million active geolocation, computer year (24%).But it grows diners and quarterly IS ON THE RISE In 2016 more than a vision and biometric nonetheless. revenues of around third of people paid for technologies are being Alongside the rise in $140 million. items directly from the combined to deliver a physical good purchasPerhaps surprisphone bill, according to frictionless experience,” ing from mobile, there ingly, mobile shopping the latest research from says André Stoorvogel, was a big spike in mofor digital content has the Mobile Ecosystem Head of Marketing, Rambile shopping for food fallen in the last two bus Bell ID. and drink. The study re- years. The study reveals Forum (MEF). That’s Indeed, the industry vealed 26% have bought 30% of people said they more than double the will closely be moniequivalent number for food and drink from the bought digital goods in toring the success of phone in the previous the previous six months. 2014 (14%). And it apAmazon Go, which is six months – more than In 2014, the number pears that consumers currently in beta but double the 2014 figure. was 37%. all over the world have is expected to launch One plausible reason for So what are the trends embraced the carrier billing habit. publicly in early 2017. this is the rapid rise of coming down the pipe The research shows a The concept deploys food ordering apps. for 2017 as mobile payaround a third of users various technologies Europe’s Just Eat, for ments takes hold and in all the countries sur(the exact details are example, now has over becomes mainstream?

16.6 million users and What does Payments 2.0 veyed pay this way, with yet to be released) that enables a consumer to over 63,900 takeaway look like? Here are some Nigeria top at 42%.

In 2016, the market walk into the store, pick restaurants. Meanwhile, of the key things to look undoubtedly made great up an item and walk out, one of the US’s bigger out for. with the order charged players – GrubHub –

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

to their Amazon account upon leaving.

As well as Amazon Go, Stoorvogel also predicts myriad other pilots, demos and announcements throughout 2017 that aim to move all stages of the in-store payments process from initialization and authentication, right through to final confirmation – firmly into the background.

OEM PAY: EVOLUTION, NOT REVOLUTION

Increased consumer awareness, ever-expanding acceptance and more mature offerings means that the various OEM Pay platforms will continue to go from

nascent to mainstream in 2017.

“The conversation surrounding mobile payments, however, will change,” says Stoorvogel.

“With ‘tap and go’ cultures becoming increasingly engrained, consumers now expect to be able to make contactless payments. The added convenience of paying with your mobile device is no longer the main driver of adoption.”

Instead, the focus is shifting from changing the payments process into a ‘buying experience.’ The key to this is the specific, intelligent deployment of valueadded services such as rewards, loyalty and couponing.

For example, Apple has just partnered with Blackhawk Network to integrate eGifts, loyalty and rewards programs into Apple Pay. And Google has gotten into the festive spirit with Android Pay Christmas Crackers, which delivers rewards to users.

CHINESE TECH GIANTS ENTER THE FRAY…

China is the world’s biggest mobile payments market, with transaction volume hitting $235 billion in 2015.

The dense regulatory framework, which precludes international companies, has seen AliPay and WeChat platforms establish a domi-

nant market position.

“The nature of the Chinese mobile payments market, however, has meant that it operated in essential isolation. Times are changing,” says Stoorvogel.

“For example, AliPay has recently announced partnerships to bring its service to Europe and Australia. The rapid global expansion of both the AliPay and WeChat platforms is likely to have huge implications across the entire payments industry.

Although the platforms are currently aimed only at Chinese tourists abroad, it is apparent that the long-term strategy is to develop a global offering.”

ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT CHANNELS

More and more retailers are developing their own payment applications to control the payments process and deliver a unique, tailored experience, and we expect this will continue throughout 2017.

In addition, initiatives such as QR code mobile payments are enabling retailers to keep the payment process ‘in-house’ and reduce network fees. QR codes may not necessarily be the future, but the trend of retailers identifying and developing alternative payment channels is here to stay.

Direct operator billing in motion

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PAYMENTS

The dawn of micro payments for online publishers Mention the word “Paywall” to an online publisher and you will get a stern stare back at best or sharp comments “been there...seen it fail... not looking at it!” at worst. But behind the word is a desire to create a new word or phrase that provides a solution to a major and growing concern that publishers are grappling with. The phrase they should be looking at is “Charge to Mobile” and the sub text is “mobile enabled micro payments”, says Rory Maguire, MD of AIME.

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For many years, publishers who have placed their content online have relied on advertising to fund it and few have bravely introduced subscription models for online or app ad-free access sometimes with a paper version thrown into the subscription mix. After all, spreading the Sunday papers over the dining room table is part of a traditional British weekend that neither computers nor tablets can replicate.

The main issue for online publishers is that advertising revenues are falling away fast while content production costs are increasing. The major impact on advertising revenues is that access via the traditional 14” computer screen with loads of ad inventory surrounding the content is shrinking to the 5” screens of smartphones with near zero wrap around inventory.

Consumers hate pop-up ads and will install adblockers or continuously click away from intrusive ads. Advertising revenue models have also evolved from per-eyeball banners to per-click or per-acquisition payments, neither of which is successful while consumers click away or block. As the Guard-

ian Online states on its Become a Supporter web page “…

While more people are reading the Guardian than ever before, far fewer are paying for it.

And advertising revenues across the media are falling fast.”. Those advertising revenues that can be achieved are a fraction of the revenue from print advertising, but even that is falling away as advertisers are pushing for online click-throughs even more than ever.

Publishers that rely on subscriptions are relying on their loyal following. It is an unusual phenomena that creates almost undying loyalty to a newspaper brand in the same way that you pick your friends and remain with them for life. But this is diminishing as published consumption is increasingly based on search and recommendations instead of loyalty, much in the same way as the concept of “friends” has evolved with Facebook. New Yorks Wall Street Journal and UK The Times successfully implemented a subscription paywall. The Times stable mate The Sun, struggled with conversion despite its loyal following.

Regular financial commit-

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

ment and access to online payment facilities may have been the issue.

The big question now for online publishers is how to serve this community of small screen promiscuous consumers with snack size –but quality –content and get a financial return to fund the business?

A few payment facilities for content are evolving.

Piano (www.piano.io) provides US based publishers (mainly) with metered and hard paywalls and about 11 percent of publishers businesses are interested in the different payment models.

Swiss company Millipay (www.millipay.ch) takes an upfront payment from consumers and allows micro decrements of their virtual currency to pay for bite-size content from a range of publishers. Dutch company Blendl will aggregate content from a range of publishers and provide a chargeable interface to this aggregated content, thus overcoming the promiscuous consumer issue.

The base reason for the upfront payment or paywall subscription payments is down to the two barriers of gaining the payment details from

the consumer in the first place and the cost of card payments. Below 50p it is not finically viable and conversion is low, yet the average quality content piece will only sell at 5 to 20p.

This is where Charge to Mobile fits perfectly with online Publishing.

Any micro payment from 1p upwards is possible in the UK and in the “lower risk” arena of an online publication can be achieved with a single payment confirmation.

The interaction can be achieved in a number of ways from single item consumption, metered consumption, ad-block embracing consumption and aggregated content consumption. The permutations are endless, scope is huge and experimentation viable.

