Mobile Marketing Magazine

MEF Makes M-commerce Move

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) North America has unveiled a Mobile Commerce Initiative designed to help brands, content producers, and retailers better understand how to leverage the mobile phone to drive customer acquisition, retention, and conversion. The first phase of the initiative will consist of an educational and informative webinar and m-commerce Guide that will contain commercial best practices examples and case studies that aim to demystify and simplify the mobile commerce landscape.
“There is no more timely and definitive resource,” says Gary Schwartz, CEO of Impact Mobile and Vice Chairman of MEF North America.  “Across the US, brands, retailers, and content owners are exploring ways to effectively reach their mobile shopper. The MEF M-Commerce Guide will help these stakeholders to identify ways to drive revenue on the phone or via the phone. This resource will be a good first step to simplify the myriad of options in-market.”
m-commerce services make it feasible for businesses to handle an extremely large volume of low cost sales. In addition to purchases like ringtones, music tracks, and games, the growth in micro-payments has come from the purchase of items like car parking and cinema tickets. Additionally, mobile is beginning to impact commerce at bricks-and-mortar point of sale through incentive and m-couponing programs driving sales and customer retention.
“m-commerce is a global opportunity, and MEF’s initiative shows how the mobile connected device can be leveraged to effectively enable all types of commerce – not just for services and content consumed on the device but also for the purchase of physical products and services,” says Suhail Bhat, Policies and Initiatives Director for MEF. “The North America guide is the first step in the globalisation of the initiative, which will be localised over the coming year in EMEA, Asia, and LATAM.”
On Tuesday, April 27 at 13:00 EST, MEF Americas will host the webinar titled: ‘Demystifying the World of M-Commerce.’  The webinar serves as a precursor to the content which will be contained in the M-Commerce Guide. You can register to attend the webinar here.
The M-Commerce Guide, to be published next month, will include sections entitled ‘Mobile State of the Union’; ‘Planning’; ‘Case Studies’; ‘Things to Consider’;and ‘What Does the Future Hold?’  It will be developed as a living document over time, and has been authored with the 19 MEF member companies, including 2ergo, Billing Revolution, Netbiscuits, Nokia, Samsung and T-Mobile.

Portaltech Updates StripeyLines Shopping App

eCommerce systems integrator and consultancy Portaltech has enhanced its StripeyLines iPhone application with the official release of StripeyLines V1.0. Originally launched at the end of 2009 in beta, StripeyLines is a shopping companion for bargain people who want to ensure they are getting the best deal for a product, whether online or on the high street. 
StripeyLines enables shoppers to scan the barcode of goods in-store to compare pricing, or to check product and customer reviews. Shoppers can also use the app to create wishlists of products they want to buy at a later date. For example, a user could use the Wishlist function to create their weekly food shopping list by scanning everything they throw away. The app also links to Facebook and Twitter to share information with friends. 
The app can also be used to link a scanned CD to iTunes and listen to the CD in the shop via the phone. The customer then has the option to choose to buy in store, download the track to their iPhone from iTunes, or go to Amazon or Google to check pricing and customer ratings. 
All items scanned using the app can be synchronised with a dedicated StripeyLines website, allowing the user to continue their research online later. A recent report by Eurostat found that 64% of customers are using the Internet to research a product and 50% of customers use the Internet to browse before purchasing in store.  
Portaltech is reaching out to all major UK retailers to get involved in providing price and product data for StripeyLines. The company is keen to ensure that users of the application have all the latest retailer data, barcodes and pricing to inform their decision making process, turning browsers into purchasers.
The company says it can also build retailer ‘plug-ins’ to provide retailer-specific functions. This could be as simple as providing promotional pop-up ads or vouchers at the point of purchase, or creating a brand building, or m-commerce plug-in for apparel retailers who want to cross-sell a look or collection.
“The plug-in feature on StripeyLines means that retailers don't need to build their own iPhone application,” says Portaltech CEO, Andrew Walker. “Instead we can just create a web application as a plug-in to StripeyLines, which is then beamed to the StripeyLines iPhone app. For example, if a wine merchant wanted to have an application that recommended wine based on what an iPhone user had scanned in a supermarket, all they would need to do is create a website that compared wines. The location of this website would then be beamed to the iPhone and when the user scanned some wine, StripeyLines would give them the opportunity to run the plug-in. This system could be applied to any product category for cross-selling purposes.”
Portaltech believes that mobile will be an increasingly important channel in retailing. The company’s Head of Brand & Retail, Rachel Wilkinson, says: “Mobile phones are now being used for product information and browsing whilst shoppers are out and about or when sitting in a high street coffee shop. Retailers mustn’t ignore this adapting behaviour, or see price checking as a threat, but harness it.
“These are latent purchasers who simply need an enabler like StripeyLines to convert them from browsers to purchasers. Mobile phones and devices should be utilised to leverage this opportunity and to join up the multi-channel experience. We can help retailers to develop an engaging solution, whether that’s a standalone mobile commerce app or a plug in to StripeyLines.”

ImpulsePay Launches Age Verification for Mobile Payments

ImpulsePay has launched an age verification service for online content. Using their mobile phone to pay for the content, similar to SMS billing, the purchaser has their age verified by the operator and is blocked from the purchase if they are not old enough.
Using ImpulsePay’s service, the content owner can be sure that any content that is targeted at over-18s won’t be accessed by people too young to view it.
To use the service, the content owner inserts an ImpulsePay 'Buy Now' button on their site. After clicking on the button, the buyer enters their mobile phone number and is sent a secure PIN by SMS. The PIN is then entered online and the operator checks that the user's handset is registered to someone aged 18 or over. If the user is not registered as over-18, they are sent to a help page. If the user is registered as over-18, the transaction is completed and the website updates automatically and redirects to the content.
ImpulsePay says the age verification service will create opportunities for a variety of new online content and services to be provided. It believes the service will appeal to gaming and other betting sites as, like SMS billing, the service is simple and easy to use and available to anyone with a mobile phone. However, the new age verification service will also allow certain films, games and music content to be safely sold, as well as other, more traditional 18+ content.
Previously, credit card payment was the main way that a content owner could ensure proof of age. However, not everyone has a credit card and even for those that do, ImpulsePay says its own research shows that using a mobile phone to pay for content is seven and half (7.5) times quicker than a credit card, requiring only 16 keystrokes, compared to 120 for a credit card.
“Our service, which combines the benefits of Payforit and SMS billing, has proven to be really popular with a wide variety of content owners and website users,” says ImpulsePay CEO, Chris Newell. “What we’re doing now is opening it up to all content providers. The age-verification service will allow content owners offering certain film or music clips, or games that are 18+ rated, as well as the betting and gaming sites, to accept mobile payments for their content or service.”
ImpulsePay’s service is based on Payforit – the payment service supported by all licensed UK mobile operators. Using Payforit, ImpulsePay collects payment directly from the user’s mobile phone bill, or available credit if on pay as you go, meaning that anyone with a mobile phone can buy content, make a donation or pay for a mobile application on their phone or online. Payforit works on any handset in the UK and across all networks. When accessed on mobile websites, users make a purchase in just one click, with no additional information that needs to be entered. Payforit allows simple hyperlinks to the payments page and once the transaction is complete, it returns the user to the relevant page to receive their content.

Shoe Chain Goes Mobile

Infogain, a global retail and mobile solutions provider, has announced an iPhone application as the first phase of the deployment of a retail mobility system for UK shoe retailers, Barratts Shoes. The app goes live on 25 March, timed to coincide with the opening of a new flagship store on Oxford Street in London.  
The Barratts iPhone app will present the entire season’s collections, searchable by occasion (weddings/evening dress/casual wear, etc) or by brand; a ‘Barratts Changing Room’, where clothes images can be uploaded to mix and match against the latest shoe styles; and a ‘birthstone’ finder with related colours and styles, to add a new, personal search dimension. Customers will be able to email, MMS and Facebook their outfit choices to friends for fun or honest feedback. Customers will also be able to upload their completed look to the Barratts website to enter a dedicated ‘My Barratts Style’ online competition.
There is also a transactional element to the app, with ‘Click & Collect’, loyalty recognition and voucher fulfilment functionality, complete with scannable barcodes, due to launch in April.
“We wanted to give customers an exciting mobile proposition, delivering a compelling, reliable service, but with plenty of engaging, quirky features to help us extend our brand reach into new consumer bases,” says Barratts’ e-commerce Director, Ken Platt. “As a brand leader, we have to deliver on our promise to customers, which is why we chose Infogain as our mobile retail partner – a trusted company with vision and capability, that could do more than just build our iPhone app, but also provide a strategic collaboration to help us plan for the mobile shopping revolution with confidence.”
The app was inspired by the creative thinking of a customer survey and an internal ‘Pink Tank’ of target market female staff aged 18-24, which identified trend imperatives, service appeal and lifestyle drivers.
Barratts says that once the app is fully transactional, it will be integrated into a new CRM system for effective multi-channel delivery, connecting in-store POS, e-commerce, call centre and back office systems to maximise new mobile revenue channels, get a 360-degree customer view, achieve rapid customer data acquisition and implement low-cost, highly targeted, loyalty programmes.
Barratts adds that is plans to extend the app to Android, Blackberry and other Smartphone platforms later in the year.

Sprint Hands Music Brief to RealNetworks

Digital entertainment services company RealNetworks and US carrier Sprint have announced an agreement to streamline the music-related offerings - ringtones, ringback tones and full-track music - available on Sprint phones into a user-friendly, unified, digital music storefront. The two companies plan to work together to streamline Sprint’s digital music offerings later this year to provide the same choice and convenience to customers that Sprint provides across all its mobile services, while increasing efficiencies for the operator.
“This relationship with RealNetworks allows us to give Sprint customers an easy-to-use option to find, purchase and manage the music-related content they want on their phones in a more convenient, intuitive way,” says Len Barlik, Vice President, Wireless and Wireline Services at Sprint.
Real will leverage its end-to-end Media Entertainment Platform to manage, administer, market and deliver Sprint’s digital music content, initially including full-tracks, ringtones and ringback tones. 
Real offers mobile operators an array of mobile services, including music, video; ringback tones and personalization, and messaging services. Real’s ASP services are currently available through 86 different mobile operators in 48 countries worldwide, making them available to more than 900 million subscribers.

