mobivate - enabling mobile innovation

Mobivate Mondays

Monday, 20 February, 2012 - Mobile Internet in Africa

Mobile Internet provides an ideal on-the-go advertising method to access African mobile subscribers. According to the GSMA Africa Mobile Observatory 2011 report, Africa reported over 620m mobile connections by the end of September 2011 and is forecast to reach 735 million by the end of 2012. Here most of the population depend on this media to surf the internet, as fixed line Internet is difficult for most of the population to access. Therefore, growth in mobile internet penetration there is certainly one of the strongest in the world right now. Having a Mobile Internet site is essential to being successful there. In Africa most users are still accessing the mobile internet with a feature phone. This means that legacy content is still relevant, that's a great cost saving! This presents a strong business case for mobile banner / text advertising in this region. The effectiveness of this type of advertising is still being realised today globally. Gartner predicts mobile ad revenue will be US$3.3 billion in 2011. This will sky rocket to $20.6 billion in 2015, more than doubling each year. It will continue to grow thereafter. The real advantage here is that this method gives advertisers the ability to feed off what their target audience enjoys. For example, if consumers are reading an article about music then a content provider could advertise a music / ringtone service. This is targeted but one of the major benefits is that it is also timely.

Monday, 13 February, 2012 - The future of premium rate sms billing

Premium rate sms (PSMS) provides organizations with an easy mechanism to charge mobile phone users either by adding charges to the subscribers monthly carrier bill or by deducting credits from their prepaid balance. All that is required is for the user to either send or receive a sms. Premium rate sms became the primary billing model to charge subscribers for downloading content to their mobile handsets. Customer demand for content was high, billing via PSMS was easy and mobile content space was not heavily regulated and mobile content providers made lots of money. Soon regulations started to intensify, the advent of smartphones and app stores resulted in reduced demand for mobile content and revenues generated by premium rate sms reduced significantly. Nevertheless PSMS still remains a legitimate and relatively easy mechanism to charge customers and is now being used by companies like Facebook to buy Facebook credits.

Monday, 6 February, 2012 - QR Codes finally getting some popularity

QR Codes, which stands for Quick Response Codes, is a type of barcode, which is becoming very popular due to its abilty for a basic smartphone to be able to quickly scan and read alot of information. QR Codes are used for tracking of documents, as tickets for event, as discount vouchers, as a way to send users to a URL and as a replacement for a business card, in the form of a Vcard generator. Users may also be able to send an email or SMS after scanning a QR code. QR codes are gaining alot of popularity. The time to dowload a good scanner to your phone has finally arrived.

Monday, 30 January, 2012 - MT billing now available in Ghana

Even though shortcodes and premium billing sms services have been available in Ghana for years, MTN and Vodacom now breathe new life into the mobile market by being the first two networks to introduce MT billing premium SMS in Ghana. Together these two networks hold more than 66% of the Ghana mobile market. Ghana has a population of 24.72 million people, 19.89 million of whom are connected on at least one of the networks, meaning that Ghana’s mobile penetration rate exceeds 80%, according to the latest statistics released by NCA, the local National Communications Authority.

Monday, 23 January, 2012 - Bulk SMS during the 2012 Olympics

2012 is the year that the Olympics will take place in the United Kingdom (UK). With over 60 million people and approx 100% mobile penetration, this presents an exceptional opportunity to access new and existing mobile users. In addition to the UK, the world will also be watching with each country having mobile subscribers who want to know what’s happening with scores, news, results etc. Bulk SMS could be an ideal mechanism for advertising various related events (sporting, parties, concerts etc) that will be taking place. So where event organisers want to offer discounts and do general promotions about their special events, bulk SMS could be perfect! Mobile content services could also prove to be a big hit during this time, and again bulk SMS could provide an ideal channel for advertising some unique Olympic based mobile content, consumer products / services (retail and other) and more. So whether it is Europe, The Americas, Australia, Africa or Asia, bulk SMS could certainly prove to be one of the most reliable and cost effective channels to consider for promoting all things 2012 Olympics.