Rory Maguire is MD of AIME, the Association for Interactive Media & Entertainment

billing & engagement for value added services & content

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CallCom Road Test

We take a look at how a new IP switch from CallCom could radically shake up how telemedia companies make their money

Get with the programme

12

How to make programmatic advertising work for your services –and how it fits with affiliate marketing

13

World Telemedia Marbella Preview Check out what’s going to be happening in Marbella in October in our four page pull out special MESSAGING

Human consumers want retailers, banks and travel firms to embrace SMS chatbots Retailers, banks and the travel industry all need to embrace SMS chatbots to enhance customer service and engagement, a study by OpenMarket reveals.

The company polled 1,500 mobile users in the US and UK on their current experiences with, and preferences for, engaging with businesses via chatbots and SMS text messaging. The results reveal that across the board,

there’s a vast opportunity for businesses to harness SMSpowered chatbots to enhance customer satisfaction and ultimately evoke better overall customer loyalty. >> 10 MESSAGING

Square 1’s Guidescreen helps aggregators and SMEs launch new SMS services Square 1 Communications has launched a new platform for both UK and Global aggregators, L1s, L2s and SME that want to use SMS for interactive services or as a marketing tool.

GuideScreen is a simple-to-use hosted platform that allows aggregators and others to build, manage and host any SMS service via the web. From simple messagein and message-out applications to more complex interactive services using the aggregator or SME’s own routes, free to user or billing SMS services, GuideScreen allows any business to integrate SMS services to other platforms such as email and database.

The service fulfills the need to be able to build and launch services very quickly without the need for expensive development teams.

GuideScreen can be used by non technical staff and allows companies to concentrate on their main task.

GuideScreen can also be branded and access levels may in some cases be granted to the end client allowing them to build what is needed.

Driving value added services for voice and mobile

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CONTENT

GRABR launches BLINK: a secure mobile content distribution platform for brands GRABR has launched BLINK, a proprietary suite of marketing tools that enables brands to securely distribute exclusive original content on established social networks, websites and broadcast media, while protecting their IP and commercial rights.

The platform comprises a CMS to manage and control the distribution of user-generated video, images and audio, allowing the brand to build its own content campaigns, add advertising, meta-tagging and message users.

BLINK also offers a customisable app that enables end-users to easily access, capture and share content from their devices (publicly or privately). The platform can also be integrated with third party mobile apps using the BLINK API.

GRABR – the software as a service (SaaS) social media platform that launched last year – is targeting BLINK at brands, broadcast media, music labels, event organisers, news outlets and public services. The app can be used by the licensee’s strategic partners or fan communities, the key differentiator being that the client retains ownership of all their content. The BLINK platform is available for immediate licence.

Subtv is already using BLINK for

its upcoming campus campaigns, promoting the app to universities that broadcast Subtv music tv.

Students can share pictures and images from key moments/events in and outside campus life. The best content is awarded with prizes and distributed across Subtv digital and social channels.

BLINK is the brainchild of the team behind GRABR, the software as a service (SaaS) platform that launched last year and which allows brands to create their own

MESSAGING

MESSAGING

Chatbots << 9 The findings discovered that financial services is the top industry in which consumers would like to see better customer experiences and engagement opportunities via SMS (49%), followed by retail (27%) and travel and hospitality (24%).

As more enterprises look to leverage SMS-powered chatbots as a way to promote two-way communications with customers in 2017, OpenMarket’s chatbot survey gathered insights on consumer communication preferences for interacting with preferred businesses.

The survey also identified what consumers find most valuable in their ability to correspond with them, and why. The results revealed that across the globe, mobile consumers find it would be “very useful” to be able to respond conversationally via SMS with preferred businesses in all three surveyed industry verticals: financial institutions (63%), travel and hospitality companies

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social networks to engage directly with consumers.

“BLINK gives brands control of their own images, video and audio rights at all times, enabling them to target distribution accurately and optimise value,” said GRABR CEO Tony Pearce. “Licensees can then share that content confidently. It also allows brands to receive huge amounts of content sent by users, then easily manage and polish that material.”

Guidescreen (54%), and retailers (67%).

When asked why consumers found it useful to text for business services over other communication channels, nearly half (45%) of respondents pointed to “not getting put on hold,” “doing it on my own time,” and “taking my time to respond” as the top three factors for choosing text messaging.

“Chatbots are getting a lot of attention on the promise of transforming customer interactions, yet to date, there’s been little insight from consumers themselves supporting whether or not they would find value in chatbots as a way to communicate with brands,” said Jay Emmet, general manager for OpenMarket. “The survey findings prove that chatbots are more than a short-lived fad.

They are an untapped mobile engagement solution that consumers and business could benefit from both from a convenience and financial perspective – a strategy that businesses

should be incorporating into their 2017 customer experience initiatives.”

Despite that nearly half (49%) of consumers want to engage more conversationally with businesses through SMS, 50% of them are not even currently receiving SMS notifications from their financial institutions.

Travel and hospitality businesses are missing the mark the most on customer engagement opportunities, with 75% of consumers not currently receiving SMS notifications from companies such as hotels, airlines and train operators.

Retailers are also not meeting consumer preferences, with 62% of consumers not currently receiving SMS notifications from their preferred retailers.

The age of those polled ranged from 18 to over 60 years old—signifying the preferences for conversational SMS capabilities across not only specific industries, but also generations.

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

<< 9 “Many aggregators are just that, aggregators and they leave the development and building of SMS services up to clients, however many clients don’t have the development teams or the skills to build services,” says Mark Birkett, CEO of Square 1. “GuideScreen overcomes this and allows the aggregator to build them whilst ensuring they always fit within the ever increasing regulatory framework, removing the risk of rouge services.”

GuideScreen is currently being used by an aggregator in the UK and several other countries where it has direct connections and is allowing the aggregator to build and launch the services globally that may work in a similar way but have slightly differing, but far reaching, regulatory requirements in each territory – all without the need to pull on internal and expensive development staff, access can be given to country manages who are able to set up services as needed for each area.

TELECOMS

Putting Swiss precision through its paces CallCom has developed a Class 4 VoIP switch for interconnection and wholesale traffic management – and it’s a game changer for telemedia. We put it through its paces.

The introduction of new technologies and IP across the world has had repercussions on many telemedia companies. These changes have also opened up a world of possibilities for new services too and many players are looking to also explore the wholesale sector, but don’t know where to start.

One way to make all these things happen is to look at softswitches and Swiss tech company CallCom has rolled out a new one – GrSWITCH – a class 4 VoIP softswitch for interconnection of operators and wholesale telephone traffic trading with controlled and guaranteed profit margin.

So what does that mean in practice? Well, we put it through its paces and found it to be a great little switch that has some unique features that, used in anger, can actually create revenue and save money at the same time.

The GrSWITCH (figure 1) sits between the client operators and the supplier’s operator and

essentially normalises calls, filters them and applies routing tables before placing them through revenue assurance filters in trunk groups.

Calls are routed by calculating the optimal solution on the basis of the origindestination pair.

Incoming calls are normalized according to the format E.164

(sanity check) and then filtered using a mechanism of blocks (blacklist, whitelist and antifraud systems) eliminating at source all calls from undesired or incorrectly formatted numbers.