Whitepaper Looks at Mobile in Retail

GS1, a global standards organisation dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions in supply and demand chains worldwide, has released a Whitepaper looking at the opportunities for mobile in the retail sector.
The Whitepaper, ‘Mobile in Retail’, seeks to identify the potential for mobile to brands and retailers. It highlights 10 areas, including coupons and loyalty, where mobile is deemed to have a particular impact. The executive summary points to a number of areas of potential gain for businesses adopting mobile as a consumer engagement channel. These are increased sales; increased customer satisfaction and loyalty; and additional value to physical products and experiences through digital services.
In preparing the Whitepaper, GS1’s researchers were granted substantial access to key decision makers among the world’s FMCG manufacturers and international retail chains.
The report includes four case studies of operational schemes from around the world. One of these, SHOP SCAN SAVE, is a mobile marketing programme operated by Mobilize, which is currently available in over 23,000 convenience outlets throughout the UK. It has been running for over two years and demonstrates the value to retailers, brand owners, and consumers alike.
Mobilize has been working with GS1, and Managing Director Stefan Magnusson, believes the Whitepaper is a great step forward that will help any retailer looking to reduce costs and increase customer revenues. He says:
“Our experience, and those (experiences) of the participating retailers in SHOP SCAN SAVE demonstrates how powerful this form of marketing engagement can be. In addition, it demonstrates that consumers want this style of engagement that reduces some of the frustration experienced with paper coupons and plastic cards. Above all, it’s just relevant to their lifestyle. It’s a tough time for retailers right now and we are working across the sector, helping retailers realise the benefits of increased revenues and reduced costs.”
You can download the Whitepaper here.

Netbiscuits to Build Mobile Sites for Universal

Universal Music Group (UMG) is expanding its direct-to-consumer mobile content and services offering for music fans through an agreement with mobile publishing platform, Netbiscuits.
As part of the agreement, UMG will leverage Netbiscuits' B2B web software platform to launch mobile websites and services for UMG’s broad array of popular artists. By doing so, UMG says it will be opening up even more channels of content discovery and delivery to music fans everywhere. Through these artist-branded mobile sites, UMG will offer fans the ability to interact with other fans and to buy music directly from their handset. Based on the mobile websites, Netbiscuits will also enable UMG to set up smart hybrid apps for all major platforms, including the iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile devices.  
Universal Music will also use the text messaging service suite that is integrated with the Netbiscuits platform to provide music lovers with SMS alerts whenever favourite artists are in town.
“Universal is committed to providing consumers with even more engaging interactive opportunities to connect with their favourite artists and music by personalizing their mobile devices,” says David Ring, Executive Vice President of Business Development & Business Affairs for UMG’s eLabs. “Thanks to the support we are getting from Netbiscuits, we’ll be in an even better position to extend these artist opportunities and products across the widest array of available wireless devices.
“Through their exclusive technology, we’ll be able to offer consumers truly engaging mobile music experiences, that include the chance to generate their own content, leaving comments, uploading pictures, and chatting with each other via these mobile sites.”  
UMG first began working with Netbiscuits in November 2009, when the two companies  collaborated on the successful launch of a mobile website for Bon Jovi (m.bonjovi.com).
Netbiscuits delivers any rich media content, optimized for more than 6,000 different mobile devices worldwide. The platform enables a next generation user experience on the latest Smartphones and provides optimized web content for the long tail of web-enabled phones.

mmCHANNEL Launches Mobile Storefront API

Mobile marketing and digital content firm mmCHANNEL has launched a new b2b API (Application Programming Interface) Service, which will enable any digital agency or brand to launch their own digital download store as part of a marketing campaign.
The digital store can be built into an existing mobile portal or website. Customers can then choose whether to have content pushed to their phone via SMS or saved to their PC. Additionally, the company says, the service removes many traditional headaches such as delivery management, tracking and reporting content sales or managing digital rights. The service is available under a variable agreement to support 3, 6 or 12 month campaigns.
Service features include content management and delivery, usage metrics and payment collection. For consumers, the mobile or web store functionality includes content browsing, searching, content delivery and handset recognition.
There’s more information about the service here.

GoSpoken in Lovereading Partnership

Digital book company GoSpoken and independent online book store Lovereading have announced a partnership to distribute books directly to mobile phones.
The new partnership will see GoSpoken offering thousands of the bestselling and latest ebook and audio book titles, available to purchase and download on mobile, from the LoveReading.co.uk website, alongside paperback and hardback formats. Digital books take a few seconds to download and will save customers’ time and delivery costs, says GoSpoken.
The launch of eReader devices has dominated the headlines recently, and brought eBooks to the forefront of the consumer mind. GoSpoken says the deal will open up the format options available for customers, allowing them to choose how and where they want to read their books in the digital age. In future, readers will be able to discover new books and authors on Lovereading.co.uk with a list of available formats alongside each book.

Sccope Goes Live on T-Mobile Widget Platform

Cogenta has announced the launch of its Sccope personal shopping assistant mobile application on T-Mobile’s Internet Widget platform.
Sccope checks the prices of products among leading UK leading retailers, providing consumers with unbiased information on the best deals available in real time. When the user enters a search term, Sccope returns a list of results, highlighting the lowest price. Users then have the option to click to buy directly from their phone or add to their wish list. Other features includeprice drop and stock availability alerts, as well as filtered tier one and tier two search results.
Sccope is rolling out on the T-Mobile Internet Widget platform now, while the ability to buy products through Sccope on the mobile phone will go live in February. The service is initially available on the MDA Compact V and Samsung Ultra Tocco S8300, with support for more mobiles to be announced in due course.

Shazam in Super Bowl First

Fashion brand Dockers and music discovery service Shazam have developed an integrated program that allows consumers who watch the new Dockers ‘Men Without Pants’ TV commercial to use their mobile devices to engage at a deeper level with the brand. Once the ad is ‘shazamed’, viewers will link directly to a branded-content site.
The new commercial debuts during the Super Bowl XLIV broadcast on 7 February on CBS, the first Dockers commercial to air on the Super Bowl since 2002. Viewers who have Shazam downloaded on their phone can tag the spot and are instantly taken to a branded-content page. On this page, consumers can read about the ‘Wear the Pants’ campaign, learn about and buy the ‘I Wear No Pants’ track and more. The ad debut will also include a khaki pant giveaway promotion that consumers can  enter immediately via their mobile phone, using the Shazam technology. The commercial continues through 2010 on a variety of shows and networks including NBA on TNT, FX, Comedy Central and the Discovery Channel and will also air online immediately following the Super Bowl debut. The khaki give away runs from 7 – 15 February.
“The Dockers brand is not only reinventing the khaki, but also how it engages consumers in relevant and meaningful ways,” says Dockers Brand President, Jim Calhoun. “With the Shazam technology, we are inviting consumers to dig deeper into our brand and our products with the touch of a button.”
The Wear the Pants campaign and TV ad were created by the San Francisco office of Draft/FCB. The integration of Shazam was developed in partnership with Ignition Factory, a customers who don’t have the Shazam application on their phone cen get it by texting PANTS to 7299, or download it from the AT&T App Center.

Netbiscuits Takes hotel.info Mobile

Netbiscuits has created a mobile portal for the online hotel reservation service, hotel.info. Users can now book a hotel in the desired location with their mobile phones via m.hotel.info.
All content on the mobile hotel.info portal has been designed for use on the go. Once an appropriate list of hotels has been found, the room reservation can be completed via the phone. The portal also offers information on hotel facilities and services, photos and maps. A search function allows users to search for specific hotels or hotels in specific price categories. The portal will also be available as an iPhone application, with additional functions.
“Even on the move, our customers can now also benefit from our Best Price guarantee”, says Thomas Wawrzacz, Project Manager at hotel.info. “We are looking forward to receiving mobile bookings, especially from our business customers. Now the time really has come for mobile commerce.”

M-Football Event Nears Kick-off

The M-Football Conference, organised by Camerjam, takes place this Thursday, 21 January, at the Emirates Stadium in London. The event features speakers from Sky Mobile, BBC, Flirtomatic, WPP, O2 Litmus, Vodafone and Real Madrid, who will outline their plans for using this summer’s World Cup to grow revenues from mobile content and mobile marketing. Mobile campaigns from Nike, Adidas and Reebok will also be showcased.
You can see the full speaker line-up here. And you can register to attend here.

Searchandise Commerce Launches HitList Mobile

Searchandise Commerce, an online media network for product manufacturers and their retail channel partners, has launched HitList Mobile, which will deliver the company’s online merchandising services to mobile devices.
The companu says that HitList Mobile will enable manufacturers to positively affect their position for maximum visibility wherever searches are occurring, whether it’s on the web or the mobile web, while retailers can use the service to monetize premium position as a means of generating revenue from untapped mobile real estate. According to a recent report from Compete, 37% of Smartphone owners bought merchandise via their phones in 2009.
Searchandise Commerce combines the dynamics of in-store merchandising, where products vie for premium position, with the ROI and cost-per-click bidding of paid search, and applies it to online retail. Now the service is offered on mobile devices to better engage consumers while they’re researching and purchasing products on the mobile web.
HitList Mobile extends HitList, the company’s solution that enables retailers to monetize all areas of their websites, to mobile sites. Manufacturers bid for improved placement in search results, product showcases, category and sub-category pages and home pages, by incorporating advertiser bids into site-side search as part of their sort algorithm.
For retailers, the upside is that with no cost, an incremental revenue stream can be turned on, with no disruption to the consumer experience and no loss of control over sort order. For manufacturers, HitList Mobile offers an opportunity to proactively manage product placement, boost visibility and increase clickshare across a network of retail sites.   
“We are seeing increased interest from our customers in the ability to purchase through a variety of mobile devices,” says Andre Brysha, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Ritz Interactive. “Our main concern is that Ritz Interactive is easy to navigate through any access point, including Smartphones and other mobile devices.  Having worked with Searchandise Commerce on our core website site, we’re encouraged to see the solution expand to mobile, and dovetail with our strategy.”
Searchandise Commerce says that HitList Mobile is representative of the larger trend of m-commerce. Nearly one in five consumers were expected to use their mobile phones to assist them with 2009 holiday shopping, according to a survey of 10,878 US consumers carried out by research firm Deloitte LLC. 55% of those planned to use their phone to find store locations, 45% to research prices, 40% to find product information, 32% to get discounts and coupons and 31% to read reviews. In addition, one in four shoppers were expected to make a purchase via their mobile phone.

