TV Guide exec speaks to mobile monetization strategy

By Giselle Tsirulnik

April 20, 2011

TV Guide is ahead of the mobile publishing game

With many publishers only now beginning to move their content to mobile, monetizing on the medium is challenging, according to TV Guide Digital, which was dabbling in the space even before the iPhone was launched.
TV Guide now has nearly 3 million application downloads across Android, iPhone and iPad. The iPhone accounts for nearly 2 million downloads, while Android comprises about 700,000 and iPad downloads are around 300,000.
“We took our time to get the app right – we have loyal customers with high expectations and made sure the app met those customer needs prior to launch,” said Christy Tanner, general manager of TV Guide Digital, New York. “We achieved 3 million downloads with minimal advertising investment by leveraging our existing properties to promote the app.”
Selling mobile ads
By August 2010, TV Guide realized that it could begin to monetize its mobile offerings, as it now had a mobile Web site and mobile apps for several of the major platforms.
The company uses AdMob’s AdWhirl to mediate between ads that come from the sales teams and ads from the AdMob network to ensure that all ad requests are filled.
The reason that TV Guide went with AdMob is selling ads on mobile is still relatively new for its sales team. It relies on the AdMob mobile ad network when it has unsold inventory.
“If mobile can help you better engage with your customers, then don’t wait,” Ms. Tanner said. “Get your feet wet so when you want to go big in mobile you will be better prepared.
“With ad networks, such as AdMob, you can monetize almost instantly, so why not do it?” she said. 
Figuring out mobile users
Mobile users expect a seamless experience that includes frequent updates.
TV Guide’s development cycle for mobile mirrors its online business. The company constantly provides new features and content to keep users engaged.
Both users and advertisers expect to see the same features in-app that are available of the PC desktop site, regardless of the smaller screen.
“The feedback loop for a mobile app is much better than on the Web,” Ms. Tanner said. “By monitoring ratings and reviews we were able to promptly identify the features that customers expected in the app.
“This instant feedback is a powerful tool that anyone developing on mobile should use to their advantage,” she said.
Minimal advertising spend
TV Guide claims that it was able to reach 3 million installations with minimal advertising spend.
Instead of using mobile ads to drive users to download, the company leveraged its existing media channels to reach its audience and let them know about the app.

TV Guide pushed its apps on its mobile Web site
This proved to be a successful yet economical way to build a strong mobile user base and allowed the company to focus resources on improving the existing app and building for new mobile platforms such as Android and iPad.
“We knew that mobile was an exciting new distribution channel to explore, and the growth of our apps has far exceeded our expectations,” Ms. Tanner said. “The growth of our mobile properties is encouraging as we explore additional opportunities to create new products that are at the forefront of innovation in our industry.”
The brand’s cross-platform approach to mobile lets consumers access TV Guide content on various devices. Ms. Tanner claims that by doing so, TV Guide is creating a stronger relationship with its existing online users.
And, TV Guide has actually acquired new customers via mobile.
Building a mobile business
TV Guide’s daily content updates are what keep customers coming back to the app.
Continuously updating content is imperative for any publisher to retain customers on mobile.
For TV Guide, an ad-supported model made sense.
“Mobile is already a big part of our business, but the challenge is figuring out how to support both online and mobile content,” Ms. Tanner said. “Ad networks, like AdMob, make it easy for us to explore mobile and monetize it now, but we hope to see more parity in monetization between online and mobile in the future.”
Final Take
TV Guide's Ms. Tanner speaks to the company's mobile content monetization strategy

Tips for putting foursquare and other LBS to marketing use

By Rimma Kats

April 5, 2011

A lot of brands are using foursquare

Consumers’ unprecedented need to always be connected and in constant communication with their peers has led to an explosion in location-based services that take advantage of social functionality. Here are some tips on navigating the LBS landscape and targeting consumers on a hyper-local level. 

According to industry experts, the opportunity is now. Devices provide marketers with location opportunities that let them not only reach consumers wherever they are, but also offer them incentives to further engage them with the brand.

“I think that the market opportunity for companies to use location-based services as a marketing tool cannot be ignored,” said Dan Gilmartin, vice president of marketing at Where, Boston. “Given the reach and the ability to target a user based on location allows marketers to deliver a message in a way that they haven't in the past. 

“Any business that wants to connect with a local audience can benefit from location-based services,” he said. “I think that most people consider restaurants as the target business for location based services.”

Location, location, location
A recent survey by JiWire states that more than 50 percent of mobile users would like to receive location-specific advertising. Another 39 percent would like to receive location-based coupons.

