Sky’s Tim Hussain on mobile advertising
Tim Hussain, head of mobile advertising at Sky, talks to “Meet the Boss TV” about the health and promise of the mobile advertising industry.
2009 Telecommunication Trend Report
Power is shifting, as social media and mobile communication merge.
Web 2.0 and its impact on telecommunication was the most discussed topic at this years Berlin Telco Summit. Social media has become a massive movement and is fundamentally changing the way people communicate with one another. This development, naturally, has an impact on the telecommunication industry. Understanding Web 2.0 and learning how to connect with people in meaningful ways will be the major challenge for telecommunication companies for years to come.
The Berlin Telco Summit is an initiative of the Berlin-based brand consultancy Musiol Munzinger Sasserath in cooperation with Republic, a Milan-based advertising agency, which is part of the Publicis Network. It took place for the third time on the 16th and 17th of July 2009. It drew together 19 communication and brand strategist representing 21 markets such as Italy, Spain, UK, France, Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands as well as the U.S., Mexico, India, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan etc.. The idea of the summit is to connect and exchange the knowledge of experts within agencies of the Publicis Network, as well as independent consultancies, who have substantial experience in the telecommunications industry.
MYTV: Youth Marketing China
Graham Brown of http://www.mobileYouth.org looks at Youth Marketing in China with the help of John Solmon from http://www.enovatechina.com Lisa Yi of http://www.chinayouthology.com and Kevin Lee of http://www.genychina.com
To download the accompanying Ebook head to http://www.mobileYouthnet.com
Turkish 3G Mobile Operators Move Quickly to Restore Service After Floods
I landed in Istanbul the night the rain began to fall. By the next morning, Istanbul had experienced its worst flooding in 80 years. Many parts of Istanbul were underwater, more than 20 people were dead, and several of the leading telecommunications providers had service interruptions, as floods destroyed equipment rooms. Dilithium was asked to quickly re-supply equipment as service providers are in the midst of 3G launches with attendant multimedia services.
Istanbul is steeped in history with the first settlements dating back to 6500 BC. However, today it is a modern city with a very well developed telecommunications infrastructure. Turkey is the 5th largest telecom market in Europe and one of the 15th largest markets in the world, with nearly 100% mobile penetration rate. It is a very competitive market and due to this fact and mobile saturation, service providers are racing to offer multimedia value added services as a way to differentiate their offerings and attract new customers and new revenue sources.
The major service providers are aggressively pricing multimedia services equivalent to voice pricing, as well as offering bundled voice, data, and video plans, with some premium options. The lead applications include Facebook mobile apps, portal access, mobile tv, video mail, and video conferencing. With relatively low internet and broadband penetration in Turkey, mobile phones will be the key to accessing content from the web.
Market Report – iPhone Coming to China
Market Report – iPhone Coming to China
In todays market report China Unicom, the country’s second-biggest wireless carrier, will reportedly announce a deal to sell Apple’s iPhone in China. That will give Apple access to the world’s largest mobile market with nearly 700 million subscribers.
Good Morning Vietnam
As I rolled out of the airport on my way to downtown Hanoi, the rice paddies and lush green vegetation were familiar images from the past. Vietnam is peaceful and thriving these days, but as you get closer to downtown Hanoi, it is clear there is a new war going on – and the weapon of choice is mobile phones. Vietnam has a population of nearly 90 million, and while 75% still live in rural areas, the country has more than 80 million mobile phone subscribers, with many people holding multiple numbers. Eight service providers are battling for the hearts and wallets of the people of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The rural areas are largely untapped, which means that many city dwellers have multiple phones and subscriptions.
A throng of motorcycles and bicycles choke the bustling streets of Hanoi, and the drivers have one hand on the handlebar, and the other on a mobile phone pressed to their ears. While these drivers are making voice calls as they drive, Vietnam, like India and the Philippines is dominated by non- voice traffic, particularly SMS. This is why the next battleground in Vietnam revolves around the imminent launch of 3G Value Added Services, as it will be a natural for consumers to migrate from text to multimedia services.
Multimedia services such as live TV, portal access, video ringback tones, video blogging, and video surveillance will be rolled out over the next 6 months initially in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang, and then nationwide. Smartphone and netbook vendors as well as VAS providers are elbowing for position, as Vietnam is one of the top 15 most populous countries in the world. While inflation has recently become a problem and slowed the high growth rates of the last few years, the outlook remains strong and growth is still projected at 5%+ this year.