Piri Launches 2010 Lowest-bid Auctions

Mobile messaging firm Piri has announced a new round of its popular text-to-enter, lowest unique bid auctions for 2010. The launch follows its most successful year yet with more than 40 radios stations participating in 2009.
Each radio station that takes part offers its listeners the same prize, with the prize awarded to the person submitting the lowest unique bid for the prize on offer, across all participating radio stations.
The quarterly, two-week-long auctions are open to all commercial radio stations. Piri’s service includes prizes valued at up to £20,000, and auction microsites branded to individual stations. The customised sites, which can be accessed via a link from each station’s own website, provide listeners with all the details they need, including information on prizes, how to play, and terms & conditions. 
Piri also provides PhonepayPlus-approved script templates for talk-ups; winner details within five minutes of the close of the auction; winner audio distributed across all stations by email; prompt revenue payout following the close of each round; and clear statements showing all transactions.
“Our radio auction service for 2010 provides an unmatched level of sophistication in terms of the quality of prizes, promotional material and operational support,” says Piri Managing Director, Lee Bowden. “It is tried and tested and a valuable source of additional content and income for radio stations.”
This year’s Piri auctions will take place in March, June, September and November.

Report Focuses on the Indian Content Opportunity

Mobile research firm, mobileSQUARED, has released its latst report, 'India: Birth of a mobile content superpower 2009 – 2013’. The report examines the Indian mobile content market, assessing the market challenges, barriers to growth, and key opportunities for companies intent on capitalising on the Indian marketplace.
Mobile data in India was worth a fraction over US$2 billion (£1.25 billion) in 2008, and like the other BRIC nations, China, Russia and Brazil, it is the potential of the Indian marketplace that has sparked a furore within the wireless world, the report notes.
This projected development comes despite a background of delayed 3G deployment, with most licenses for 3G spectrum not due to be issued until late 2009. Most of the leading operators are committed to aggressively rolling out the technology, with a lowering of data access costs essential to the ongoing development of the content market. Meanwhile, the market for Value Added Services (VAS) is also being stimulated by saturated teledensity in urban circles.
However, the report says, the content market in India is at risk of being stymied by operators, who take the lion’s share of revenues from mobile entertainment sales. It is a policy that is undermining content providers’ business models, despite the rapid growth in subscriptions. Regardless of these limitations, the next five to 10 years will see a huge uptake in content services in India as subscriber numbers soar past 700 million.
The report costs £300/€340/$500 fior a single-user licence, including an ‘Analyst on Call’ service: when you buy the report, mobileSQUARED will answer your questions for free for six months, including any updates to the report.
There’s more information about the report here.

Myxer Powers Estée Lauder Web & Mobile Storefront

Estée Lauder, one of the world's leading manufacturers of cosmetics, fragrances, and skincare products, has launched a web and mobile storefront where users can go to send gift ‘wish list’ ideas to friends and family during the holidays.
The storefront, custom-built for Estée Lauder by Myxer, contains product images that users can select and send to their friends and family members’ mobile phones. Estee Lauder’s famous fragrances, best-selling skincare products and makeup are included, along with complimentary gift wrapping, customized gifts and more. Estée Lauder is also sponsoring the Myxer ‘Happy Holidays’ Channel, where consumers can download the latest in holiday-themed mobile wallpapers and ringtones.
“We were looking for an innovative technology solution for the holidays along with a company that has a large audience to market to,”  says Mendy Charlton, VP, North America Marketing at Estée Lauder. “We were thrilled to find both in the same place via Myxer.” 
According to Deloitte’s 24th Annual Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends (2009), one in five consumers (19%) plan to use the mobile channel for holiday shopping, with 25% of those customers planning to use a mobile phone to make a purchase.

Mobile Content Booming, says Screen Digest

The analyst Screen Digest says that, as it predicted at the end of last year, 2009 was the most successful year for mobile content ever - despite a difficult economic climate and a declining handset market. The market awakening was primarily due to the success of Apple’s App Store and is set to bring mobile to the forefront of the media industry in 2010 and beyond.
The latest research from Screen Digest’s Mobile Intelligence Service suggests that revenues from applications other than voice and messaging on mobile are set to double in the next four years to reach €100 billion/year (£89 billion) by the end of 2013. €8.6 billion of this will be generated by rich media content services such as Mobile TV, video, games and music, a growth of 50% compared to the end of 2009. The bulk of the remainder will comprise charges for data.
More than half a decade after the launch of 3G, the industry has finally found the right ingredients to provide a compelling user experience on mobile, the company says. The increasing popularity of Smartphones with multimedia capabilities, as well as the emergence of more open distribution channels such as Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market, has ignited the mobile content market.
According to the latest Screen Digest research, Apple’s App Store will generate €1.3 billion by the end of 2013 from 7 billion downloads. Not all applications stores will achieve the same level of success, however, and the Smartphone/app store model will take some time to reach mass market adoption.
The exploding number of app stores and corresponding development platforms poses a danger of creating unnecessary market fragmentation, Screen Digest believes, adding that market consolidation is a long way off as the huge corporations behind those app stores - Apple, Google, Nokia, Samsung, Microsoft, Vodafone and Orange - will be happy to compete with each other, and the sheer size of the mobile market will offer enough room for all of them to co-exist.  
Screen Digest believes that mobile will be a major part of the global digital media market, from music to games, to video and TV. Although the media industry is still a long way from generating as much revenue from mobile as it does from other platforms, the company says, it will help offset the decline of physical sales while offering new hopes for monetization.
In the music industry, mobile is being used by online music-on-demand companies such as Spotify and Deezer to upscale consumers from free to premium services. Revenues from mobile music services are set to grow by 25% in the next four years, reaching €3.2 billion by the end of 2013 despite a substantial decline in ringtone sales.
The direct publishing route that mobile apps offer pushes video games publishers up the value chain, removing the need to license content. Revenues from mobile games sold through operators’ portals and Apple’s App Store are expected to grow by 40% in the next four years, reaching €2.8 billion by the end of 2013.
Screen Digest is confident that as mobile handsets increasingly converge with portable media players, the demand for paid-for mobile Video on Demand (VoD) will rise, and mobile will eventually become a substantial contributor to the global VoD market. Mobile builds a much better case for subscription-based VoD services since, unlike the home environment, the content cannot be accessed free elsewhere at the time of demand. As a result, Screen Digest believes that mobile video revenues will double in the course of the next four years to €1.7 billion, with most of the growth expected in 2010.
While 2009 has been a year of disillusionment for Mobile TV with crumbling adoption rates and most users watching it for free, the football World Cup in 2010 offers the opportunity to energize the market. Whether this sudden rush of demand can be sustained beyond the tournament remains to be seen.
Globally the number of Mobile TV subscribers is set to double in the next three years and will reach 230 million by the end of 2013 generating €1.7 billion. With a mobile population of over 1.5 billion users by the end of 2013, China and India are set to generate more revenue from Mobile TV services than Europe and North America combined.
“Companies such as Apple and Google have brought a much needed breath of fresh air to the mobile content industry by opening up the ecosystem, providing flexibility to developers and content providers, driving innovation and increasing consumer awareness,” says Ronan de Renesse, Senior Analyst at Screen Digest. “Whilst 2009 proved that there is strong demand for mobile content, 2010 will be much more about how to sustain usage. Falling prices, combined with exponential mobile data growth, will threaten the profitability of standalone mobile content services and data access. The successes of 2009 could become the nightmares of 2010.”

paythru Partners with Pensio for Mobile Payments

Mobile payment specialist paythru has entered into a partnership with payment solutions provider Pensio that the companies say will benefit retailers wanting to generate revenues from the 73.4 million mobile payment users worldwide.
The paythru/Pensio service provides simple and transparent creation and management of merchant accounts, and the processing of credit card payments on the paythru mobile payments platform.
paythru and Pensio say they have developed the system with merchants front of mind.  The account acquiring rate is reviewed at least every six months to ensuire that the best possible rates are always on offer.  Merchants also benefit from improved cash flow, as paythru does not hold the merchant’s money; payment is direct from acquiring bank to the merchant.
paythru and Pensio handle the whole process of setting up a merchant account with acquiring banks, offering multiple acquiring banks if required, and all handled in the merchant’s name for complete transparency. The system is fast to set-up, typically taking just a few weeks from sign-up to going live.
The service is international and provides multi-currency options, allowing merchants to accept international and local credit cards within Europe. The solution works with all the major credit card suppliers and paythru is a solutions partner for MasterCard and Visa.
The system also offers reporting and account management, allowing merchants to quickly and simply manage their payments. The reporting system includes real-time information on transaction history.
It has been designed so that only one contract sign-up is required, and there is no single point of failure for clearing card payments. The service achieved 99.8% availability during 2008 and is running at 100% for 2009 to date.
paythru is also a highly secure system, being the first mobile payment service that has achieved Level 1 PCI DSS compliance, delivering the same standard of security as retail banks and card issuers.  The system uses Thawte SSL and will support 3D secure.  All data passing through the system is encrypted, and screening systems are built-in to detect fraud. 