Monday, 16 January, 2012 - Bulk SMS in Kenya

Kenya and other African countries should be making better use of bulk sms. Kenya has a low level of internet penetration and a relatively unreliable postal system which makes communication somewhat difficult and expensive. Kenya does however have an increasing level of mobile penetration, making sms an ideal channel for communication. Bulk sms is an efficient and cost effective way for organisations to connect with their customers. The uses for bulks sms in Kenya are limitless and range from improving education in farming, agriculture and schools, improving healthcare by allowing 2 way communication for people living in rural areas and business communication whereby Government Ministries, utilities and banks use sms as a notification tool. Better communication leads to better lifestyle and welfare so the sooner sms is adopted, the better it will be for Africa, Kenya and its people.

Monday, 9 January, 2012 - Mass Messaging, is The Only Way to Reach the Masses

One would think in todays day and age that there would be a way to reach multiple handsets at once other than mass messaging, via Bulk SMS. Twitter, Facebook and Whats App all require 3G, wi-fi or wap access as well as the corresponding applications. Mass messaging is not handset dependent and can be sent to any phone anywhere in the world. No matter what anyone says, Bulk SMS is here to stay, well at least for the next 5 years!

Monday, 2 January, 2012 - Mobile Content

The demand for mobile content has drastically changed over the past years. 5 years ago it was common practise to send a customer random content item via each MT billed message, once they were subscribed; now people offer their customers content portals, where subscribers can choose their own content - ringtones, games, wallpapers or videos. These content portals can be adapted to both, MO billing or MT billing models. In a country where messages are billed on the MO, each content item would have its own keyword. The subscriber sends a specific keyword to a shortcode and receives the content item in return. If MT billing is possible, subscribers will receive ‘credits’ with each SMS. Customers can then use these credits select a content item they like.

Monday, 26 December, 2011 - Mobile Content in India

India represents the second most populated country in the world, with over 1.21 billion people (census 2011), that's approx. 17.5% of the world’s population. Another very interesting statistic for those interested in the mobile content opportunity is that more than 65% of the population is below 25. The mobile subscriber base in India is reported to be approx. 650 million subs. This in itself is an achievement. The market is ripe for mobile content investment and innovation, where advertising is pitched at a reasonably low cost. This is in comparison to many other countries around the world. In 2010 Facebook announced a partnership with one of the mobile operators to deliver sms based features to users. Many content providers are now looking to cash in on the huge subscriber base with local content e.g. Bollywood etc. Also the usual suspects in terms of ringtones and sports content are also generating good revenues. This provides a potentially lucrative opportunity for bulk sms, as well as premium sms and chat services in this country. The market is certainly showing promise for those who will take the time to explore this territory.

Monday, 19 December, 2011 - Should Bulk SMS be used for Lead Generation and Customer Acquisition?

Bulk SMS is a widely used tool for communication between businesses and their customers. It's quick, easy, cost effective and more importantly businesses are able to communicate with their customers anywhere and anytime. More recently businesses, now aware of the advantages of using bulk SMS are using it for Mobile Marketing more specifically lead generation and customer acquisition. Whilst SMS, being limited to 160 characters, may not be as content rich as other forms of advertising such as TV, email, web, radio and print, it does have relatively high response rates. Respond rates tend to be higher because generally people read their SMS messages, as opposed to emails and other forms of marketing which many people ignore. Businesses using SMS and mobile marketing need to make sure they do not send unsolicited messages as this may annoy customers and have a negative impact on the businesses' brand. It is important to have an opt-in mobile database and a virtual number where customers can opt-out of any future sms marketing. In summary using bulk sms for lead generation and customer acquisition can be very effective and lucrative but it does come with certain risks that businesses should not ignore.

Monday, 12 December, 2011 - are the days of easy cash in South Africa over?

In 2004, Mobivate was the first company to sell mobile content in South Africa on a subscription basis using premium SMS. When we started it was like a gold rush. Customers across the country became obsessed with this new fad of being able to change the content on their mobile phones. Eye of the Tiger was by far the best selling ringtone and the Kama Sutra game was the best-selling game. Now, 7 years later, while the cellphone market penetration has increased from 15% to 98%, it is not as easy to make money selling mobile content. The competition and network rules have limited the opportunity. However, with a 98% cellphone penetration and only a 7% internet penetration, South Africans are using their mobile phones to browse the web. Mobile sites have become increasingly popular and portals offering a wide range of rich live and user generated content is the way forward. So YES, the easy money is over but the future is now and the real opportunity to make money in the mobile industry in South Africa is happening!