According to Mr. Gilmartin, companies should use the same tactics that they employ in their other marketing, but tailor these offers to consumers based on location.

Incentives can be great to convert potential new customers, but may be a means of margin erosion for existing customers. 

Additionally, loyalty programs that reward repeat business offer distinct incentives for existing customers. 

“Companies must consider this in their marketing strategies,” Mr. Gilmartin said. “Based on the growth rates we have seen – both on the app side and our ad network side – we see great opportunities in this space. 

“What we are really excited about is the impact that commerce will have on this category,” he said.

“Today, we seek to connect consumers and merchants while tomorrow we will connect them via commerce – a huge and exciting opportunity for all involved.”

Targeting youth
Location-based services are also a great way to tap into a younger audience. Users in the younger demographic are early adopters of location-based applications and services.

“Given their level of engagement, companies that are targeting those demos will find a large addressable audience,” Mr. Gilmartin said. “Marketers seeking to engage this audience must ensure that they are focusing efforts on compelling applications and user experiences.” 

Brands are using different types of location-based services such as foursquare, Where, Facebook Places, Placecast and Gowalla to get the word out about new products or to reward loyal consumers.

Crumbs Bakery drives store traffic to its locations every Friday by offering consumers who check-in free iced coffee. Those that hold the Mayor title get a free cupcake.

Similarly, Saks Fifth Ave and InStyle offer several foursquare promotions throughout the year where customers can check-in to certain departments to get a prize such as lip gloss or gloves.

Companies such as Sonic and American Eagle Outfitters and even musicians such as The Black Eyed Peas are hopping on the location-based services bandwagon.

The Black Eyed Peas recently partnered with mobile rewards company Scvngr to reward its fans via mobile challenges.

Additionally, Sonic and American Eagle Outfitters partnered with Placecast to use its ShopAlerts, which deliver location-triggered mobile messages when shoppers enter geo-fences.

Using the service, consumers can choose the brands they are interested in and can opt-in through a variety of ways such as in-store, via SMS or the mobile Web.

“Location, coupled with time of day, are hugely predictive of interest and intent for consumers who are considering the purchase of any real-world product or service – and the mobile phone is becoming the tool consumers turn to for help navigating the physical world,” said Alistair Goodman, CEO of Placecast, San Francisco, CA.

“We have seen in our own research from running different kinds of location-based marketing programs over the past 5 years,” he said. “For impulse purchases like food and clothing, there is a particularly strong opportunity to point a consumer to a nearby deal and see them take action – we’ve seen this with Starbucks.

“Interestingly, for longer purchase consideration cycle products, tying messaging to a location can serve as a strong reminder from the brand in the buying process – The North Face is a good example of experiential and branding messaging around events like the X-Games.”

Young at heart
Mr. Goodman also agrees with Where’s Mr. Gilmartin that location-based services help tap into a younger audience.

“There is no doubt that social services with gaming features – like Foursquare and Gowalla – attract a younger audience, by definition, these services are being used by a younger audience,” Mr. Goodman said. “However, the actual use of these services is still relatively small from a brand perspective – both Forrester and the Pew Center found that only 4-5 percent of Americans have ever tried these apps.

“By contrast, many research studies indicate strong interest in getting location-based offers from brands when a product or service is available nearby,” he said. “The difference lies in the mode of interaction – time-starved parents, for example, know the brands they like and just want to get a convenient offer nearby automatically, not necessarily engage in a game.

“The good news for brands is that there are now opportunities to engage with all ages and demographics using location-based services, and to be able to do it at scale.”

With the rise of location-based applications such as Groupon and LivingSocial, consumers are increasingly being trained to look for deals and incentives. It is important that brands clearly tie their message to a real-world location and provide value for the user.

“We watch a number of metrics closely across all our brand programs, including purchase behavior and opt-out,” Mr. Goodman said. “We have seen very strong response rates when an incentive is included – and when the consumer believes they are getting something of value.

“When a brand changes their messaging or incentives we usually see a corresponding shift in behavior,” he said. “With a great incentive for a specific deal, we’ve seen purchase behavior as high as 65 percent.

“When an incentive is eliminated, we’ve seen opt-out rates spike beyond our normal range of just 1-12 percent.”

According to Mr. Goodman, while 2010 was the year of experimentation with apps, 2011 is the year where brands are able to use location-based marketing at scale.

“With scale, we can expect to see more interest in opt-in programs from both consumers and brands – both recognize the need for control and value,” Mr. Goodman said. “I also expect that the patent space will heat up.