Myxer Unveils MobileStage

Myxer, which is committed to connecting artists and fans through mobile, has announced a broad expansion into the artist services realm with new offerings designed for enhanced mobile engagement and promotional opportunities, as well as several key strategic partnerships.
To complement the company’s music marketing offerings, Myxer has unveiled MobileStage, which it claims is the most comprehensive mobile marketing suite available to the music industry– featuring a music application distribution service for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android applications.
Myxer’s MobileStage offers artists free, enhanced mobile websites; mobile fanlist management and messaging; advanced data analytics; promotional initiatives for artists based on location and touring routes; and, for independent artists, A&R opportunities with some of the industry’s top music management professionals.
As part of Myxer’s application distribution service, the company will promote artist apps to its user base of nearly 30 million customers. The first of these includes BlackBerry apps for legendary rock acts, Pearl Jam and U2.
On behalf of INgrooves, a MobileStage launch partner, Myxer will feature iPhone apps from electronic music heavyweights, The Crystal Method and revered rock ‘mockumentary’ stars, Spinal Tap.
Myxer’s MobileStage is an evolution of the company’s core offerings, providing a one-stop shop for artists to use mobile music technology and tools to connect with fans in more personalized and engaging ways.
“When I’m working with my artists, I tell them there are three places they need to be – iTunes for the digital sales of their tracks, MySpace for their desktop fans, and Myxer for everything mobile,” says Kedar Massenburg, former President of Motown Records, and currently CEO of Kedar Entertainment.
“We listened very carefully to a large cross-section of artists, and one universal theme we heard was the artists’ desire for more engaging and personalized ways to connect with their fans,” adds Myxer CEO, Myk Willis. “We are thrilled to be working with industry leaders and expanding the breadth of our comprehensive suite of mobile products and services to help artists and labels across the spectrum.”
Myxer currently works with more than 100,000 artists, delivering customizable and feature-rich mobile content to help them connect with their fans in new ways. The company has several new features lined up for the coming months, including full-track downloads, streaming audio and video, as well as links to artist merchandise outposts, concert ticket purchase options and a much broader application distribution service.

 

Wapple Powers Mobile Valuation & Trading Service

CeX has unveiled what it believes to be the first UK’s mobile valuation and trading service, powered by mobile Internet technology from Wapple. Wapple was appointed to build the mobile site from a shortlist of three companies by consultants retained by CeX. Wapple’s work included the creation of the API that communicates with CeX’s central servers.
CeX, was established in 1992. The company buys, sells and exchanges a range of technology and entertainment products including mobile phones, video games, DVDs, PCs and CDs. Customers can already trade their mobile ‘phones, through one of its 90 plus stores in the UK or via the CeX website.
Now CeX has launched a mobile site at http://m.webuy.com where consumers can instantly get a valuation on the ‘phone they are using or another they may wish to sell. They can also go to the website to buy, sell and exchange their mobile as normal.
The service is available across all handsets. Using Wapple’s patent-pending mobile web device optimization service, it immediately serves up the make and model of the phone being used, as well as the network it’s on, and renders the page images specifically for the device. All handsets traded in are repaired and re-cycled where possible through CeX’s stores and website.
“Mobile trading is an increasingly important part of our customer proposition and by adding a mobile trading service to our retail and etail presence, this is an exciting step forward for us in a very competitive market place,” says CeX CEO, Robert Dudani.

Portaltech Unveils StripeyLines

eCommerce consulting and development firm Portaltech has unveiled StripeyLines, an iPhone application that enables shoppers to swipe the barcode on goods they are considering for a price comparison but also saves these goods and profiles as a wish list on the StripeyLines website for later research and evaluation.
For retailers and shoppers alike, says Portaltech, StripeyLines can be customised to provide a number of useful features. In the run-up to Christmas or during sales, it could be used to allow visitors to affiliated retail stores to touch and feel products while on the shop floor then use their iPhone to scan the barcode of their desired products and collect them later at a customer collection point, or scan them and add them to online wish lists. Alternatively, in-store, or later over a coffee, shoppers can review what they’ve scanned to make an informed decision and perform further research before buying the items from their iPhone or desktop PC.
StripeyLines search allows consumers to scan any standard product barcode to gain access to generic images and details –either via an adapted version of the retailer’s catalogue, or through look-up search engines such as Amazon, eBay, iTunes and Google. The shopper can choose to carry out a number of different actions on a scanned item. For example, StripeyLines allows shoppers to search for the item on Tesco.com and add it to their online Tesco’s Grocery account shopping basket.
Numerous other actions are in the pipeline for StripeyLines, including weight management. Having scanned a product the user plans to eat or drink, the app will update how much the nutritional value of that product contributes to their daily allowance and calculate the number of calories they have remaining.
Retailer specific barcodes (the shorter 8 digit barcodes found on own-brand goods) are being added to the StripeyLines search as retailers make them available. The first retailer to provide this data is Iceland Foods, with data also being made available from Tesco through its TJAM initiative.
For retailers that want to make the most of the mobile commerce revolution without developing their own iPhone application, Polartech says that StripeyLines will enable them to develop simple plug-ins that are beamed to shoppers’ iPhones and highlight certain lines and promotions when related items are scanned.
“iPhone users are early adopters, technology savvy and are eager to embrace new lifestyle options and services,” says Portaltech CTO, Paul Tough. “They access the Internet to look up specific information online more than any other Smartphone users, and there are a lot of them. As such, with the rapid consumer adoption of the iPhone, retailers have been encouraged to consider mobile-enabled commerce and the opportunities that it can offer.”
Tough adds that StripeyLines has been built from the ground up to be totally extensible and to provide third-party retailers and solution providers with an interface to plug-in additional functionality such as the offer of home delivery, the delivery of digital promotions and an extension of ‘self-checkout’ – all of which evoke brand value and establish retailer differentiation.
“As it’s a plug-in extension to their existing web technology, retailers don’t have to learn about a new technology and they can update and disseminate information in a true multi-channel environment, enabling them to merge the online and in-store experience so it is seamless and convenient,” he says.
The StripeyLines application is available to download for free from the Apple App Store. StripeyLines is also compatible with the iPod touch, however users will need to type in the barcode number in the absence of the iPhone’s built-in camera.

Austrian Brief is Child's Play for Fonestarz

Mobile entertainment company FoneStarz Media has been chosen to host and manage a content portal aimed at young customers of 3 in Austria. The new project, called 3Funtastic Club, will provide a full range of safe and targeted downloadable content, from games to personalisation products. FoneStarz and its retailing and publishing platform Daius allows the products and messaging on the Kids portal to be tightly managed by the content team at its UK HQ. Fonestarz has been managing a significant part of 3’s content portal since earlier this year.
3 Austria is aiming to get 25,000 regular users of the Kids portal and will be handing out €5 a month pocket money to under 13s to stimulate use of the content, which will include games, themes and other content from a number of headline brands like Disney. The pocket money can be spent on any of the content in the portal, which will be at a discount to the content in the main portal.
“The aim is to drive safe content usage in the young pre-pay market on the network,” says H3G Austria CEO, Berthold Thoma. “External mobile Internet sites will be blocked for these users, giving parents a safe option and allowing the youngsters to begin to use content services in a regulated environment.”
FoneStarz hosts, manages and publishes multiple content formats for over 2,800 different handset types and currently licenses and aggregates content from more than 130 partners worldwide.

Fortumo Opens Up in Indonesia

Fortumo, the open m-commerce platform provider, has announced its service debut in Indonesia, the largest country in South East Asia and the fourth most populous country in the world. The move is the latest in Fortumo’s Asian expansion initiative, following the opening of operations in  China a year ago, and, since then, in Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia
“As the emerging countries have become the major growing force of mobile commerce, we choose Indonesia as our next prime market,” says Pohan Chang, Head of Asia Marketing at Fortumo. Chang notes that Indonesia has a population of 230 million people, with 144.64 million mobile subscribers.
Fortumo provides a variety of solutions to enable novice and expert users alike to create innovative SMS services without any cost or investment. The company’s services are now available in 29 countries across Europe and Asia Pacific.

Bango Handed Fox Mobile Billing Task

Mobile web payments and analytics company Bango has entered into a multi-territory agreement to provide Fox Mobile Group with its mobile web billing platform services worldwide. Bango says the move is a result of the rapid growth of Internet usage from mobile devices, which is driving publishers and content owners to focus on content delivery through mobilewebsites.  
“Fox Mobile Group is pleased to work with Bango to bring their mobile web billing services to our Jamba and Jamster customers,” says Soren Schafft, General Manager of Americas for Fox Mobile Group. “We are committed to strengthening the user experience across our services and we are excited to be able to offer our customers a more efficient billing option.”
Bango notes that mobile iIternet devices and connectivity are becoming more sophisticated, which presents new opportunities for the delivery of online media content. Bango payment is optimised across the range of mass market and Smartphones to provide a standardised payment experience for every user.
The company adds that Bango billing is designed to deliver the highest available conversion rates through its technology and network operator relationships, ensuring that users can pay on mobile devices, connecting through their operator network, or through wi-fi and other routes such as BlackBerry RIM data networks. If operator billing cannot be used, Bango enables payments through credit card and other methods, such as PayPal.

Study Highlights Content Discovery Issues

Xiam Technologies, a Qualcomm subsidiary providing discovery and recommendation solutions to mobile operators, has released the results from a study of mobile content users in the UK and the US that shows widespread consumer frustrations with their current mobile content discovery methods. 
Some key findings from the research, which surveyed active mobile content users from an original sample of 2,666, included:

• 80% of consumers surveyed reported experiencing a problem obtaining content on their mobile handsets
• 63% indicated that they would spend more time accessing or purchasing content if it was personalized and easier to find
• Time spent searching and downloading content was the most frequently mentioned problem
• Users estimated that they would increase the amount of time per week accessing mobile content by over one hour if that content was easier to find
• Likewise, users estimated that they would spend, on average, £4.80 more on mobile content if that content was easier to find and personalized
• Users who primarily accessed content via their operator’s services indicted they would be more likely to increase both time and money spent as a result of personalized recommendations

The study showed a consistent picture across both the US and the UK, says Xiam, with users broadly reporting the same frustrations and attitudes. While the company is presumably not too distressed about the findings, Colm Healy, Vice President of Qualcomm’s EMEA Services and General Manager of Xiam Technologies, says:
“One of the key messages from this research is that the industry has to evolve beyond simple search and move toward personal discovery, making the user’s experience more intuitive. These results point to a huge opportunity for operators to increase mobile data usage and sales by providing personalized mobile apps and content experiences.”