In Vietnam, the government controls the service providers and has granted four 3G licenses: Mobifone (mostly state owned by Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corporation), Viettel (run by the military), Vinaphone (which will be the first to launch and is also state owned), and a joint venture between Hanoi Telecom and Electricity Vietnam Telecom. Expect fierce competition between these four operators as they compete to hold existing subscribers and capture new ones through the offering of a range of multimedia services at very competitive prices. Subscriber growth is booming, but ARPU continues to drop sharply. Vietnam is poised to become one of the largest mobile markets in Asia, as well as one of the most innovative.
Global and Local Market Trends
When people talk about the latest market trends with regards to multimedia, they often speak in terms of global or macro usage. One of the things that we have seen is that while there are broad changes and usage patterns for video services that are driven by devices, networks and applications, most of the real news comes from individual markets.
From a global perspective, we can look at the increasing number of 3G subscribers and especially relative to the total number of mobile customers. The percentage of 3G subscribers is almost reaching 20% which is the point where people start to say there is a tipping point. New smartphones from iPhone to G1 to RIM’s Blackberry are showing people how easy it is to access quality video on a daily basis. Prices for these services are generally falling and all-you-can-eat pricing plans are making multimedia more accessible to the masses. New codecs such as H.264 are providing a near-HD experience which helps to promote increased usage.
Then we have the local markets driving local services. It’s easy to point to India and China where more than a billion people will eventually have access to next-generation mobile broadband, and their networks are being built out now – but these services are yet to be launched – though there are high hopes. We see very specific applications tailored to a country in markets such as the Middle East and in South East Asia. There are also cultural norms that have be followed – including the allowance of adult services in Western and Northern Europe (UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria for example), which would obviously not be permissible in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Bahrain.
What do you think and see? Which markets are truly leading this revolution? How much do global trends apply to local markets?
Growth of Mobile Services in India
Since I joined Dilithium Networks in June, in the exciting field of mobile video, I have had a chance to reminisce about my 15 year on and off association with the telecommunication industry in India from a vendor perspective.
Going by the saying “numbers never lie”, the growth in the mobile space has been mind-boggling. By 2010, India is expected to have 500 million mobile subscribers, growing at the rate of 10 million new subscribers a month. 40% of these subscribers are expected to use their mobile phone for something more than just making a basic call. The cost of making a mobile call is the lowest in the world and mobile devices are expected to be the primary device for internet access for a big section of the population.
The auction of 3G licenses in the 2H,09 is expected to provide a major boost to mobile video and related value added services (VAS) that are unique to the socio-economic set-up for the cost conscious Indian consumer.
One of the big challenges facing India is the inadequate power/electricity production, where rural areas receive less than 8 hours of powers a day on average. Since television cannot be turned on for most of the day, mobile devices are expected to provide back-up entertainment as well – from watching cricket snippets and getting the latest scores in a cricket crazed nation, to watching news or getting the latest on the ongoing soap operas.
Mobile video and VAS are also expected to play a major role in the small business and services sectors. Some possibilities include: construction contractors making a video call to their sub-contractors and monitoring progress from their phones rather than visiting each of their sites everyday; plumbers rather than visiting multiple shops for parts can make video call to check out the available choices; farmers can call experts and show them field conditions and get advice without traveling; explaining medical conditions to experts in the cities… the possibilities are endless.
The way to I think about it is that the pipes for mobile infrastructure are ready. The next step for the service providers is to enable video and VAS that are relevant in the context of India’s socio-economic set up. The mobile revolution is just beginning in India……..tighten your seat belts and get ready for the ride.
Multimedia Market Trends
The world of mobile multimedia has been around largely since the launch of the first 3G networks ten years ago in Japan. During this time more, than 100 operators and service providers have sold video services to their subscribers and a number of trends are starting to emerge, especially during the past year.
While it is easy to throw out words such as personalization, social networks, and communities of interest – there is little consensus on what this means for multimedia services to mobile phones, PCs, and televisions (the three-screens). However, we are seeing massive take up currently in all kinds of new video services to both 2.5 and 3G handsets.
A number of factors contribute to this market increase including: easy-to-use, simple and great video quality smart phones (think iPhone e.g.), better pricing by service providers, and even a good degree of marketing to promote these services.
Multimedia market trends is a very broad topic and we will be writing much more about this in the coming weeks and months. For now, suffice it to say that we believe the market for multimedia across broadband and mobile is taking off now!
So what will the next 18 months bring for video services? Which kind of services will people be using? What macro economic and social trends are coming that will drive new services?
Dr. Marwan Jabri – video interview
Dr. Marwan Jabri interview with TMCnet at CTIA2009