After passing through this filter, calls are routed according to the set routing plans and sent to groups of outgoing virtual ports (trunk group) for connection with the final supplier offering the lowest price, according to a fixed order of priority, or in such a way as to balance loads among suppliers.

Routing plans for calls can be created with simple routing

patterns but also with highly complex regular expressions.

The revenue assurance function guarantees profit by blocking calls termination when the

requested profit margin is not matched.

The adaptive interface (Figure 2) enables access to the system from any device, to give you control of all information on traffic and performance and prompt intervention when required.

The most important data (total active calls, ASR, ACD, PDD) is visible for immediate control.

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ALWAYS ACTIVE

The system memory contains all operation data, while the database only stores statistics and

configuration data. The service remains operative, reliable and high performing even in the event of temporary unavailability of the database (in-memory proprietary engine).

A proactive system promptly detects anomalous traffic and blocks it before it turns into a reduction of profit margin.

The system features automatic price lists, where you can define guaranteed percentage margins or set absolute values, to automatically and dynamically generate new sales price lists according to the suppliers used and for each variation in purchase price. Each new price list shows all prices that have been increased or decreased, and is sent automatically to the client.

Lists can also be imported manually, in different formats, from different suppliers, and the reconciliation of invoicing data with time and currency differences are all tasks that cost time and money.

GrSWITCH performs these operations quickly and automatically, thus keeping the activity of routing at constantly high revenue levels.

You can see the GrSWITCH in action at Mobile World Congress or contact the company.

Info@callcom.ch www.callcom.ch t: +41 91 225 8330

Driving value added services for voice and mobile

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ADVERTISING

Get with the programme

Top trends of programmatic advertising in 2017 Programmatic advertising is set to change everything you know about how services are advertised and used. Daniel Surmacz, COO, RTB House, takes a look at where it is going and what top trends are emerging that you need be aware of Programmatic is a gamechanging technology in the advertising industry. According to ZenithOptimedia Programmatic Marketing Forecasts it will grow by an astounding 31% in 2017- and that’s faster than social media (25%) and online video (20%).

At the same time, marketers using automation is on the rise: Dun & Bradstreet Report predicts almost 70% of B2B marketers plan to increase spending on programmatic advertising in 2017.

For those of you not in the know, “Programmatic” ad buying typically refers to the use of software to purchase digital advertising, as opposed to the traditional process that involves RFPs, human negotiations and manual insertion orders. It’s using machines to buy ads, basically.

Before programmatic ad buying, digital ads were bought and sold by human ad buyers and salespeople, who can be expensive and unreliable. Programmatic advertising technology promises to make the ad buying system more efficient, and therefore cheaper, by removing humans from the process wherever possible. Humans get sick, need to sleep and come to work hungover. Machines do not.

So what can we expect from the year ahead and how should advertisers, servies providers and aggregators be prepared to take advantage of programmatic? Here are the top three trends in the upcoming year.

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#1 CROSS-DEVICE CAMPAIGNS WILL GET IN POWER

According to Global Mobile Consumer Trends Research, we check our phones around 40 times per day. With more than 78% of the global consumers owning smartphones (76% in developed countries and 81% in emerging markets), mobile programmatic ads are on the upswing.

Rising device penetration and increased mobile usage is a huge advertising opportunity, which marketers simply can’t ignore.

2017 will be the year of mobile programmatic not only in the US, where eMarketer predicts that mobile will represent nearly 75% of all programmatic ad spending, but also in other markets across the globe.

Programmatic video is also on the rise. It will amount to about 60% of all digital video ad spending in the US according to eMarketer, and accounts for almost a quarter of video ad spend in Europe.

The UK will remain the market leader in programmatic digital display ad spending, expected to account for more than three quarters of all buys in 2017, so by 2018 programmatic direct will account for 52 per cent of the programmatic total and £2.03bn.

The programmatic mobile and video market has been shaky in the past, but device saturation and market maturity seems to put publishers and advertisers in a comfortable place with buying and selling mobile and video ad inventory. In 2017, brands will be even more eager to run activities

that reach consumers on every one of those screens and planning a cross-device campaign will be a common and effective strategy.

by the lower costs of impressions technology fees, while publishers enjoy higher profit margins from their inventory.

#2 HEADER BIDDING WILL REVOLUTIONIZE BUY/SELL AUCTIONS

#3 DEEP LEARNING WILL BOOST RETARGETING QUALITY TO NEW HEIGHTS

Header bidding (or pre-bidding) helps publishers better decide which partners they choose work with.

Unlike waterfall auctions, which have long been the standard of buying and selling ads, header bidding means all bids are made at once. This allows for a more democratic access path to the publishers ad inventory, which creates a win-win for both publishers and advertisers. The price usually goes up, awarding publishers more money. At the same time, it gives advertisers a more even shot at the inventory they most want.

In traditional waterfall methods, publishers are not able to choose their partners – they are placed into tiers based on how much money they have spent historically. The more they’ve spent, the higher tier they occupy. When an impression goes up for auction, it is first offered to the highest tier; if that tier doesn’t bite, the same impression is pushed down to the next tier.

This repeats until someone makes a bid. But this process doesn’t always get the publisher the true value for their impression. Nor does it give advertisers equal footing to bid on the impression they want. And here is where header bidding concept steps into the game.

In 2017, header bidding will be more accessible than ever, thanks to rapid developments in the technology that allows them.

Buyers will be highly incentivized

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

According to Juniper Research, machine learning algorithms which are employed in programmatic advertising to enable more efficient bids in RTB networks are expected to generate around $42 billion in annual advertising revenue by 2021, up from around $3.5 billion this year.

Deep learning (a branch of machine learning based on algorithms that attempt to model high-level abstractions in data) has made significant strides in 2016 and will be on the radar of many forward-thinking advertisers in 2017. It’s now being used in many industries beyond software. These algorithms are the backbone of image or speech recognition, and in 2017 their application will have a great influence on programmatic advertising campaigns.

Thanks to deep learning methods which are employed by innovative retargeting technology providers, advertisers will be able to predict user behaviour, calculate the probability of purchasing, and measure value more accurately. Programmatic buying and selling powered by deep learning will yield a higher value of conversions and enable advertisers to run advertising campaigns that are extremely effective without larger budgeting.

Daniel Surmacz is COO of RTB House, a global provider of retargeting technology powered by deep learning algorithms

Carrier Billing & Engagement Technologies That Drive Value Added Services & Monetise Content EXHIBITION, SEMINARS & NETWORKING • 9 - 11 OCTOBER 2017 • HOTEL H10 ANDALUCIA PLAZA, MARBELLA THE 53rd WORLD TELEMEDIA SHOW

PLATINUM SPONSORS

World Telemedia is for any business that wishes to engage and commercialize “connected consumers” whilst they use mobile devices and telephones; to interact with value added service and content propositions.

Visit the only European event that showcases how carrier billing and other alternative payment platforms are evolving (in partnership with Service Providers and Aggregators) to create a dynamic

COMPLIANCE & INSIGHTS SPONSOR

“Telemedia” value chain which is typically driven by minutes, messages and traffic.