Mobile-paid Service Complaints Fall by 62%

PhonepayPlus, the phone-paid services regulator, has revealed a 62% drop in complaints about mobile phone-paid services in the 15 months between July 2008 (1,981 complaints) and October 2009 (746).
The news coincides with the publication by the EU of an update on the success of its 2008 Europe-wide clampdown on misleading websites offering mobile phone services, such as ringtones and wallpapers. The EU revealed yesterday that out of a total of 301 websites investigated by national enforcement authorities for serious breaches of EU consumer law, 70% of the 301 cases investigated, have now been resolved, with 52% (159 websites) corrected and 17% (54 websites) closed.
The issues raised by the EU included unclear pricing information; lack of contact information; hidden terms and conditions; and the word ‘free’ being used to mislead consumers into long-term contracts. Of the 43 UK websites checked, 39 were found to need further investigation, and five were potential cross-border cases, i.e. when the business, consumer and enforcement agency are not all based in the UK.
Working with the Office of Fair Trading, the statutory UK cross-border authority, PhonepayPlus examined the UK websites highlighted in the ‘sweep’. Many of the websites that appeared suspect transpired to be for services that were no longer in operation and hadn’t been updated in line with the current regulations. The remaining sites were dealt with through PhonepayPlus’ enforcement powers, including informal action with providers and formal PhonepayPlus adjudications; a few investigations are also still ongoing.
In addition, PhonepayPlus introduced new rules for mobile phone-paid services in January 2009. These measures aim to protect the public from a range of practices in the mobile premium content market which were causing complaints and undermining consumers' trust. The new rules include:

• Active confirmation: any consumer joining a subscription service which costs more than £4.50 per week must first receive a free confirmation text message detailing the cost and conditions of the service. The consumer cannot be charged until they have confirmed their subscription by replying to that text.
• Price transparency: price information must be clearly displayed as prominently as any other aspect of the promotion. Promotional material must not suggest any premium rate product or download is ‘free'.
• STOP: providers offering subscription services or sending promotional text messages must enable consumers to easily opt out of the service via the ‘STOP' command. Any failure of this command immediately results in the service being immediately shut down while PhonepayPlus investigates.

PhonepayPlus says it is confident that its strategic policy work, backed up by its enforcement powers, will continue to cut down on bad practice in this area.
Suhail Bhat, Policy and Initiatives Director at the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), says the PhonepayPlus figures show that when regulators and the mobile industry work together, services can operate in a compliant manner to the benefit of all. 
“This is mirrored by the Consumers and Convergence study recently undertaken by KPMG in association with MEF, which showed that consumer satisfaction with mobile music services had grown globally from 26% in 2007 to 66% in 2009,” says Bhat. “We would welcome discussion with the EU on the regulation of mobile services. The mobile entertainment industry is valued at $32 billion (£19 billion) globally, but the regulations for the same content vary tremendously and are applied inconsistently in different Member States. In many cases, there are multiple regulators with remits over both the advertising and content of services. As convergence becomes a reality, more discussion is needed to ensure consumers continue to enjoy mobile content services.”

mBlox Sender Pays Powers Mobile Bus Ticketing

UK bus operator Arriva has launched an m-ticketing service for all of its regional services in England, Scotland and Wales. Customers can buy daily, weekly and four-weekly tickets via their mobile phones. The service has been created using mBlox Sender-Pays Data, which enables consumers to buy data-rich content via their mobile, and pay only the price of the content itself, without incurring any data download charges to their mobiles.
Arriva’s introduction of m-ticketing is believed to be the largest deployment of its kind in the world, covering approximately 1,000 routes served by Arriva’s regional fleet of 4,500 buses. It will enable passengers to use their mobile phones to buy tickets and then display them to the driver.
“The mobile phone is an essential part of modern life and m-tickets will give additional flexibility and convenience to our customers,” says Arriva UK Bus Managin Director, Mike Cooper. “The launch of m-ticketing across all our regions will mean that millions of bus journeys will be taken using the technology. We believe this represents the largest introduction of its type in the world.
“Customers can buy tickets using their phone at anytime from wherever they happen to be. It saves them searching out the cash to buy a ticket and speeds up getting on the bus, as they simply show the ticket on the phone display to the driver.”
Arriva has worked in partnership with Concept Data Technologies and mBlox to create the m-ticketing service, which is a free-to-download mobile phone application. Once downloaded, the app enables bus users to buy a range of tickets. Tickets can be bought either directly through the application via a registered card, or by buying credit from any PayPoint outlet, either by cash or card.
In addition, anyone using the m-ticketing service can save 10% off Arriva four-weekly saver tickets.
The m-ticketing technology works on any GPRS-enabled phone, on all Uk mobile networks. The service also works on BlackBerrys, and will run on the iPhone from early 2010 will be iPhone compatible as well. Phones with black & white screens, which are typically four or more years old, cannot be used. 
To use the service, register online via Arriva's dedicated website. Once registered, the m-ticket application will be sent, free of charge, to your phone. Next, select and buy your ticket via  credit/debit card or by cash. For cash top-ups, customers will need to add Arriva credit to their phone, using the m-ticket application’s ‘Add-cash’' option at a PayPoint outlet or Arriva Travel shop. Then on the day of travel, activate the ticket. The ticket will be displayed on the mobile phone screen and simply needs to be shown it to driver. The ticket runs from the date of first use, not purchase.

ReadySet Go says Openwave

Openwave Systems has announced the launch of Openwave Mobile Internet ReadySet, which it describes as a "low-cost prepackaged platform that provides operators with a central point from which to offer new, revenue-generating, mobile Internet services".
Openwave’s ReadySet provides a complete mobile Internet solution, consisting of traffic management tools, including content adaptation and acceleration, bandwidth optimisation, and service promotion and billing, in a single package. OPenwave says that with low-cost hardware and standard pre-configured deployment options, ReadySet is ideal for smaller operators and newer markets which require a quick return on investment for minimal capital outlay. Additionally, the company says, ReadySet is scalable, and will expand to meet subscriber growth and demands both in terms of increased numbers and increased user expectation.
“Openwave is committed to serving emerging markets and helping operators of all sizes offer subscribers the most advanced mobile internet and messaging experiences available,” says John Giere, Senior Vice President of Products and Marketing at Openwave. “ReadySet provides smaller operators with the flexibility to rapidly deploy new services in a cost effective manner. (It) serves as a single management point for the operator to control and observe all Internet services. We believe Mobile Internet ReadySet, as well as our location and messaging offerings, will enable smaller operators to effectively differentiate their customer offerings while growing their mobile data revenue.”

Bright AI Scores Footie Deal

Mobile content and applications company Bright AI has been selected by FL Interactive (FLi) to develop a range of branded and bespoke football-themed games, content and applications for 80 clubs across England and Wales including Bolton Wanderers and Premier League newcomers Burnley, who have surprised many this season with their bright, inventive football, which saw them beat champions Man United in their first home game of the season.
The content and applications will be hosted on Bright AI’s Boximo platform, which seamlessly integrates with any website to create a virtual ‘plug and play’ store front, enabling clubs or brand owners to sell official or third party mobile content and applications direct to fans. Boximo provides clients with an easy to use web-based interface through which clubs can manage their content, control pricing and view sales statistics and reports.
In addition to wallpapers and ringtones, Bright AI has developed a range of branded games, including ‘Football Manager’, ‘Keepy Uppy’ and ‘Penalty Shootout’. The games and content will be available for all Java-based phones by the end of October, and Blackberry and Android phones in the coming months.
The FLi contract takes the number of football clubs using the Boximo platform to 100, bolstering Bright AI’s existing portfolio of football clients, which includes Tottenham Hotspur and Everton.
Boximo can distribute content to customers on any UK network, and Bright AI plans to launch an international version in the New Year. This will enable clubs to service a global audience, allowing fans in any country to purchase and play with mobile content from their favourite clubs.
“Football fans love to demonstrate their club allegiances, and branded mobile content provides a great way for supporters to personalise their phones and show their support,” says Bright AI Managing Director, David Lane. “The deal with FLi clearly demonstrates the appetite for branded mobile content and by using the Boximo platform, clubs of any size can easily sell content direct to fans from their existing websites.”

PayPal Appoints Billing Revolution as m-Commerce Partner

Mobile payments company Billing Revolution has been appointed as a Mobile Commerce Partner by PayPal, enabling PayPal merchants to immediately begin conducting mobile credit card transactions using their existing PayPal Payflow Pro gateway accounts.
PayPal has roughly 45,000 merchants that process transactions via their Payflow gateway, and these merchants now have the ability to sell digital and physical goods to any consumer on a mobile phone. Under the agreement, Billing Revolution will become a reseller of the PayPal Payflow Pro gateway service, while PayPal can promote the Billing Revolution service to its merchant base. Payflow Pro connects a company’s online store to an existing Internet merchant account. The secure and scalable payment service can be used along with a merchant account to manage credit card transactions.
“We are pleased to bring the PayPal Payflow Gateway to merchants utilizing Billing Revolution’s credit card solution for mobile transactions," says Eddie Davis, Senior Director of Channel Sales at PayPal. “Billing Revolution’s customer base represents one of the most innovative segments of e-Commerce and mobile transactions. Together, we provide merchants with the products and services they need to be successful and deliver on the needs of their customers.”

Turner Takes Bango Analytics

In what looks like something of a coup for the firm, mobile web payments and analytics company Bango has licensed its Bango Analytics product to Turner Broadcasting System for an undisclosed sum.
The deal was revealed via the London Stock Exchange’s RNS regulatory and financial communications channel, which enables companies to communicate with professional investors.
With the continual growth in mobile web browsing, driven by the growth in wi-fi connectivity from mobile devices, fast network access and increasingly sophisticated handsets, media companies are targeting sites specifically at mobile consumers.
Bango Analytics provides analysis and reporting functions to enable businesses to understand how mobile users interact with online services.With the continual growth in mobile web browsing, driven by the growth in wi-fi connectivity from mobile devices, fast network access and increasingly sophisticated handsets, media companies are targeting sites specifically at mobile consumers. Bango Analytics provides analysis and reporting functions to enable businesses to understand how mobile users interact with online services.

