How Important are Social Product Recommendations?

People still get most of their information about products and services from friends and other people in face-to-face conversations. Email and voice conversations also are frequently used by more than half of respondents to a Colloquy survey.

Company sites, shopping sites, blogs and Twitter and other micro-blogging sites are much less frequently the source of such information. But that is likely to change as the lead edge of younger users become more nearly representative of the "general" or "typical" user.

Some might argue that socially-influenced product recommendations are not as influential as often is thought. But 56 percent of respondents 18 to 25 already say they share such information on social networking sites.

96% of Marketers Increasing Social Spend

Fully 96 percent of World Federation of Advertisers members polled recently are spending more time and money on social media. However, half of them admitted to being unsure of the likely return on that investment and nine percent believe the outcome will be "poor."

The attraction of social media often seems to be that it can be done without spending much money. But nearly always, organizations find that it takes far more time than originally anticipated. Just nine percent found their social activities took less time and cost less than expected.

Some 27 percent of those who have increased their social media efforts have found running fan pages takes more time and money than they had anticipated. The payoff is additional insight and increased loyalty (85 percent agreed), and the opportunity to increase advocacy (80 percent).

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Marketers to increase social media budgets, despite lack of measurability - Social Marketing - BizReport

Online Cannibalizes Print, Not TV

Television retains the greatest share of US major media ad spending, at 39.1 percent in 2011. Increases in online ad spending—set to grow from 15.4 percent of the total in 2009 to 25.6 percent by 2015, will not come at the expense of television, but of other traditional media like print and directories, eMarketer says.

In fact, eMarketer does not believe television advertising share will decline at all, between now and 2015. That doesn't mean changes are inconceivable. It is possible the actual venues and channels within the television segment will shift, from linear to online, for example.

TV Ad Spending Largely Unaffected by Growth Online - eMarketer

Social and Mobile Are Changing "Shopping"

One way to look at marketing is to say that channels today are highly fragmented, and becoming more fragmented. (Click on image for a larger view)

The other way to look at marketing is to day that products are more customized and personalized, and there are buying influences broadly scattered across a range of digital channels, including social shopping influences.

In other words, people have more input available from other shoppers, and shoppers use that information when buying themselves.

Some people think social commerce or social shopping is basically just social networking. That's likely too narrow a view. Social processes (people sharing and collaborating) are bigger than simple "social networking," and affect both the ways consumers find information and make choices, as well as the ways marketers have to plan on reaching potential buyers.

Simply Tap: Mobile Payments Aimed at Mobille Shopping

A new mobile payments service, Simply Tap, will launch in the United Kingdom at the end of the summer, allowing consumers to buy any product on any mobile phone by sending a text message bearing a numerical code displayed on a billboard, for example.

The service works independently of any mobile network or handset brand. Once they have registered their name, address, preferred delivery address and debit or credit card details, consumers can buy products by entering the retailer's product code, and having the product delivered directly to the user's home.

The service will be run by the Mobile Money Network, a company owned by Carphone Warehouse,Best Buy and Monitise.

The venture is another example of the different potential business models mobile payments represents, beyond the actual payment transaction. Google sees an advertising angle, Simply Tap is an e-commerce play. Others see in-store promotion as a key way to monetize the platform.

Mobile retail service Simply Tap prepares launch

Australia's National Broadband Network Becomes Law

Australia's parliament has passed legislation establishing the new National Broadband Network. The legislation passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The new law sets out a regulatory framework to provide that NBN Co. will operate on a wholesale-only, open and equivalent-access basis for all retail providers that wish to use the facilities. See Australia's National Broadband Network Law Passes Parliament - WSJ.com.

The NBN also effectively structurally separates Telstra operations into retail and wholesale operations, as Telstar will be required to sell facilities to the NBN. In principle, you would think such structural separation would not allow vertical integration. But some observers say that might happen, to a certain extent. Nor does the existence of the NBN deal with the issue of "monopoly" or "full competition" in all respects.

There are, for example 120 points of network interconnection. But that also means NBN can refuse to connect to any retail provider except at those 120 points.

Similarly, NBN Co is going to offer a bundle of voice and data services as a uniform product across its fiber, wireless and satellite networks. Apparently to protect the government’s promise of uniform national pricing of NBN services, NBN will have the ability to deny supply to any service provider that doesn’t want to take the bundle.

That commitment to uniform national pricing at the wholesale level necessitates a system of cross-subsidies. Urban customer bases will subsidize higher-cost rural and regional customers.

NBN also is going to be allowed to "discriminate" in its pricing, providing volume discounts as well as possible special pricing for enterprise, educational institutions, government and local government agencies. None of that is unusual for wholesale carriers. But such issues show that structural separation might not solve all the problems "monopoly" is thought to cause. See

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Stephen-Conroy-NBN-Co-Telstra-Optus-pd20110324-F9A44?opendocument&src=rss for a discussion of some of the issues.

Millenials Value Lots of Things in a Brand, Not Just "Coolness"

Affluent Gen Y: Media Survey | Robert Mertz from L2 Think Tank on Vimeo.
Authenticity, for example, is quite important.

Handet Leadership Changes Over 10 Years

In an industry that is changing so rapidly, you'd expect changes of leadership in just about all phases of the business. Consider handsets. A decade ago, European brands such as Nokia, Siemens and the Swedish-Japanese JV Sony-Ericsson lead, in terms of sales and market share.

Over time, Asian manufacturers and computer makers like Apple replaced them.

This infographic shows how the mobile industry changed over the last 10 years - Phone Arena

American Express Launches "Serve" Mobile Payments Service

American Express is launching a new mobile payment system called "Serve." Serve will allow consumers to make purchases and person-to-person payments online (serve.com), using mobile phones and at millions of merchants who accept American Express cards as well. Serve unifies multiple payment options into a single account that can be funded from a bank account, debit, credit or charge card, or by receiving money from another Serve account.