Billing & Infrastructure

Content & Marketing

• • • •

• • • •

Aggregators & Service Providers Resellers & Consultants Billing & Payment Providers Carriers, Network Operators & Telcos

PARTNERS & ASSOCIATES

Merchants, Media & Content Owners Service & Application Developers Affiliate Networks & VAS Promoters Ad Networks & Agencies

So Marbella is now a key destination for Merchants, Media and Content Owners – who want seamless micropayment solutions and engagement tools to drive sales and convert customers across a globally expanding range of media, affiliate and advertising networks.

89% C-Level (highest level) Executives 49% “Newbies” 1st Time Visitors

20% Increase in Attendees 195 Individual Companies Represented (WT Marbella 2016 stats)

Sign up today – and join a network of over 400 industry leaders from 60+ countries for 3 days of VIP networking, C-level meetings, spotlight presentations, international market updates, workshops, private lunches and sponsored breakout sessions.

€395* Event Pass Includes:

• • • •

Entry to Monday Meet Market Entry to Expo Lounge & Bars Working Lunch (on both days) All Spotlight & Country Update Sessions

• • • •

Invitation to Hospitality Breakouts All Parties & Networking Events Speed Networking Sessions (max 2) LinkedIn VIP Group Membership

€1700 NEW* “Meet Market” Delegate Package Includes: • 2 x Event Passes • Logo & Profile on Website • Meet Market Table Top • Guaranteed PR • Inc Table and Chairs • Logo & Profile in Show Guide • Table Top Branding • 20% Discount on Additional Passes • Space for Pop Up Banner • 1 x Invitation to Directors Lunch * (If booked before 28th April)

CONTACT Tel +44 (0)1444 831 909 / +44 (0)7711 927 092 • Email jarvis@worldtelemedia.co.uk

WTM is now a key event for Kimia, providing access to C-level attendees in a setting where real business gets done.

Karen Ciulla, Sales Director Kimia Solutions SL World Telemedia delivers in terms of new business as well as being the perfect environment to cement existing client relationships.

Louisa Harris, Client Services Director Fonix I met all the industry’s key people and acquired a big stack of new valuable contacts - thanks again, a great show!

Sergey Bohuslavsky, Business Devel. Manager Fbilling

WorldTelemedia.co.uk

Driving value added services for voice and mobile

13

EXHIBITION, SEMINARS & NETWORKING Promotions Advertising

NEW Spotlight Sessions - Call for Papers Designed to “dovetail” with our hugely popular County Updates - the Spotlight programme will also provide “bite-size” open sessions; offering delegate’s greater choice and more freedom to attend the most relevant presentations whilst managing a diary full of meetings.

If you have a case study or would like to share your commercial successes at the show

Chat Adult

Geographic Profile

- Contact us today and secure an early slot in the schedule

UK C/S Europe E Europe Middle East Australasia

Games Gambling

S/N America

49%

“Newbies” 1st Time Visitors

89%

C-Level (highest level) Executives

195

Individual Companies Represented

336

Paid Delegates (forecast for 2017, 400+)

20%

Increase in Attendees

56

Individual Countries

98%

Increase in Exhibition & Sponsorship

Africa 0%

Voting Competitions Parking Charities

12.5%

25%

37.5%

50%

NEW for 2017 – The Monday Meet Market (15:00 to 18:30 9th Malaga Suite at pool level) This pre show table top exhibition will enable around 50 companies to enjoy great visibility during this high profile opening event. The “Meet Market” provides structured face to face networking that enables participants to quickly and easily engage with a wider range of suppliers than ever before – at a time when energy levels are at their highest. So don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to start sharing information about products and services, arrange future meetings and start doing business.

Promote Your Business in Marbella Compulsory attendance for the premium billing industry.

Gary Corbett, Chairman Oxygen8 Group It was a great show and I came away with lots of new prospects, deals and new friends.

Warren Platt, Founder & CEO Mobile Life

Platinum Sponsor

€11,250

Lunches

€1,000

Gold Sponsor

€8,750

Spotlight Session

€1,000

Silver Sponsor

€5,000

T53 Golf Team

€650

Video Presentation Suite

€4,500

Delegate Bags €3,000

Stands €450 psqm

Badges €2,000

Mini Lounge €2,500

Expo Drinks & Canapés

Speed Networking

Sun Terrace Drinks Party

€2,000

CONTACT WorldTelemedia.co.uk

14

Tel +44 (0)1444 831 909 / +44 (0)7711 927 092 • Email jarvis@worldtelemedia.co.uk

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

€2,500 €4,000

Driving Value Added Services and Monetising Content

9 - 11 OCTOBER 2017 • HOTEL H10 ANDALUCIA PLAZA, MARBELLA €119 inc Breakfast

Venue - H10 Andalucia Plaza Hotel

Retail Vouchers

By day the event is exclusively located in and around the hotel – which offers a perfect layout and state of the art facilities. The integral convention centre links directly to all the main networking areas including, the terrace, casino, pool area and restaurant – where lunches will be served.

The hotel also happens to be located in Puerto Banús – with its own walkway leading directly into Marbella’s most fashionable and glamorous district – where many of our evening events will take place.

Expo Lounge

Speaker Room Private Lunches

Registration

Speed Networking

Entrance

Country Updates

Bar & Lounge

Horoscopes Dating 2

Piano Bar

7 9 7 9

8

9

8

Spotlight Sessions

NEW “Monday Meet Market” (Malaga Suite pool level)

TV & Media Publishing

Registration Registration

To Lunch

Directorʼs Lunch

Travel Web Services Venues Ticketing

Sun Terrace Drinks Reception

Casino and walkway to Porto Banus

Buffet Lunch

€119 inc Breakfast

The “must do” event for anyone in the VAS ecosystem Jeremy Flynn, Co-Founder Empello

Pool

CONTACT Tel +44 (0)1444 831 909 / +44 (0)7711 927 092 • Email jarvis@worldtelemedia.co.uk

Attendees are open to deal-making and developing partnerships in a great venue and a buzzy social program - I thoroughly recommend it.

Steve Godman, Co-Founder & CEO - Soundmite Ltd

WorldTelemedia.co.uk

Driving value added services for voice and mobile

15

Carrier Billing & Engagement Technologies That Drive Value Added Services & Monetise Content EXHIBITION, SEMINARS & NETWORKING • 9 - 11 OCTOBER 2017 • HOTEL H10 ANDALUCIA PLAZA, MARBELLA TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER

WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER

09:00 Expo Lounge Opens

10:00 Expo Lounge Opens

Empello Country Updates 09:30 UAE 10:30 Qatar 11:30 Egypt 12:30 Turkey

Empello Country Updates 10:30 Belgium 11:30 Germany 12:30 Poland

Spotlight Sessions 10:00 VAS - Getting MNOs On Side 11:00 Carrier Billing & Mobile Money 12:00 Print & Broadcast – DR Trends

Spotlight Sessions 10:00 Mobile Video & In App Messaging 11:00 Enhancing Services With Mobile Data 12:00 Mobile Adverting & Ad Blocking 13:00 OTT Messaging - WhatsApp, FB..