Ukash Unveils Mobile Site

e-commerce payment specialist Ukash has launched a mobile site that enables consumers to access Ukash services from their phone. The site, created by Untitled London, includes a mobile wallet to store, combine and split vouchers, which can be used to shop, pay and play online using cash. There’s also a version of the site designed for consumers in emerging markets, to enable them to use Ukash services via mobile devices. Both versions of the site will be rolled-out to other countries in the coming months.
For iPhone users, Untitled London has also created functionality that utilises ‘current location’ technology to quickly and conveniently identify the nearest physical locations for Ukash users to buy vouchers. The company plans to roll out this mobile feature to more countries across Europe in the next few months.
The Ukash mobile site can be accessed at www.ukash.com or www.ukash.mobi and provides consumers with a user-friendly interface that shows how to get Ukash and where to spend it, as well as access to the mobile wallet 24 hours a day. The platform will host exclusive mobile-specific products and services and will allow new mobile-specific merchants to tap into the Ukash proposition, while providing current merchants with another channel to publicise their offering.
Ukash, which is continuing to expand its reach in its quest to make online shopping available to everybody, anywhere in the world, is available in the UK, mainland Europe, South Africa and Australia and has an existing global network of 275,000 users. 

Sybase and IBM Team Up for mCommerce

Sybase, which specialisesin enterprise and mobile software, has entered into a global agreement with IBM to realise the mobile commerce opportunity with both hosted and on-premise solutions in developed and emerging markets.
The company believe that as mCommerce moves beyond early adopters, IBM’s global reach, strong client relationships and deep industry expertise, coupled with Sybase’s leading end-to-end mCommerce solution, unrivalled global operator reach and financial services customer base, will enable them to provide flexibile mobile banking, mobile payment and mobile remittance offerings to customers worldwide.
“This agreement not only extends the long term collaboration between our two companies, but also coincides with the launch of IBM’s Banking Framework, a unified platform to help accelerated transformation and reduced project risk right across a bank’s operations from risk management to mCommerce,” says Ranjit Balaram, Practice Executive, Wireless & Emerging Technology Applications for IBM Global Business Services. “With access to Sybase’s complete mCommerce solution, the breadth of the IBM Banking Framework and the global reach and expertise of IBM Global Services we can help simplify deployments for our joint clients and help them introduce a more consistent experience for end-users.”
Nick Holland, Senior Analyst at Aite Group, says the alliance should enable Sybase and IBM “to deploy mCommerce solutions at a scale that will give them a distinct advantage in the mCommerce landscape, further legitimising the mobile channel as a core growth area for businesses worldwide.”
The two companies already act as business partners for hundreds of  companies worldwide, including mobile operators and financial institutions. Under the agreement, IBM Global Business Services and Sybase subsidiary Sybase 365’s mCommerce team will work together to extend their reach and meet the needs of more clients.

Cineworld Goes Mobile

UK cinema chain Cineworld has launched a mobile site at: http://cineworld.canfactory.com/mobile.
The company says the site has been launched as a response to the increase in mobile subscriptions within the UK and the growth of SMS messaging, year on year. The latest data shows that 4% of Cineworld’s total 1 million visits a week to its website are via mobile.
The mobile site, developed by Can Factory, will enable Cineworld customers to access film times and cinema details, view the latest film synopses, and book tickets easily and securely. Cineworld says the mobile solution will become an integral part of its communication offering and will allow the brand to meet particular marketing objectives, including increased communication with customers within the 15-24 year age group, and the development of an interactive relationship with customers to encourage brand loyalty.

India to Dominate Mobile Content, says mobileSQUARED

India is set to become the leading global market for mobile content by 2013, according to the latest research report from mobile analyst mobileSQUARED. The report, ‘India: Birth of a Mobile Content Superpower 2009 – 2013’, forecasts that the total market for mobile entertainment and content will reach $2.37 billion (£1.43 billion) by 2013, up from US$835.78 million in 2009.
The Indian mobile market consists of more than 400 million mobile subscribers, which is growing at 15 million new connections per month, and will hit 700 million subscriptions by the end of 2010. This phenomenal rate of growth is fuelling huge new revenues in the mobile content and entertainment market, the report notes. This growth comes despite delays in the roll-out of 3G technology.
 “India may be thought of as an emerging market, but the numbers are already staggering,” mobileSQUARED Technology Analyst and report author, Ed Barker. “Even without 3G in place, it is the potential of the Indian marketplace that has sparked a furore within the wireless world.” 
Barker adds that the continuing growth in subscriptions, and the deployment of 3G from late 2009 onwards, is expected to deliver massive growth in mobile voice and value-added services (VAS) revenues for the leading operators and content providers.
“The market for mobile entertainment services is expected to be worth US$2.37 billion in revenues by 2013, fuelled by continual growth in the take-up of RBTs, games, graphics driven by strong mobile Internet usage,” he says.
The primary sources of revenue in the market are ringback tones (RBTs), ringtones, graphics and wallpapers, and mobile games. By 2013, all of these content areas will grow in terms of revenues, with the RBT market constituting the largest single area of content.
Licenses for 3G spectrum are not likely to be issued until late 2009, however, after a series of delays by the Telecoms Regulator of India (TRAI). But the inherent increase in bandwidth and lower of per-byte data costs associated with 3G technology will become essential to the ongoing development of the content and services market by reducing barriers to entry for the mass market, according to the report.
“Despite these limitations, the next five to 10 years will see a huge uptake in both 3G and content services in India,” says Barker. “To put this into perspective, even if just 10% of Indian consumers take up 3G over the next decade, there will be more than 100 million next-generation mobile users on the sub-continent.”
The report says that in many ways, the access revolution is happening now. With wireline broadband infrastructure highly limited and PC penetration low, it is the wireless world that is set to drive the digital Indian economy over the next decade. Middle-class and student India is already beginning to use their mobile phone as the primary Internet access point.
But the report argues that the market for content in India is at risk of being stymied by highly interventionist operators, who take a huge proportion of revenues from mobile content sales and dictate pricing policy. Research shows that the operator take of content revenues is normally more than 70% of on-portal revenues, or content monetised through premium SMS. Operators’ strategy in India is in marked contrast to the relatively open content-driven world of the Apple App Store and Google Android devices that are dominating the thoughts of operators, OEMs and consumers in Western markets.

Blackberry Browsing On the Up, says Bango

Mobile payment and analytics company Bango has released statistics showing that the BlackBerry is now the fifth most popular mobile phone for browsing the web in the UK and worldwide; and the third most popular in the US, where it accounts for 14% of all mobile traffic. BlackBerry is above all iPhones in the browsing charts, with Nokia remaining the overall global leader with over 36% of traffic seen.
Bango notes that while the Blackberry was once perceived as primarily a business phone, it is  increasingly becoming the preferred handset for consumers wanting to browse the Internet from their phones. The BlackBerry 8330 Curve now accounts for over 28% of BlackBerrys browsing the web.
“With all the buzz surrounding the Apple iPhone, and the rush to capitalize on its success, many companies fail to realize that over three times more consumers browse the web from a BlackBerry,” says Bango CEO, Ray Anderson. “The global Smartphone race is well under way, but it is the BlackBerry that is the Usain Bolt out in front.”  
Bango data collected across millions of users accessing the Internet from mobile devices also reveals that the BlackBerry user base is much more likely to use wi-fi as a connection method where available. Some of the newer BlackBerry devices have a wi-fi connectivity capability which makes it easy to locate wi-fihotspots and connect ‘off-net’. By default, BlackBerry devices will connect by the RIM proprietary data gateway, but can operate in either mode when the web browser is launched. This makes it challenging for brands and content providers to accurately identify BlackBerry users for tracking, CRM, sales and marketing campaign purposes.
Bango is urging companies to seize the BlackBerry opportunity and start capitalizing on its exponential growth, by ensuring that their mobile sites and campaigns are optimized for these devices. As users become more savvy and switch between their operator network and wi-fi, says Bango, it is vital that companies are able to successfully track their customer’s behaviour by using a mobile payment and analytics solution that works correctly on all Smartphones. Without this, it says, a significant segment of mobile web traffic will be incorrectly identified making it virtually impossible to sell content and services to these users.

Study Reveals Favoured Mobile Web Brands

BuzzCity has released the findings of its latest study of mobile Internet users across the globe. The study investigated which brands have the most appeal among the mobile Internet audience; why this audience prefers these brands; and how likely they are to recommend their favourite brands. The aim of the study is to help brands from all sectors and the agencies that work with them to better understand the mobile Internet consumer and how to influence their purchasing decisions.
The study found that the brands most favoured by mobile internet users across the globe were:

1. KFC
2. McDonald's
3. Sony
4. Nestlé
5. Samsung
6. Nokia
7. LG
8. Coca-Cola
9. Panasonic
10. Philips

The survey also revealed that users typically base their preferences on brand performance, followed by style and then price. Quality, reliability, value and trust all also influence choice.
“We have been carrying out regular studies in to the mindset of mobile Internet users for the past few years,” says BuzzCity CEO, KF Lai. “It is clear from this study that mobile surfers are ardent brand advocates and will regularly make recommendations to peers. To encourage this, there is the potential for brands to share more product information through the mobile platform. This would be especially potent in the food sector where domestic brands dominate. Brands such as Arab Dairy (Egypt), Amul (India), Indofood (Indonesia), Mama (Thailand), San Miguel (Philippines) and Simba (South Africa) operate in markets where the mobile nternet is, most likely, the only access users have to the internet.”
The study found that although 54% of mobile users would recommend a brand to their peers, only 4% would do so in reaction to a specific sales promotion.
“Consumer behaviour on mobile is different from that on the internet,” says Lai. “Our research shows that although some brands are starting to develop mobile strategies, there is still much work to be done. Simply producing a mobile website will no longer cut it with these savvy consumers. The provision of m-banking services and the development of mobile widgets and feeds that make content discovery and consumption easier and more accessible, are two very good places for brands to start."

Billing Revolution Powers App Store Payments

Billing Revolution, a mobile payments company, and Motek Mobile, a full service mobile production and distribution company, have announced a partnership that will bring billing and payment capabilities to Motek Mobile’s proprietary direct-to-consumer application store.
Using Billing Revolution’s technology, Motek Mobile and its clients will now have access to a fast and secure, single-click payment option that allows consumers to purchase games, apps, ringtones, and other mobile entertainment content from their handset.  Billing Revolution will handle the processing and payment of transactions on the back-end, providing a comprehensive CRM solution and transparent experience for Motek’s app store customers.
“Our app store powers many popular consumer-facing applications, and Billing Revolution’s service will help us add a simple and easy to use, single click checkout to facilitate these purchases,” says Motek Mobile CO, Colin Pilsner. “
Motek Mobile designs and markets content downloading software for mobile phones. The company also has a production studio for applications, themes, ringtones, wallpapers, animated screensavers, and ringback tones for mobile users. Billing Revolution’s technology currently works across all web-enabled handsets and carriers, and accepts payments in more than 150 currencies worldwide.

