A recent research by Ovum proves the fact that carriers are now seeing losses, thanks to mobile internet, and in desperate need to rework their current service offerings and value chains. The report focuses on losses of SMS revenues, $8.7 billion in 2010 and $13.9 billion in 2011, due to the increasing usage of social messaging services through mobile internet. Among such such services are Facebook, WhatsApp, and BlackBerry Messenger.”Messaging is a very key revenue stream that is being impacted,” said Neha Dharia, the author of the report “People have begun to reduce their SMS usage.”
Messaging is not the only revenue stream which is now being affected by mobile internet. Subscribers substitute almost all services provided by telcos and their VAS providers by going directly to the internet. This is considerably cheaper, as data plans are becoming more and more accessible. Telcos got in the vicious circle, where they are forced to reduce prices on mobile internet, which in return becomes their main cause of losses. But let’s get back to social messaging – how carriers can capitalize on this modern phenomena and be present in value chains which they lost with the invention of 3G?
Socialized.mobi is a service that allows a GSM mobile phone user to access his social networking Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ accounts without having to subscribe to any data plan or be in a presence of a Wi-Fi network. This is achieved by using USSD technology which is supported by most carriers around the world. Socialized.mobi is one of the services that is included in Cloud Mobilizer – solution for carriers that helps to solve the problems that they are facing as a result of services availability through the Internet. It’s perfect for any network, be it US or European, where a larger number of subscribers are using data plans, or those in the developing countries, where number of subscribers who using smartphones are not that high.
The cost of the service for subscribers can be very affordable. Even if a carrier will charge $1 per month, the additional revenue will be proportional to the number of subscribers who signed up for this service. And this number, especially in countries where smartphones are not widespread, is very high.
Contact us at info@eyeline.mobi for more information on this and other services of Cloud Mobilizer. Stay tuned.