11:30 Speed Networking 1

11:30 Speed Networking 3

13:00 - 14:00 Directors* / Working Lunch

13:00 Working Lunch

Private Lunch 13:00 UK Domestic Voice

Billing dispute & AIT update (By invitation only)

Private Lunch 13:00 Managing Consumers

Consumer rights &

handling complaints (By invitation only)

(Castilla Suite)

DRAFT SCHEDULE

Empello Country Updates 14:30 Brazil 15:30 South Africa 16:30 Mexico 17:30 UK

MONDAY 9 OCTOBER 09:30 T53 Golf Day 10.00 Registration Open Private Lunch 13:00 International Voice

Fighting fraud, hijackers & FAS (By invitation only)

15:00 Meet Market Opens (Malaga Suite at pool level)

18:00 Piano Bar Open 18:30 Sun Terrace Drinks Reception 21:30 Platinum Party

Sponsored by International Premiums

23:00 After Party @ Slainte

Spotlight Sessions 14:00 Acquiring “Safe Traffic” 15:00 Monetisation / Paywalls 16:00 VAS Profiles & Key Verticals 17:00 Affiliate Traffic & Social Media

(Castilla Suite)

Empello Country Updates 13:30 France 14:30 Italy 15:30 Spain 16:30 Portugal Spotlight Sessions 14:00 Alternative Payments & Wallets 15:00 Managing the Consumer Experience 16:00 Price Points, Compliance & Conversion

16:30 Speed Networking 2

16:30 Speed Networking 4

18:00 Sponsor Hospitality Breakouts • International Voice 1 • UK Carrier Billing Forum • Value Added Services & Content 1

16:30 Sponsor Hospitality Breakouts • International Voice 2 • Rules & Regulations Update • Value Added Services & Content 2

18:00 Piano Bar Open 19:00 Expo Drinks & Canapés 19:30 Client Dinners 22:00 Gold Party In The Port

17:30 Expo Close 18:00 Piano Bar Open

Sponsored by Empello

*Supplement required

WorldTelemedia.co.uk 16

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

TELECOMS

Mobile World Congress Preview Every year Mobile World Congress gets bigger – testament to the fact that mobile becomes an ever more central part of everyone’s life. Add in that the internet of things (IoT) is also now ‘mobile’ and you start to see Mobile World Congress as an event that pretty much covers every facet of, well, everything.

So how can one make sense of such an enormous event that covers everything? Well there are a few key telemedia players who are out there showing things and kicking up a rumpus and so we have asked them what they are doing and what they think you should be looking out for.

CHARGE TO MOBILE

Given all that happened within the carrier billing industry in 2016, from the world’s largest app store launching and rolling out their carrier billing offering, to the continued expansion of carrier billing across any connected device, the table is set nicely for another banner year in 2017.

Of course, no event quite captures all of the trends for the year ahead quite like Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (except World Telemdia, see page XX – Ed). In anticipation of this year’s Congress, let’s take a look at three key trends we expect to take centre stage.

While 2016 was marked by massive expansion and adoption of carrier billing by some of the world’s most popular digital music streaming services, including Deezer and Spotify, movie and television subscription services like Hulu and Netflix have yet to make any significant moves towards broad carrier billing offerings.

“All of that may change in 2017, however,” says Mark Stannard, EMEA board director at Mobile Ecosystem Forum and

VP of business development at Boku. “As carrier billing technology, costs, and consumer experiences continue to improve while carriers themselves actively enhance their offering to streaming services by providing targeted co-marketing and promotions to improve subscriber acquisition – expect to hear plenty of talk around this topic at this MWC.”

voted to dissecting the “mobile first” consumer who feels a greater attachment to their mobile device and carrier company than they do to their credit card or bank.”

REGULATION

From an Empello perspective at MWC as regulatory/compliance pressures have increased across several key markets

to develop new opportunities too, as they re-balance their geographic developments,” he says. “Our market data and remote service testing capabilities means we are uniquely placed to support content providers expansion plans.”

For instance, we are seeing increased interest in new markets and in the last 6 months we have launched BE, AR, UAE, QA, MA, EG with further markets in the pipeline. In order to meet this increased demand, and ensure we continue to deliver great levels of service, we are investing heavily, says Dent.

MEDIA, ENTERTAINMENT AND DATING

Stannard continues: “Whereas once high levels of credit card penetration were considered a death-knell for carrier billing, recent years have seen that common wisdom turned on its head. Just this past year, the world’s largest app stores launched carrier billing in developed markets around the globe, signalling a tremendous vote of confidence in its appeal with consumers, even if those consumers have other ways to pay online. At Mobile World Congress, there will be a fair amount of time and energy de-

– such as UK, FR, DE, AU and beyond – we are seeing strong demand for our 3G ad monitoring services, both from existing clients expanding scope, as well as from new clients, says Gavin Dent, Empello’s director.

“The main challenge remains combating misleading affiliate marketing, across web/ app/ social. With now 50+ clients we have considerable critical mass and a significant level of resources deployed for this type of ad monitoring,” he says.

“It’s not just a defensive play, clients also want our support

One of the key themes for telemedia companies at Mobile World Congress is the use of video marketing for clients. At this year’s show Crazy4Media will be showcasing its video influencer marketing platform. www.fheel.com , which is now available for Spanish, English and Arabic speaking influencers.

The company is also showcasing its mobile entertainment campaign offerings for South East Asia and its chatbot dating service, Anita, which is available to mobile operators worldwide, all in Hall 8.1 Stand I63.

“What is the best thing for you about the show?” says Crazy4Media CEO Tom Horsey.

“Getting everyone in one place at the same time allows for innovative deals to be put in place on a global scale that

Driving value added services for voice and mobile

17

TELECOMS

just wouldn’t be achievable if MWC didn’t exist. That, and the Crazy4Media annual party at the Erotic Museum…”

IOT AND BEYOND MOBILE

On-device purchases today offer an easy and frictionless experience because payments are typically processed from an online wallet account where a funding source is set up once and automatically debited whenever a purchase is made, explains Mark Stannard, EMEA board director at Mobile Ecosystem Forum and VP of business development at Boku.

“Today, online wallet accounts are not only accessed from mobile phones but are increasingly accessed from a spectrum of connected devices such as laptops, tablets, e-readers, game consoles, tv consoles, wearable technology, smart appliances, smart homes, smart cars, etc. all within a growing segment the tech industry has called the Internet of Things (IoT),” he says.

These connected devices are unlikely to operate with a SIM card but share the same wallet ecosystem as a mobile phone. This means it is important that consumers are given a choice to authorize their digital wallets for purchases made on an IoT device the same way they would on a mobile phone.

In the same way that Alexa integrations made every device at this year’s CES an AI powerhouse, be on the lookout for similar moves from IoT vendors and carrier billing, believes Stannard.

APP ANALYTICS

With app use on the rise again – and with the line between native apps and the web blurring – understanding how apps are being used is key. This is what Rory Mudie, CEO of Redbox is hoping to see more of at Mobile World Congress.

“We are hoping to see a

18

more detailed answer to app analytics, with the new Search Ads platform from Apple, as well as the ability to track

organic productivity, without the very vague platforms that are available today,” he says.

“We have noticed several of the

offerings to date track organic based on installs and users have not tagged as being from a Facebook or Twitter campaign etc and would really like to get a better understanding of the Apple acquisition. Google Play do offer this inside the Play Console and so efforts to increase revenue and users are somewhat clearer.”