US Proving Fruitful, says Bango

Bango, which provides billing transaction services to mobile content providers, says that the lure of the growing US mobile market is proving to be rewarding for many of the UK’s leading mobile content brands. UK market leaders including Flirtomatic, Mobile Streams and Animation FC have all launched in the US, and according to Bango, are profiting from the availability of mobile search and advertising inventory, along with sophisticated mobile web payments covering both on-bill and credit cards, to maximize revenues.
“The beauty of using Bango for our US billing needs is that one integration with their platform gives us access to large number of paying subscribers across multiple US networks,” says Flirtomatic CEO, Mark Curtis. “It supports the same ‘browse and buy’ experience that powers the standard Flirtomatic offering, which has enabled us to launch painlessly in the US.”
Mobile payments have been transformed in the US over recent years. Bango pioneered  browse and buy billing in the US, launching WAP payments with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile US. This delivers a market of over 150 million phone users, with leading content providers generating millions of dollars a month in end user spend.
“The experience of building a direct-to-consumer mobile service in the fiercely competitive UK market is being translated very effectively into the successful launch of these services in the US,” says Anil Malhotra, SVP Marketing and Alliances at Bango. “The numbers in that market are eye-watering for UK companies: each of the top three networks individually gives access to a subscriber base bigger than the whole UK market put together. US consumers have completely bought in to browsing from their phones, and are hungry for compelling content.”
Bango says that one of the challenges of the US market is the significant penetration of Blackberry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and other Smartphones among ordinary consumers, when compared to Europe.
A high percentage of consumers using these devices use email instead of text messaging and cannot easily make payments on their phone bills. UK businesses have to think how to maximize conversion rates across this user base, especially as more people are using ubiquitous wi-fi hotspots to connect to the Internet.
“The traditional payment model - text to buy - actually means lower conversion rates than UK providers might be used to,” says Malhotra. “If you can nail mobile web payments across these users then you have access to a lot of users, bringing a lot of revenue potential.”

Mobile Web Use to Triple, says Forrester

The number of Western Europeans using their mobile phone to access the Internet will triple over the next five years, according to a new Forrester Research forecast. By 2014, nearly 40% of consumers will be tapping into the web via their mobile phone. Despite the poor economy, Forrester sees the proliferation of high-speed networks, Internet-enabled mobile phones, and flat-rate data plans driving mobile web adoption.
In the UK, mobile Internet adoption will grow from 17% today to more than 42% by 2014. In Germany, adoption will grow from 12% to nearly 37%; and in France, from 11% now, to 41% by 2014.
The growth of the mobile web is important on two fronts, says Forrester. First, telecom companies facing subscriber saturation are looking for new revenue streams, among which data plans will be a key component. Second, consumer-facing companies ranging from banks to airlines, media firms, CPG firms, and healthcare providers, who have until now been wary of spending too much time and money on a mobile strategy until adoption rates take off, must now fully commit to connecting with their customers via mobile.
“In the next decade, the mobile Internet will replicate the success story of the PC-based Internet,” says Forrester analyst Thomas Husson. “As Europe is one of the most diverse and saturated mobile landscapes in the world, the challenge (for companies) will be to adapt to local conditions to increase the usage of new services.”
The report, ‘Western European Mobile Forecast, 2009-2014’, forecasts mobile Internet growth for 17 Western European countries. There’s more information about the report here.

Mfuse Unveils Litebet

Mfuse has announced the launch of Litebet, which it says is designed to help companies with high levels of mobile Internet traffic to maximise revenue generation.
The service offers a single access point to Litebet’s extensive portfolio of bookmakers, with the opportunity for partners to instantly monetise their mobile Internet traffic by providing a variety of games and interactive betting services that have not previously been available in one place.
It will enable any company with high mobile Internet traffic to provide its customers with a white-label betting portal, containing a wide variety of mobile sports betting and casino offerings, including the likes of sportsbooks from Gala Coral Group, Ladbrokes Plc, Victor Chandler and others, and casinos including Wild Jacks, Ladyluck’s and mFortune.
Dennis Publishing is the first company to launch a white-label version of Litebet, the ‘Monkey Mobile Casino’, for mobile Internet customers of its Monkey Magazine offering. Mfuse says that a number of other media partners are expected to be announced shortly.

OMTP Sponsors Mobile Web Initiative

The Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) has become a sponsor of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) in order to, in its own words, “further bolster the joint goal of making browsing the web from mobile devices a reality”. OMTP, the organisation behind the BONDI initiative, says it will use the sponsorship to drive standards and best practice, which will ultimately enable users of mobile devices to have the easiest and best possible access to the web.
The W3C Mobile Web Initiative actively promotes the mobile web.It works to provide best practices and recommendations to the industry to enable a better mobile web experience. The OMTP says it believes in a consistent mobile web environment, which is enabled through W3C standardisation.
The OMTP notes that over the past few years, there has been massive innovation in the development of web services and applications available to users of PCs. Combining these advances with the personal features of the mobile device, it says, will stimulate even better and more unique services to a mass market of mobile phone users, noting that this greatly outnumbers the number of PC users. The enabling of services which can be accessed by a large proportion of the world’s mobile phone users will not only stimulate new development and increase the number of developers, the OMTP believes, but will also provide “unseen levels of new types of services”.
It adds that the OMTP BONDI initiative, which provides a standardised set of interfaces for web developers to access native capabilities on mobile devices, is essential in providing the consistency necessary to enable this vision. BONDI also provides the security features which will be essential in protecting the user from potential abuse from malicious web applications.

Oxygen8 Launches Payforit 2.0 Platform

Oxygen8 Communications has launched a Payforit 2.0-enabled platform to help companies to generate additional revenues through micropayments. The new single-click purchase functionality available through Payforit 2.0 gives companies the ability to increase conversion rates on campaigns and encourage continued repeat purchase,. An Approved Payment Intermediary on all UK networks, Oxygen8 is offering the Payforit service free to all its customers – there is no set up cost and no ongoing monthly fee.
“Payforit has become the ideal way for businesses to maximise transactions by generating additional spontaneous purchases and engaging with consumers without the need to make card purchases,” says Oxygen8 UK CEO, Colin White. “In the UK, APACS has reported that as much as 38% of the adult population does not have a credit card, yet the penetration of mobile phones stands at well over 90%, highlighting the huge potential of Payforit to help companies find new customers and generate incremental revenues online.”
Oxygen8 notes that Payforit is ideal for all WAP services, with flexible tariffing; one-off and subscription payments; MSISDN pass through; marketing opt-in; and single-click purchase. In addition, Payforit is becoming increasingly important as an incremental revenue generator for many web merchants with the new web Payforit.

Micro Economy

Colin White, UK Chief Executive of Oxygen8 Communications, examines the market potential for micropayments

Demand for micropayments is increasing fast, as social networking and dating sites wake up to the benefits of taking small subscriptions via secure SMS or voice billing services. Added to this, and as part of the Digital Britain report, the Government’s body for business innovation in technology, the Technology Strategy Board, has announced a £10 million investment to work, at least in part, with industry partners to create and trial new models, including micropayments for online content and video on demand.
But with the organisations receiving only 66 pence in every £1 for micropayments due to network charges, compared with 96 pence for credit card transactions, there is a very real danger that the market for micropayments for a range of online goods and services could be severely constrained.
Given the lack of credit card penetration in many countries, including China, and within the younger demographic that still dominates the online customer base, the need for robust and commercially viable micropayments is pressing.
With the arrival of proven technology that can be delivered globally and rapidly integrated into core systems, online vendors now have seamless access to a whole new revenue stream – but just how many organisations will be deterred by the excessive network charges?

Payment flexibility
While providers of online goods and services continue to buck the economic downturn, it is clear that a significant proportion of potential online revenue is being lost due to the near-total reliance on credit cards for payment. While a number of micropayment solutions have been introduced in recent years, a lack of global integration and the complexity of attempting to manage different mechanisms across different countries and networks have deterred the vast majority of organisations from supporting any payment option other than credit cards.
But as a growing number of organisations are now discovering, the arrival of viable, global micropayments technology is opening up a whole new revenue stream. The micropayment model works perfectly for sites operating a model of small, regular subscription, such as dating or social networking sites, especially in areas such as China, where credit card penetration is very low.
But the potential for micropayments is not limited simply to subscription services. A global micropayment service using SMS or voice billing, as available across each continent, provides organisations with a fantastic opportunity to achieve new revenue streams, and not just with products aimed at the younger demographic unlikely to hold a credit card. While music downloads and gaming sites will obviously benefit from a flexible, robust and convenient payment method, there are very real opportunities to offer micropayment facilities for additional services. In hotels, for example, micriopayments would reduce the need for late night reception staff to process payments.

Grossing up
Evidence is growing that the adoption of micropayments opens up a massive untapped market – with no upfront investment. One of the key concerns for many organisations assessing the pros and cons of micropayments, however, is the network tariff. And for good reason: whilst organisations receive 96% of credit card-based transactions, high network charges mean that only 66% of the payment is received from a micropayment.
For any organisation with a low margin product or service offering, this approach could theoretically make micropayments unfeasible. Indeed, low levels of micropayment adoption to date point to the fact that organisations are concerned about margin erosion created by these high network charges, despite the proven access to new customers. Early adopters of this payment method have demonstrated that consumers are actually happy to pay more to leverage the flexibility and ease of use of micropayments for the time being.
By offering the customer the option of making a micropayment, but charging a little more (grossing up), the organisation can maintain its margin, without cannibalising the existing customer base. With the right integration into the core product/service software, it is a simple process to offer two prices – one for credit card transactions and one for micropayments – enabling the customer to make the choice.

