Mobile me!
Written 14.02.02 by: Jonathan Briggs
We held a lunch yesterday for some of the players from the web, content and SMS markets and discussed all things mobile. It was a lively debate. Are we witnessing a real business opportunity as text games, anonymous chat and marketing services are rolled out to the UK's 41 million handset owners? Or are ringtones and logos the end of the story, a time limited phenomenon like the microscooter?
We held a lunch yesterday for some of the players from the web, content and SMS markets and discussed all things mobile. It was a lively debate. Are we witnessing a real business opportunity as text games, anonymous chat and marketing services are rolled out to the UK's 41 million handset owners? Or are ringtones and logos the end of the story, a time limited phenomenon like the microscooter?
Some companies are certainly making money, particularly those with previous experience in the premiumrate-powered adult entertainment market. And good luck to them! But is it scalable? Is it easy to predict, design and build the next set of compelling services?
The web experience suggests that consumers are quite unwilling to pay for content. Why should they? In a recent survey by one of our web clients the clear message came back that many of them already felt they did through their monthly subscription to AOL or BT Openworld. Phone users are of course used to making regular payments each time they call or send a message. Perhaps they will subscribe to football score alerts, pop gossip or stock quotes but unless the price is kept low we cannot expect each subscriber to want to pay for more than a couple of these services. Just think of all the email alerts you have subscribed to over the last few years and how often you read them.
But perhaps the web and the mobile really are very different types of devices. My mobile travels with me everywhere and when it's on you can reach me by voice or by text. Over the last few years I've become used to personalizing all sorts of aspects of my phone. It rings differently if friends call and it changes its behaviour when I'm in meetings or restaurants. The promise of even greater levels of customization could be really attractive. Millions of Messenger users are familiar with setting their 'availability'. Soon they may be able to do this on their phone, signalling to friends and colleagues when they would like to be called, disturbed or left in peace. Soon my phone really will know where I am offering me location based offers, services and content. Imagine taking part in a game at a football match just because you are there or being offered a discount when you enter a store. And if it knows where I am and who I am I'll be able to use my phone as an identification device, checking in for a flight or as a ticket to the cinema.
But where is the business for those of us who develop, distribute and sell content and services. We need to design applications that make use of these new features and find an audience for them. We need to receive a fair share of the revenue from each transaction and here the UK is way behind countries like Japan where content developers earn nearly 90% of what the user pays. Compare that with the pitiful amounts on offer from the UK mobile telcos burdened as they are with 3G license debt.
I left the lunch with several competing feelings. I'm very glad that we are experimenting with this technology, building real applications and licensing them through partners. I'm happy that clients trust us to try things out while keeping a close eye on what is coming. It feels like the early pioneering days of the web and that's exciting. But I'm also glad we're not narrowly focused, not simply doing mobile. We've never put all of our eggs in a single basket. The mobile basket looks inviting but I'd hate to end up with it's contents all over my face.
For more articles on ecommerce business and technology check out www.jonathanbriggs.com