The best thing about the show is interacting with different opinions and methods of working within the digital space, adds Mudie. “It’s great to hear top shelf thinking on new products in the market and the headway different companies are adapting to, to make them work for them.”

Some other interesting companies to look out for Among the thousands of exhibitors there are some real little diamonds that are worth checking out – or at least keeping an eye on in 2017. Here are our pick of the best.

AIRCHARGE

Aircharge provides wireless charging solutions to homes, office and public locations. Aircharge works with world’s major brands in corporate office and hospitality (airports, cafes, hotels, restaurants etc.) sectors. Stand 5C83

BYTETOKEN

ByteToken innovate and set standards for mobile ticketing worldwide, delivering proven, secure mobile ticketing platforms for transit, tourism, and events and offer clients an integrated mobile commerce experience. Stand 7B31

CAKE

CAKE brings clarity to digital marketing campaigns for clients around the world. Its software empowers organizations to measure the impact of their marketing efforts and optimise their digital spend. Stand 8.1H11

CHELSEA APPS FACTORY

Chelsea Apps Factory is a world leading enterprise mobility company. We have helped companies with their mobile strategy in Retail, Financial Services, Gaming, Gambling, the Automotive industry, Transport, Professional Services and many other verticals.

Stand 7B31

GIANT ITAB

Giant iTab is an award-winning touchscreen solution which takes any digital content, including Apps, and presents it in the ‘familiar’ and ‘easy to use’ format of Giant Smartphones or Tablets. Stand 8.1J17a

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

HELIXON

Helixion provides consultancy, products and platforms, software development, training and knowledge transfer to businesses seeking to move their contactless products and services on to mobile.

Stand 7B31

IRONSOURCE

ironSource builds monetization, engagement, analytics and discovery tools for app developers, OEMs, and advertisers. Over 80K developers are using our solutions to turn their apps into successful businesses. Stands 8.1H49, 2E46

LUMATA

Lumata is the leading provider of real-time digital customer engagement and mobile loyalty solutions for global Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to optimise subscriber revenue, customer retention and increase NPS. Stand 7O33MR

OPENSIGNAL

OpenSignal provides insight into the experience on mobile networks. Its mobile app, downloaded over 20 million times, crowdsources billions of datapoints on the performance and coverage of mobile networks globally. Stand 7P42MR

RUBICON PROJECT

Rubicon Project’s mission is automate the buying and selling of advertising. Rubicon Project pioneered advertising automation technology to enable the world’s premium buyers and sellers to trade and protect trillions of advertising requests each month.

Rubicon Project is a publicly traded company (NYSE: RUBI) headquartered in LA. Stand 8.1B20

SPORT

Be a good sport

Using mobile connectivity to improve the sporting events experience Mobile has long been vaunted as an ideal companion to sports and live entertainment – well now its day has come. Adam Croxen, Managing Director, Future Platforms shares his views as to how it’s now on to a winner The role of the mobile device as part of the match day experience is on the increase.

In today’s culture of constant connectivity, fans want to have the ability to share, comment on and interact with events, as they happen – even when they are nowhere near a stadium.

Recent research shows that fans can be on their mobile devices for up to 70% of the time they’re at a game.

For older stadiums, their digital infrastructure can become a real stumbling block when vying to support this growing appetite for mobile.

But by improving mobile connectivity, stadiums and their associated stakeholders can not only increase fan engagement and enhance the experience, they can also benefit from increased commercial opportunities.

A number of sporting venues are already installing Wi-Fi and beacons technologies, as well as high speed 4G+ connectivity, to provide the infrastructure needed to permit sponsors, clubs, the venues and advertisers to interact

with consumers and send targeted offers and rewards to smartphones.

The fact is that if you don’t have the right connectivity, then sporting venues are limiting themselves in terms of what can be done. Offering fans free access to mobile connectivity in stadiums gives the stakeholders further opportunity to capitalise from the insight that is collated. Whenever someone connects to the network, posts on social media or uses a bespoke mobile application, a venue gains the opportunity to learn more about fans, enabling the potential to offer valueadded and tailored products and services to them in the future.

CRUCIAL: USER EXPERIENCE

When planning a strategy to increase fan engagement through mobile connectivity, the first place to start is the user experience.

This should be a focus before you even begin to think about

creating targeted marketing initiatives. You need to offer a holistic journey that starts with the needs of the user and fits around the realistic possibilities of the technology available.

Therefore, it’s important to consider what’s available in your venue and to garner insight about the people who attend: certain events will attract certain types of people, and by having some understanding of what motivates each of them, a venue and its partners can create a strategy that builds awareness to enhance the experience. Whether it’s facilitating a fan’s journey to the fixture, or supporting how they like to engage with and share on-site experiences, the mobile experience you offer should be created around an understanding of this information.

This planning process should also consider what physical facilities are available at a particular venue that could be supported by an enhanced mobile experience. For example, the provision (or lack) of information about accessibility can be definitive for user groups with specific challenges or disabilities. Designing a mobile experience should start with consideration of how to deliver information that would make an event as stress-free as possible. It is possible for a venue to offer visitors a seamless mobile experience before during

and after an event, delivering helpful information and aiding all types of users to tighten logistics and deliver a more enjoyable on-site experience.

Going beyond in-stadium connectivity, venues should carefully consider the outof-stadium experience too.

Offering an enhanced mobile app can also make life easier for fans, so think about how to assist with travel plans, hotel choices and parking options prior to arrival. Gathering this type of insight is possible when using a mobile application that works with location-based services. The knowledge garnered can feed in to the design of your mobile offering, allowing you to better support the full visitor experience.

CONNECTIVITY IS KEY

When designing a valuable mobile experience that encourages connectivity, it’s crucial to think about the way people engage with the venue.

For example, the mobile experience for a premiership football club venue – a solepurpose space which yields repeat visits) will necessitate a different strategy to a venue such as Wembley (a multifunctional space generating sporadic attendance.

The difference in function will determine your app activity; regular visitors are unlikely to need travel planning but will be

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keen to have detailed content and social connections..

Meanwhile, for one-off visitors, the experience may need to guide people to the venue with travel planning options, then make them aware of, and direct them to, the venue’s facilities.

When looking at improving stadium connectivity and offering a technology to deepen the engagement with the fan, it is vital to keep in mind the need to strike a balance between meeting these demands and maintaining a heads up experience. We don’t want to create a stadium of people looking at their phone and not watching and engaging with the match in front of them. We have started to hear growing complaints about the loss of atmosphere at football stadiums, as while the reasons for this are numerous the distraction of the smartphone is a likely contributor.

DEFINING THE FUTURE

Mobile ticketing can also influence your digital offerings and could, in effect, become a game-changer for your business.

Without mobile ticketing options, an event or venue app can be seen as a take-or-leave option for sports event-goers.

However, once an app is used as a central base for ticketing, you may experience a hike in downloads, which in turn raises the ability to gather knowledge and formulate tailored solutions. Harnessed well, mobile ticketing could be the Trojan horse you need to boost your app downloads, which can then open up the possibilities for other initiatives such as loyalty schemes or in-app purchases.