Secure, simple
Key to user adoption of micropayments is the delivery of a completely seamless, flexible service, irrespective of country or network. Micropayments must also be easy to use, secure, and support a wide range of payment values – from the €1 ringtone download upwards. 
Delivering this consistent service globally is a major challenge for many providers of micropayment solutions. The payment market is highly regulated, for obvious reasons. Organisations must comply not only with local, state and national regulations, but also meet the demands of each network supplier in each country. Furthermore, payment technologies need to be integrated with back-end customer service and web content management systems to deliver a complete, auditable solution.
To achieve this successfully and rapidly requires significant expertise, and experience of different global markets. It demands strong integration skills, and the ability to rapidly respond to organisational requirements to roll out into new markets to address customer opportunities. With the right technology, infrastructure and experience, micropayment technology can be deployed within days, with little or no upfront investment, allowing organisations to trial the technology in specific markets to assess its potential.

Global opportunity
Those organisations that have opted to trial micropayments have all opted to extend the service across new geographies as a result of a significant increase in revenue. Customer feedback reveals that the process is simple to understand and extremely transparent. There is also strong anecdotal evidence that organisations are achieving higher conversion rates via micropayments than credit card payments.
As a result, growing numbers of social networking sites are now offering micropayments although, to date, this has been limited to sites in the UK, the US and Australia. With the arrival of proven global solutions, organisations are looking to leverage the new market opportunities in China, Africa, the Caribbean and South America.
Furthermore, given the strong consumer response, the networks are showing increasing interest in introducing new micropayment tariffs to enable organisations to move beyond existing services, towards a true m-commerce model. Indeed, as consumer awareness of the additional costs associated with micropayments grows, there will be growing pressure on networks to offer far more competitive rates.
A major shift is on the way: micropayments not only offer unprecedented ease of use for the consumer, overcoming the resistance to buy online via credit card, but also provide the opportunity to leverage the billions of mobile-owning individuals globally, in order to increase revenue consistently and easily for a range of online goods and services.
But the mobile networks also needto play their part. By agreeing to operate on smaller margins, it is likely that the networks could precipitate a massive adoption of micropayments that would generate significant additional revenue. Without that change in policy, the real micropayment opportunity could remain untapped.

Bango Launches Wi-fi Billing for Smartphones

Bango, the mobile web payments and analytics company, has launched the first wi-fi-enabled operator billing service for Smartphones. 
The new service targets the growing base of Smartphones, such as the Blackberry and iPhone, which often connect to the web via wi-fi, bypassing the mobile network operators. The Bango service allows Smartphone users to pay for content on their phone bills through the same click-to-pay experience, despite being connected outside of the operator’s network. Without its ‘Wi-fi on-bill’ payment capability, says Bango, Smartphone users would be redirected to credit card payment processes, leading to lower conversion rates and lost sales for content providers.
Bango claims that the Wi-Fi on-bill payment capability delivers up to 25% more sales, and enables both operators and content providers to capture revenue from this growing segment of their customer base.
“We have worked hard to make the content buying experience both easy and trusted by opening up our on-bill payment services to our customers,” says Mike Short, VP of Telefónica Europe. “An increasing proportion of subscribers are choosing wi-fi connectivity at home or in specific locations, to augment our 3G connectivity. This innovation by Bango, one of our accredited payment intermediaries with Payforit, brings the benefits of tried and trusted operator billing to subscribers, even when they connect over wi-fi.”
Steve Crawford, Operations Director of GoSpoken.com, a leading mobile e-book and audio book company, says that over 25% of its customers have a Blackberry or Windows Mobile phone, and that an increasing number are using wi-fi  for the faster connection speeds on offer. “By using Bango to deliver a consistent operator payment experience to all our customers, we have seen a marked increase in sales,” says Crawford. “Conversion rates using operator billing are much higher than using other methods, and easier for our consumers. No other billing solution lets our Smartphone customers simply click to pay.”
Research from Gartners shows that the Smartphone market represents the fastest growing mobile phone segment, with 38.1 million smartphones sold worldwide in just the first quarter of 2009.

Berlin Hosts Mobile 2.0 Conference

IIR's ‘Mobile 2.0 - Content & Services Conference’ takes place from 23 – 25 November 2009, at the Kempinski Bristol Hotel, in Berlin:
IIR says the event will bring together key stakeholders within the mobile Web 2.0 value chain to discuss current trends and revenue generation possibilities, successful business strategies and the future opportunities that exist within this space.
Questions to be addressed include:

• What are the drivers, enablers and opportunities that exist within mobile Web 2.0?
• How can you develop effective strategic partnerships with key players in the mobile Web 2.0 value chain?
• What are the current industry trends and what investments will you need to make to enable sustainable, long-term growth?
• What device and technological advances will impact your business?
• How have app stores changed the marketplace?
• What are the best strategies for ensuring growth and ROI within mobile social networks, mobile content and mobile advertising?
• Is there a future in Web 2.0 for mobile operators?

The conference will include case studies, panel discussions, best practice presentations and product showcases from organisations including the Mobile Marketing Association, Buongiorno UK, BuzzCity, comScore, Flirtomatic, GetJar, itsmy.com, Screen Digest, ShoZu and Vodafone Group.
There’s more information here.

Netsize Unveils Smart Application Billing

Mobile commerce and communications enabler Netsize has launched Smart Application Billing, a global billing solution for application stores. Netsize Smart Application Billing enables app stores to use operator-based billing to charge for application downloads and usage, and permits charging from the mobile application itself.
The solution combines three operator-based billing methods: Direct Operator Billing (where an installed application on a mobile handset initiates a billing transaction via Netsize directly to the user’s mobile operator); Premium SMS Messaging; and WAP Billing.
Depending on the characteristics of the consumer’s network operator, Smart Application Billing dynamically proposes the preferred billing method to the application. Direct Operator Billing and Premium Messaging allow the user to make the payment while remaining in the application. WAP Billing is used when the other methods are not available. The user makes the payment outside of the application on a mobile Internet payment page.
“Reaching the largest consumer audience and making it easy to buy content are the key success factors for application stores,” says Netsize Chairman and CEO, Stanislas Chesnais. “With Smart Application Billing, they reach 1.3 billion consumers globally, and consumers can conveniently purchase applications and application extensions via their mobile operator phone bill in both pay-per-use and subscription business models.
“Our Application Store customers observe an increase of their revenues by 400% as soon as they add operator-based billing. Having an alternative for credit card billing clearly removes an obstacle in the purchasing process. On application store visits that use a mobile device over a wi-fi connection, we record a 30% increase in payment transactions. It proves the business case for operator-based billing as a successful Internet payment method.”
Netsize providee operator billing solutions to some of the largest app storesm, and Sony Ericsson has chosen Netsize mPayment for its PlayNow arena, to cover multiple countries in Europe

Last Call for AIME's Mobile Web Event

There’s still just about time to register for AIME’s seminar: ‘Mobile Internet: It’s more than just WAP and the iPhone’. The event takes place tomorrow, 16 July at the Grange Fitzrovia Hotel, London, and features speakers from Al Jazeera Network, Wapple, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Net Mobile (formerly Minick UK).
Safdar Mustafa, Head of Mobile at Al Jazeera, will explain why mobile is integral to Al Jazeera’s overall web strategy, and how a multimedia organisation uses mobile at the heart of its digital operations both for news gathering, and to encourage viewers to interact with programmes.
Rich Holdsworth, CTO at Wapple, will discuss how platform developers like Wapple are meeting the demands of publishers and other companies who require a mobile web presence, while Jon Mew, Head of Mobile at the IAB, will present an overview of the size of the mobile ad market, and look at the effectiveness of mobile advertising. This will include IAB’s two recent research projects on ad spend and mobile effectiveness.
Lourens de Beer, Managing Director or event sponsor Net Mobile UK, will wrap things up with a presentation on new developing trends in managing mobile Internet services for mobile network operators, and explain how his company is enabling key value-added mobile Internet services for a range of companies interested in leveraging their web presence to the mobile Internet.
Following the presentations, there will be a panel-audience debate, led by AIME Director of Communications, Andrew Darling. Topics for discussion include:

• What makes mobile different from the fixed line Internet experience?
• What more is there to the Mobile Internet than just the iPhone?
• Best practice/development and design issues, including interface and usability affecting your strategy
• Optimization for multi OS world and content adaptation
• Maximising the strength of the mobile device
• Challenges, such as data costs and network speeds, interoperability, consumer education, a lack of standards and the premium rate Legacy
• Where will mobile be in 2-3 years time?

The seminar starts at 6.30pm, with registration open from 6pm, followed by networking in the bar from 8pm. The cost is £50 for AIME members, £80 for non-members, or £90 on the door. You can register here.

Bango Launches Bango Enterprise

Bango has launched Bango Enterprise, describing it as a service that is tailored to the specific needs of the world’s largest content providers. Bango Enterprise comprises a comprehensive service package and support to complement Bango’s mobile billing platform. Bango Enterprise is designed for the growing number of large music, games, video and social networking brands who are switching their businesses to use the mobile web.
Bango says its payment technology delivers unique capabilities developed through 10 years of innovation and experience alongside the company’s strategic partners, including leading mobile operators. The new Enterprise service gives big brands direct access to this experience, encompassing technical, marketing and commercial know-how. Bano notes that many of the most successful brands on the mobile web, including Buongiorno, Dada, Flycell, EA Games and Gameloft, already use Bango for mobile billing and analytics, and says that large brands that have built their businesses on the full-fat web are now following in their footsteps.
To deliver this Enterprise service, a team has been established to provide dedicated account management across multiple countries and billing routes. Enterprise customers benefit from worldwide customer service, pro-active account management and early access to new technologies, while a Service Level Agreement provides uptime guarantees.
“Bango mobile products enable everyone from start-up to global media brand to have a successful mobile web business,” says Bango VP Customer Services, Elaine Davies. “Increasingly, the world’s biggest brands, generating millions of dollars in revenue every month, are putting their mobile payment business through Bango, and in response to this trend we’ve developed an Enterprise service to support their special requirements.”
Users of the Enterprise service will get direct access to Bango’s product roadmaps and beta programs. In addition they also have a single point of technical integration for their mobile billing and mobile analytics needs, with the ability to integrate their own systems and existing third party solutions to Bango if they wish.
There’s more information about the Enterprise service here.