“Apple, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Nokia and others are all realizing the value of the IP they have developed – and we can expect to see even more activity in this arena this year,” he said.

Final Take
Rimma Kats is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York

Staff Reporter Rimma Kats covers media, television, research and social networks. Reach her at rimma@mobilemarketer.com.

Social Media News

Now You Can Check In to Events on Facebook's iPhone App

As promised, Facebook has released a new version of its iPhone application that gives users the ability to check in to events. Version 3.4, released Monday, also now includes a map view for Places and the ability to unfriend Facebook friends in-app.

The new features, along with subtle news feed improvements and a user interface refresh for notifications, have been worked into the existing Facebook iPhone experience. Only the “Unfriend” button, a new, extended option when viewing a friend’s profile in the app, is explicitly called out with a noticeable red button.

The new event check-in functionality is housed within the events portion of the app. The app user can check in to nearby, upcoming events and tag their friends should they so choose.

Likewise, the map view for Places has been added to the Places section. Here users can toggle between “Activity” and “Map” options to view checkins in the standard list view or switch to see them on a map.

The updates make for a slightly enhanced overall application experience that pushes the user to check in to Facebook events and gives them the ability to unfriend their no-longer-wanted social network buddies.

Mobile continues to be an important priority for the company. Facebook revealed last week that 250 million people are actively using Facebook via mobile devices on a monthly basis. It released a new mobile website for all phones to better accommodate those users. Event checkins, for now, are isolated to the iPhone app.

Foursquare Makes It Easier to Discover Brands

Foursquare has launched a new web page to showcase top brands on its network in an effort to make it easier for users to find and follow them.

You may not know it, but there are hundreds of brands using Foursquare (1,323 brands to be exact), but most people don’t follow them, mostly because they aren’t easy to discover. Foursquare is trying to address that issue with Pages Gallery.

Pages Gallery, as the name suggests, is a gallery filled with the

Foursquare has launched a new web page to showcase top brands on its network in an effort to make it easier for users to find and follow them.

You may not know it, but there are hundreds of brands using Foursquare (1,323 brands to be exact), but most people don’t follow them, mostly because they aren’t easy to discover. Foursquare is trying to address that issue with Pages Gallery.

Pages Gallery, as the name suggests, is a gallery filled with the different company Pages on Foursquare. Through it, you can follow everyone from MTV to Zagat (or even Mashable) to get tips and other content.

The feature also includes a simple tool for searching through pages and browsing by popularity, whether they’re trending or whether they’re new. Pages Gallery also suggests pages that are popular with your friends.

Lots of brands are hopping onto Foursquare in a big way, but the additional exposure should help boost brands’ follower counts, which could be vital to Foursquare as it tries to monetize its millions of users. While it still desperately needs a way to discover brands within its mobile applications, Pages Gallery is a good start.

Regional restaurant chain la Madeleine claims mobile app boosted takeout business

By Dan Butcher

Exit41 powers la Madeleine's mobile ordering

Texas-based restaurant chain la Madeleine claims that its overall takeout business has increased 6 percent, driven by opening up new customer touch points for placing orders across online, social media, a call center and mobile.

Partnering with Exit41 for online and mobile ordering, la Madeleine’s iPhone app went live in Apple’s iTunes App Store in October. To date, the average check for food ordered via mobile is right around the same as online – about $24, which is a significant increase from the in-store average check, and also higher than the average order via the call center.

“We have not yet made any grand promotions of the iPhone app, but we still have more than 1,000 downloads of the app in the App Store,” said Richard Hodges, senior director of technology at la Madeleine, Dallas. “One part of the strategy we call off-premise ordering, including online ordering, our call center and mobile ordering, and eventually social media.

“We have a catering and delivery business at some locations, and we’re looking at how a call center and mobile could augment our sales,” he said. “Our marketing team’s biggest push will be in the restaurant, with door signs, stand-alone point-of-purchase signage and a broadcast via our eclubs—each restaurant has one.

“When we describe la Madeleine’s target demographic, we call her Amanda, and she is much more likely to make her smartphone choice an iPhone.”

La Madeleine is a French countryside-flavored restaurant offering items such as Caesar salads, tomato basil soup, sandwiches, fresh bread and pastries. It has restaurants in seven markets, including Texas, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC, with a total of 61 stores nationwide.

Local restaurants going mobile
Mr. Hodges said that Amanda’s average household income ranges from $75,000 to $150,000 per year.

Amanda is 25-55, female, affluent, discriminating, does probably have a smartphone, is social-media-connected, is familiar with the online experience and expects great customer service.