The adoption of mobile ticketing may also present knock-on commercial benefits for stadia, as discovered by the Atlantic Braves who saved £60k in paper tickets as well as reduced ticket-touting and fraudulent activity, and sped up

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the match day process.

Top tips for venues

INCREASING COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES

For sporting event venues looking to embrace the possibilities that mobile connectivity can open-up for themselves and their fans, here are 5 best practice tips: • Understand your fans/attendees current behaviour and start by offering a service that supports and enhances their existing needs.

• Consider the technical and physical infrastructure of the venue, and draw on stakeholder knowledge to work to maximum effect within any limitations.

• Create timely and tailored experiences for optimum up-take and incorporate surprise and delight initiatives for maximum traction.

• Create a roadmap of connectivity that incorporates insight pertinent to how fans use mobile to enhance their experience, from capitalizing on share functions to alleviating friction, thus creating a holistic mobile experience.

• Use mobile technology - such as apps, Wi-Fi, and geofencing - to collect data and gain actionable customer insight.

Positive repercussions abound if you can nail the right infrastructure to support large scale mobile connectivity, so as well as opening up services, you can power your revenue streams too. But before pushing your marketing material, be sure to gain the user’s trust first.

Once you have an efficient and tailored offering with enhanced levels of customer service, as well as the right connectivity, the additional commercial opportunities will soon reveal themselves to you, from seat upgrades offered at discount to visitors at the venue ensure unused inventory is sold, use of competition mechanics at the event itself to bespoke merchandise purchases and the game changer in stadium service - food and drinks order from and delivered to your seat – no more queuing through half time and missing the start of the second half.

Further bolstering the user experience is the ‘shareability’ factor: it’s important to design services that will enable fans to share their experience, whilst also opening up additional revenue avenues for the stadium. Messages to screen, which allow fans to tweet or send messages to loved ones, could be a popular and chargeable service.

This kind of offering makes it easier to engage with fans in a way that can’t be done by sending marketing messages. For the stadium, it’s also the data and potential

insight delivered from each of these types of interactions with mobile apps - along with other forms of mobile connectivity that is hugely valuable.

THE DATA IMPERATIVE

Across a variety of sectors, data helps businesses to become more informed about their customers. The more they know, the better they can make their services, and the more efficiencies and greater costsavings they can drive. This is no different for sporting events, where one of the biggest opportunities to capture data comes from mo-

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bile ticketing. There’s a huge amount of data that’s potentially available that can help stadia learn more about the visitors.

With the right connectivity it makes it possible to track people’s movements and to learn more about fan behaviours. This data can generate valuable insights making it possible to steer behavioural changes that may positively impact in-stadium experiences or increase efficiencies.

As an example, mobile technology such as geo-fencing also allows you to target offers and services based on a specific audience. This means you can easily trial and learn what motivates the certain types of regular visitors to the stadium — for example, season-ticket holders - and use cleverly tailored campaigns to encourage them to engage more with you. Wembley has trialed geo-fencing campaigns where different messages were sent to the fans based on insight that was already known about these people, and it has proven to be a successful approach.

Adam Croxen is Managing Director, Future Platforms

Brand values

PAYMENTS

where phones are more common than laptops and iPads and where mobile phone usage for remittance is more prevalent. It could be here where we see brands try to move more into e-money to reach these consumers.

The UK regulators see the value in increased innovation – how it can Changing consumer habits, access to e-money licences and a shift in how people view create a more competitive marketplace and thus payments are all making things interesting in the mobile payment space. Scott Dawson, provide greater choice commercial director, Neopay wonders if this means big brands are set to enter the fray for consumers. And, With the explosion of the given that regulators are internet and mobile techwanting to create more nology has dramatically of a customer-centric apchanged how peple shop. proach within the financial services industry, it makes And with it has come a sense that innovation is shift in the way we pay. both made a central comKey innovations in the ponent of any strategy and payments industry have safeguarded in regulation. made paying for goods Rather than standing in easier than ever, with the the way of brands wanting shift towards e-money and to wade into innovation, the emergence of contactit’s likely the UK’s financial less payment methods – regulation will instead aide both cards and via mobile them. phones – rendering the THE BRANDS In struggling to keep customer’s morning coffee Ultimately, for the old chip and pin method ALREADY GETTING IN run, part of their daily rou- brands wanting to get apace, the traditional indefunct for many. tine, whilst also building ahead of the pack in trying Add to this, the fact that stitutions’ slow uptake on ON THE ACT the fintech front is leading With opportunities rife, loyalty. Similarly, with the to tap into the e-money the number of e-money to dissatisfaction amongst there are brands that have Trainline app, commuters market, now is the time to providers has doubled in consumers. been cashing in on the can now buy travel passes do so. the last two years, and it Research has damningly e-money trend. Creatand have these inspected Research has shown seems it could be a lucrashown that half of British ing mobile apps that are on their phone. more and more young tive market to enter. This built to enable e-money Furthermore, we’ve people do not trust then begs the question: is consumers are unhappy with their bank, while two- transactions, these brands seen a shift of retailers traditional banks – with a step into e-money the fifths believe that when are blending seamlessly moving more towards one in three stating they next step for big brands? it comes to the customer into their customers’ daily contactless and near-field would sooner trust a A SEA OF experience of banking, lives. communication (NFC) technology company, such there is much room for If we take Starbucks, for payment solutions. Take as Google or Apple, with INNOVATION There is a tidal wave of improvement. example, this global brand Apple for example – it has their e-money transacinnovation sweeping Identifying an opporhas created a prepaid launched its own Apple tions. If a brand can find across the financial tunity, enterprising and mobile app for its cusPay service that allows a way to fully integrate services industry and dynamic new innovators tomers to use in-store to users to make contactless into consumers’ lives – as it’s coming at a time of are using customer frustra- purchase their coffee – an payments with either their Starbucks has managed heightened consumer tions to their advantage alternative to their prepaid Apple Watch or iPhone. with its prepaid mobile frustrations with and offering alternative loyalty cards. Customers In reality, there aren’t app, then they will too services to meet demand. are incentivised to load many brands out there traditional banking. As will reap the benefits of a dealing in e-money just bureaucracy and red tape Leveraging speediness the app with cash, use it move into e-money. and cost-efficiency, these act as a hindrance, the as a payment method and yet. Interestingly though, fintech pioneers are racing as a result are offered dis- beyond the West, there is Scott Dawson is commerbig banks look like they ahead of traditional banks counts and regular deals. a growing focus on mobile cial director of e-money may be drowning in the and carving out a name for In doing so, the brand payments in the emerging and payment regulatory ever-expanding ocean of themselves. becomes just part of a markets. These are places specialist, Neopay innovation.

Is venturing into the e-money market the next step for big brands?

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PAYMENTS

Wallets: taking the payment out of payments Christmas 2016 was a watershed for mobile payments and one of the key beneficiaries has been mobile wallets. Paul Skeldon takes a look at why they are so popular and how they are the future of m-payments In the run up to Christmas 2016 mobile payments really came into their own.

In fact, 2016 was very much the year that mobile payments took off. But in an age where contactless cards are all the rage and make payments really simple in stores, is there really a place for ‘mobile payments’? In fact, with m-commerce and e-commerce rapidly becoming the same thing, is mobile payments really an actual thing?

