Verizon Wireless "Share Everything" Helps Marketers Using Text Messaging

Obviuously, as more subscribers shift to Verizon Wireless "Share Everything" plans, there will be implications for application providers and other third parties whose customers use the Verizon network.


The plan isn't  favorable to streaming video providers, is relatively neutral where it comes to most other application providers and actually could help marketers who use either text messaging or multimedia message service. 


Historically, text message marketers have had to worry about annoying prospects by essentially making users pay to receive messages. Under the new "Share Everything" plans, that won't be an issue.


The central annoyance still will be the sense of "invasion" on the part of users to unobtrusive messages in a channel that is considered highly personal and private. No change of plans is going to change that constraint.

Agent Network is Key to Peer-to-Peer Mobile Money Services

Managing the agent network is the most critical post-launch success factor for a telco-sponsored mobile money service, analysts at McKinsey and Company say. 


Agents conduct the cash-in and cash-out functions, enabling customers to convert cash into electronic money and back again in convenient locations; in the eyes of the customer, the agent is the face of the company.


Many providers focus on building their agent networks as fast as possible, but that is a mistake,  McKinsey says. Getting the agent network rollout right is one of the most complicated aspects of launching mobile money.


If a provider enlists too few agents, customers perceive the system as difficult to use, or even useless. On the other hand, if there are too many agents, many of them cannot generate enough business to cover the cost of managing liquidity.


As an example, one of the keys to Safaricom’s continued success has been its decision to match network growth to customer-base growth, ensuring a steady 1,000 transactions per agent per month.


The initial network will likely number in the hundreds, not thousands, and it does not have to cover the entire country. Safaricom launched M-Pesa with just 400 agents in a country of almost 37 million people. For larger countries, some experts urge a regional launch, accompanied by later rollouts.

Success Metrics for the Telco Mobile Money Business

Although there are relatively few success stories in mobile money to date, there is an emerging consensus among experts about some of the critical metrics for a successful business model, McKinsey and Company researchers say. 

Four of the key indicators are the percentage of active mobile-money users in the telco’s subscriber base (more relevant for a telco but could be adapted for use by banks in the future), the number of customers each mobile-money agent serves, the average number of transactions each agent conducts each day, and the average number of transactions each customer conducts per month. 

Indicator	Success is
% of active mobile-money users among total telco subscriber base	>10%
Number of customers per agent (across growth trajectory)	400–600
Average number of transactions per agent/day	30–50
Average number of transactions per customer/month	>2.5

Source: McKinsey and company

Facebook is Introducing Subscriptions and Ending "Credits"

Facebook is adding subscription capability for Facebook applications and ending its use of "Facebook Credits," its virtual currency.  Instead, Facebook will switch to payments denominated in local currencies. 


Some might argue the move is designed to make it easier for Facebook applications to integrate with other apps for purposes of shopping and commerce. "Real" currency is the coin of the realm for e-commerce, not virtual currencies, generally speaking. 

RIM Weighs Sale of Hardware Business

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is considering splitting its business in two, separating its struggling handset manufacturing division from its messaging network, The Sunday Times reports. 


Keep in mind that in its most recent quarterly report, RIM said it earns 68 percent of its revenue from selling hardware. RIM earned about 27 percent of revenue from services. 

RIM could spin off the handset operations as a separate company or sell it, a move that would be inconceivable for a firm such as Apple, for example. The difference is that RIM makes significant revenue providing messaging services.

Who Uses Mobile Over the Top Apps, and Why?

About 11 percent of smar tphone owners use mobile VoIP applications regularly, compared with only 5% of mobile users as a whole, according to Analysys Mason Group. 


About 29 percent of smartphone owners use over the top messaging, compared with 17 percent for all mobile users. So the issue is why there is a difference and what it might mean for service provider efforts to compete with their own OTT apps, or sustain their own bundled offerings. 


The adoption of mobile OTT services may indicate that some users are willing to sacrifice certain features, such as extensive customer care capabilities, in favor of others, such as group chat messaging, Analysys Mason says. 


By focusing on features that are valued by particular users, OTT service providers can apply an alternative business model, often at no additional cost to the user. To compete, service providers must identify market segments and then create services that appeal to those specific segments, Analysys Mason suggests. 

Consumers are Rational about 4G

Adoption of 4G mobile phones has nearly quadrupled since early 2011, going from 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011 to 7.6 percent in the first quarter of 2012,  Nielsen Online says.  

Consumers under 34 are most likely to have already adopted 4G and 63 percent of teens are likely to consider switching to 4G within the next year (of course, that will require parental approval, so you might approach that particular finding with circumspection). 

Also, 55 percent of respondents are unable to identify any forms of 4G technology, so it is not as though most people actually understand the value proposition. 

Also, as you would expect, consumers who value "speed" are early adopters. The research also found that 4G capability is considerably more important for those purchasing a data card or mobile hotspot than either a smartphone or tablet. 

That makes sense. Smart phones don't show the obvious benefits of "faster" connections as much as PC or notebook experiences tend to do. 

But there is another interesting finding: current 4G users are five times more likely to consider 4G as a replacement for their home broadband connection, compared to users who have only 3G connections.