Serve aims to provide an alternative to cash, check and debit card payments. Serve accounts can be used on Apple iOS and Android applications, at Serve.com and through Facebook.

“A cornerstone of the long-term vision for Serve is developing partnerships with commerce, gaming, entertainment, and social networking organizations,” American Express says, suggesting Serve will be pitched as a standard payment method for applications and games.

American Express Announces ServeSM, the Next Generation Digital Payment Platform

Google Teams with MasterCard, Citi for Mobile Payments

Google is teaming up with MasterCard and Citigroup to add mobile payments functionality to Android mobile devices. The deal is an example of Google's different take on mobile payments. Where Isis, the mobile payments venture supported by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA aims to generate revenue through transaction fees, Google is more interested in the advantages for its advertising business.

The planned payment system would allow Google to offer retailers more data about their customers and help them target ads and discount offers to mobile-device users near their stores.

Google Pursues Role in Mobile Payments - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Freemium Model for Mahala Mobile Banking

Mahala, a new mobile banking service, will launch in South Africa in May 2011, using a "freemium" model. Peer-to-peer money transfer, money deposits or withdrawals and retail payments are offered without charge. Mahala expects to make money by selling additional services to users. See more information about Mahala here: http://www.mahala.co/

Mahala is likely to disrupt existing mobile banking providers in South Africa, as those providers now charge for transactions, generally based on the gross amount of each transaction or a flat fee per transaction.



South Africa is by far the country where mobile banking is most widely used on the continent. Still, about half of South Africa citizens don’t have bank accounts. Nearly 40 percent are either unemployed or work informal jobs paid in cash. Bank charges are high and banking regulations are so strict – such as proof of regular income – that they prevent many poor people form having formal bank accounts. Moreover, most South Africans live in rural or semi-urban areas where access to a bank is very limited or non-existent.

First National Bank of South Africa has over two million customers and attracts about 90,000 on a monthly basis. In 2009, FNB mobile banking customers made 56 million transactions worth the value of ZAR7.2 billion. Customers can send money to anyone in South Africa, whether they have an account with FNB or not.

South Africans often paid couriers the equivalent of USD 30 to USD 50 per transaction to deliver cash to relatives. Now they can do it for only USD 0.50 through Wizzit mobile bank networks.

Flash Mobile Cash by Eezi gives home shop owners the tools to be the bank for communities where formal banking infrastructure does not exist. The home shops, equipped with shared-phone ATMs, enable communities to withdraw, deposit or borrow small amounts of cash from their local township residence. The shopkeeper, as the banker, transacts using a GSM enabled device supplied by Shared-phone. “

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Mobile Payment Models Show Why Mobile Service Providers and App Providers Are in the Business

Some would argue there are just three primary ways for U.S. consumers to make retail payments, and the methods show why mobile service providers, application providers and banks are getting into the business.

The three primary methods, some would say, include direct billing by a mobile service provider, paying by credit card or debit card and using an "online wallet" such as PayPal or Google Checkout.

Direct operator billing has been possible for many years, but relatively few retailers have embraced it, in many cases because the transaction charges are higher than when using a credit card or debit card. That has been a problem especially for the sort of small-retail-value transactions many believe will drive use of mobile payments.

Credit cards and debit cards are routinely used by consumers for online commerce as well as retail purchases, and mobile payments simply represent a move by credit and debit card issuers to hang on to market share and revenues they already are getting.

Online wallet services such as PayPal, Amazon Payments, and Google Checkout mostly have been used for online payments and money transfers, typically by use of applications that combine log-ins, passwords, shipping addresses, and credit card details in one central place, linking credit card accounts with the other payment process features.

In all three cases, mobile payments represents a move from an existing offline or online payment mode into a mobile mode, where the phone displaces the credit or debit card.

So the interest in mobile payments is rather obvious. Banks that issue credit cards and debit cards want to hang on to the business they've got, while mobile service providers and payment application vendors want to conquer new markets that represent net revenue growth.

Understanding Mobile Payment Models | Banking & Finance > Banking, Lending & Credit Services from AllBusiness.com

30 Million U.S. Mobile Users Access Financial Accounts Using Mobiles

A new comScore report found that 39 million U.S. mobile users accessed financial services accounts (bank, credit card, or brokerage) using their mobile device in the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 54 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009.

Mobile Financial Service Audience (Accessed Bank, Credit Card or Brokerage Account) 3 Month Avg. Ending Dec-2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Dec-2009 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Total Unique Audience (MM)
	Q4 2009	Q4 2010	Percent Change
Accessed Mobile Financial Services*	19.3	29.8	54%
Accessed via Mobile Browser	11.8	18.6	58%
Accessed via Application	4.9	10.8	120%
Accessed via SMS	6.0	8.1	35%

Number of U.S. Mobile Financial Account Users Surges 54 Percent to 30 Million in Past Year - comScore

Swiss Mobile Banking App

The "iBank CH Mobile Banking" app sold by Recon IT Services GmbH provides an example of mobile banking as it appears on an Apple iPhone. Some apps primarily are "information" apps that allow users to track balances or make transfers between accounts.

Other apps are designed more specifically to support retail purchases.

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In 4G, Verizon Wireless Emphasizes Quality

If bandwidth is a measure of fourth-generation network quality, Verizon Wireless stands out from all the other carriers, according to a test by RootMetrics at some locations in Seattle, Wash. With the caveat that results will vary from location to location, across networks as well as on any single network, as well as the obvious observation that a lightly-loaded, brand-new network will not have much congestion because it has few customers, the test shows a wide disparity in experienced speeds.

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