The answer is of course yes, but as mobile payments become more commonly used by consumers, what ‘mobile payments’

actually means will change.

Rather than simply being a proxy for a card payment a la Apple Pay, mobile payments will become more a way to better manage and secure all payments online and offline.

And this means that mobile payments and mobile wallets will morph into one single thing. Mobile will become a payments controller or management tool that will naturally combine the wallet applications with the biometrics and security and the payment tool. It will also bring loyalty and couponing into the mix.

And this is why mobile wallets are so exciting:

until now, mobile didn’t offer anything to payments that wasn’t already available and just as easy with existing technology. I mean, what is easier than reaching into your pocket and pulling out a fiver to pay for a (small) beer?

But combining security, couponing and ‘management’ into an already handy device does add something to the mix.

While this has obvious benefits for consumers, it also has some notable impacts on retailers and service providers – but, as we shall see, not always in a good way.

Wallets around the world

Mobile wallets are becoming a big deal in the UK and US, but when you look further afield it becomes clear that in some regions they have already arrived.

According to both the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) and analyst yStats, China is going wallet crazy.

The MEF’s latest Mobile Money report shows that 38% of its population have used mobile wallets to purchase things, compared with the 18% global average. yStats, meanwhile, finds in its Global Mobile Wallets 2017: Market Opportunities report that mature European markets are seeing about 18% use of mobile wallets today, ahead of the US on 14% and LatAm on 12%. Again, China comes out way in front, with 23% of people already using wallets.

“Consumers in Asia-Pacific were most responsive to the numerous mobile wallets offerings, compared to other global regions, but even there less than a quarter of mobile shoppers pay with mobile wallets,” according to the recent survey cited in the yStats.com report. “Overall, smartphone owners in emerging markets, such as India, South Africa and the UAE are more likely to adapt mobile wallets in the future than consumers in some advanced economies, such as Germany. Nevertheless, the currently more advanced and digitalized market in the USA was the first choice of Apple and Google for launching their respective mobile wallet solutions, Apple Pay and Android Pay.”

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that loyalty and coupons afford, convenience is becoming more of an important issue – and this is WALLETS: A FORCE where mobile and wallets come into their own.

FOR GOOD First the good news.

And the tide is changing With existing use of walamongst shopper, finds lets, retailers see more the Veoo research. Overall, engagement and more 31% of the total responsales. In fact, 52% of US dents would have a much respondents and 28% of more positive opinion of UK respondents to a study a loyalty program if they

by Veoo late last year, use were able to save plastic mobile wallet solutions for loyalty cards to their smartoffers and coupons, 30% phone and have instant of US respondents versus access to point balances, 19% of UK respondents rewards and exclusive for airline boarding passes, information. This figure and 48% US versus 29% UK changes to 20% when for loyalty cards. looking at UK respondents Loyalty cards and couonly and 41% for the US pons increasingly inspire respondents. shoppers to buy, but according to Veoo, 43% of GOOD NEWS FOR them wouldn’t sign up to RETAILERS one, no matter what the This is really where mobile discount, if they couldn’t wallets come into their fit another card in their own for shoppers, offerphysical wallet. The survey ing not only the ability to finds that 84% of people manage a growing coterie have between one and 10 of offers and loyalty proloyalty cards. grammes. But for retailers The same applies to there are even bigger wins: coupons, finds Veoo. not only do more loyalty 70% of UK and 69% of US members and more courespondents still keep track pon users equate to more of coupons and offers by sales, but digitsing the keeping the physical couprocess and letting users pons in their wallet/purse. store them on mobile, in a 52% of US respondents are wallet, allows the retailer now saving offers/coupons to dynamically manage to their mobile wallet solu- them. tion whereas only 28% of “The mobile wallet’s respondents are doing this automatic updating in the UK. functionality allows brands While there is clearly a to seamlessly target ofhunger for the bargains fers and refresh items in real time, with no steps

required by the customer,” says Dave Ratner, president, enterprise solutions, Syniverse. “For example, a 10% coupon can be dynamically changed to 20%, or a loyalty card can be dynamically updated to reflect the status of sought-after holiday items.

Customers can even be reminded about the status of wallet items with lockscreen notifications based on time of day or location.”

Ratner agrees that wallets lead to a greatly enhanced level of engagement with consumers that leads to raised sales.

“When a brand’s offering is added to a customer’s mobile wallet, brands gain a connection that strengthens their marketing investment and leverages this investment for deeper en-

gagement and maximized ROI on marketing,” he says.

“This connection offers an invaluable opportunity for getting customers inside the store, increasing their purchases, and enticing them to return through loyalty rewards.”

According to Ratner, loyalty programmes, in fact, represent one of the biggest engagement benefits of mobile wallet. “When loyalty activities are integrated with mobile wallet, customers can seamlessly earn points without having to deal with extra cards and immediately redeem rewards,” he says.

“For example, a restaurant looking to reward its frequent customers and lure them to visit can send a coupon for special holiday offerings, like pep-

permint bark cheesecake, that can be stored in their mobile wallet. This offering can also include a notification pushed directly to the lock screen to remind customers who are nearby a participating location, or to remind customers that the offering is close to expiration.”

THE BAD NEWS

Of course, there is a downside. The bad news is that mobile wallets make it more likely that consumers will act on coupons. Great, as we have seen, as a tool of engagement, but it does shift the retailer’s economics somewhat: it may be getting more sales, but they are at a lower value.

The answer is to merchandise more cleverly, so that the discounting leads

to enough increased sales and that it initiates a round of up and cross selling, sharing and recommending to deliver real value.

But overall, couponing and loyalty are being seen as good things and are driving the adoption of mobile wallets. Veoo’s survey respondents were asked whether they use a mobile wallet to store information such as offers/ coupons, airline boarding passes, loyalty cards and tickets. 40% of the total survey respondents (both US and UK) said yes they use a mobile device for offers and coupons. One quarter (25%) said yes they use it for airline boarding passes, 39% said yes for loyalty cards and 29% said yes they use it for booking tickets.

But wallets are going to be what makes the idea of mobile as a payment tool fly. While charge to mobile actually uses the phone to pay, it is in adapting mobile wallets, loyalty and payments that is going to see the creation of new seamless payment processes built within other applications. The wallet – and the phone – become the way the user manages and handles that process.

It sounds glib, but the ideal is that people don’t care how the payment is made, just that it is made, uses all the relevant loyalty points and coupons and accrues all the necessary points.

All without anyone really noticing that it has happened.

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It’s all about the mobile Benjamins: according to the latest MEF Mobile Money Report, the number of people buying things with mobile is growing, up from 74% to 78% since 2014 (top left this page). As we can see, far left on page 26, the range of ways of conducting mobile payments is getting wider – but still typing in card details is out in front. Most interestingly, we see bottom of page 26, left, that the number of people using charge to mobile is on the up too, but so too are abandoned payments – largely because people don’t feel secure. Wallets are growing too with the MEF showing a distinct up-tick above – born out by research from Veoo (right) that also shows how well wallets are doing. And that, in six graphs, is all you need to know about the state of m-payments today.

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