Monday, 5 December, 2011 - Premium Billing and SMS chat in Canada

Canada has a mobile penetration of over 70% - the 10 existing mobile networks provide mobile connectivity to more than 24 million people. Even though Canada is ranked 34th in the list of countries with the highest mobile penetration, selling mobile content in Canada is not without its difficulties. Aside from regulatory restraints - the CWTA supervises the Premium SMS market in Canada and implements strict rules and regulations - technological constraints limit the mobile content that can be sold. Canadian networks only support binary content, ie SMS and these have to be relatively short, each text can only be 135 characters long. Despite these challenges there seem to be premium billing services that do extremely well - SMS Chat, as an example. End users apparently appreciate the interactivity of a chat service, rather than the more static content subscription services. SMS chat appeals to various markets, general info services - where a customer can send in questions and operators answer, or adult chats are the most common applications. Messages in an SMS chat can be either MO billed - ie. when the end user sends in a message, or MT billed, ie. when the end user receives a message. The type of market targeted determines the optimal Premium SMS billing method.

Monday, 28 November, 2011 - Mobile Video Chat in Australia

Mobile Video Chat is becoming a solid revenue generating service within the mobile content space, especially in Australia. Over the last few years Australians have traditionally used premium rate mobile content (such as wallpapers, ringtones etc) driven by passive subscription services or one off content downloads. Now they are also looking for something to enhance their mobile user experience. Mobile Video chat arrived providing a service where callers can engage in a live two-way-chat session (the callers at each end of the phone line can see and speak to one another). A recent report published by Juniper Research forecasts that revenues from mobile adult content and services are expected to reach $2.8 billion by 2015, driven primarily through the uptake of video chat and subscription-based services... Adult is certainly one of the key areas where this service will enhance the user experience. The other interesting thing about Mobile Video Chat in Australia is that Australians still respond to bulk sms marketing, especially when reminders are sent to let them know that chatters are online.

Monday, 21 November, 2011 - Premium rate SMS in Malawi

Malawi has a population of approximately 16 million, and although it is considered to be one of the least developed countries in the world, its telecoms and internet providers are progressing at a rapid rate. The penetration rate of mobile phones in Malawi is 22%, however this is increasing. There are four mobile networks in Malawi, being Airtel, TNM, Access and MTL. Airtel is the largest network and together with TNM, represent over 90% of mobile users. Mobivate is the only aggregator in Malawi with connections to Airtel, TNM and Access. Malawi has premium rate sms which is primarily used as a billing mechanism for content downloads such as ringtones, games, wallpapers, information services and for entering competitions and participating in polls and voting. Premium sms in Malawi is fairly new and traffic growth is increasing exponentially. Shortcodes in Malawi are relatively inexpensive and consist of 5 digit numbers with tariffs that range from zero to 100 kwacha (approx USD $0.60), although higher tariffs can be negotiated with the network operators.

Monday, 14 November, 2011 - Bulk SMS in Australia

Australians are well on track to send over 12 billion SMS messages this year. WOW! Not bad for a country with a population of only 23 million. Australians are using text messaging for almost anything these days. Whilst the majority of SMS messages sent in Australia are peer to peer, Bulk SMS has become an accepted and very popular tool for marketing. Many companies and even individuals are sending bulk SMS messages in Australia using simple BULK SMS systems and interfaces, similar to www.mobivatebulksms.com, to notify customers and friend about exciting events and discounts. SMS is still the only medium to communicate simply and effectively to large groups. SMS is not handset dependent, does not require a 3G or internet connection and boasts a 97% read rate (with 90% read within 4 minutes)!

Monday, 7 November, 2011 - PSMS in Kenya

Kenya, with a population of 41 million people, and a mobile phone penetration exceeding 64%, is a interesting, growing and profitable market for mobile content sellers in particular and Premium Rate SMS in general. The mobile networks in Kenya: Safaricom, Airtel, Orange, and YU, can provide MO billing as well as MT billing shortcodes. These four digit numbers can be provisioned and aggregated at various price points, charging from 10 to 100 Kenyan Shilling per premium billed message. As there is no regulatory authority for the PSMS market in Kenya, Premium SMS traffic is overseen by the Kenyan Communications Commission, and the biggest network, Safaricom, has provided a simple Code of Ethics to which short code aggregators and people using premium messaging in Kenya, must adhere.

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