“Our off-premise ordering strategy lines up very well with this target demographic, who is online, using their smartphones and active in social-media connection points,” Mr. Hodges said. “All of this is designed to make Amanda’s life easier.

“For our iPhone app, it has to be easy to use and intuitive—it is pretty simple to read, with big font,” he said.

Mmmmm…mobile menu

Customers can pay via credit card online or within the app, or they can pay when they pickup the order.

In-app ordering

Exit41 provides an additional access point for Amanda to order from la Madeleine in an easy and convenient way, per Mr. Hodges.

Amanda can use the app to get directions to the closest restaurant

With the implementation of online ordering, the call center and the iPhone app, all off-premise ordering channels have increased revenues, per la Madeleine.

For example, at one of la Madeleine’s Houston locations, online made up 8 percent of total orders. However, now that the app has launched, online and mobile comprise 20 percent of all orders.

“We have absolutely seen a big increase in orders since we have introduced these products,” Mr. Hodges said. “If you can get them on the phone, their check average is much larger, and the online and mobile ordering is even higher than the call center.

“The iPhone is still a very small portion of our overall sales, as we still haven’t promoted it very much,” he said. “But we expect mobile ordering to grow going forward.”

Dan Butcher is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer. Reach him at dan@mobilemarketer.com.

Regional restaurant chain la Madeleine claims mobile app boosted takeout business - Mobile Marketer - Applications

What are the hottest trends in mobile right now?

By Dan Butcher

Where Ads aims to increase the relevancy of local merchants' mobile ads

The hot-button issues in mobile generating the most buzz at the moment include location-based services and marketing, the rise of mobile commerce and payments, as well as applications for smartphones and tablets.

Tablets, of course, are the device of the moment, with consumer adoption booming and plenty of iPad 2 competitors reaching the market—from Android-based tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom to Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook and Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad. Brands and retailers are placing an increasing emphasis on applications for various smartphone and tablet platforms, but the trick is encouraging repeat usage and fitting apps into a marketer’s overall strategy.

“From all directions—app development platforms, apps themselves, marketers and thought leaders—[at CTIA Wireless 2011 in Orlando] I was hearing about the need for brands to think about usage and engagement measurement and metrics for app strategies,” said Melissa Parrish, New York-based analyst at Forrester Research.

“I agree that thinking needs to move beyond the application download numbers to see how and how often users are using those applications post-download,” she said.

“This is particularly important for marketers to understand how their branded application is really changing and deepening their relationship with their mobile consumer.”

Melissa Parrish is analyst of interactive marketing at Forrester Research

Based on the buzz at International CTIA Wireless in Orlando, FL, 2011 is the year of mobile commerce, location-based advertising and apps for all types of devices.

App craze
Apps have been hot for some time now, but their importance has been amplified tremendously with the launch of the iPad and competing tablet devices.

With tablets, a whole new array of applications have been launched in an effort to gain loyalty, sell goods and for branding.

The Amazon Appstore for Android enters the mobile content distribution arena

It is imperative for brands and retailers to market their applications to drive downloads. However, getting onto consumers’ handsets—while definitely invaluable—is not the be-all-and-end-all.

Tracking how often consumers are using a particular application, and what actions they are taking once they do open an app, can provide key insight to help the marketer optimize the experience.

Monetization tactics for applications range from free/ad-supported and in-application transactions for virtual goods to pay-per-download, freemium and subscriptions.

In addition, Ms. Parrish said that mobile technologists who are looking for marketers’ dollars are getting much more adept at addressing marketers’ needs.

“Conversations are focusing on the question of business goals, brand presences, measurement and scale—where previously those conversations focused on technical themes, tactics and differentiators that may have been sexy but didn’t help marketers understand how to best reach the mobile consumer,” Ms. Parrish said.

Location, location, location
In 2011, many retailers are shifting their focus to delivering relevant, location-based offers to consumers on their mobile devices to drive them in-store.

Location-based services promise big returns through linking a user’s physical location with key consumer demographics.

Delivering highly relevant deals and incentives are key to getting consumers in-store.

Consumers want to see deals and they want to see local retailers and restaurants offering them an incentive to come to their locations.

“At CTIA, we felt some palpable buzz around T-Mobile and AT&T, and the whole mobile commerce and payments category seemed to be big,” said Dan Gilmartin, vice president of marketing at Where Inc., Boston. “The thing that I loved is to hear more people talk about location-based advertising.

“We’ve been in the game for a while, and the market is really starting to catch up,” he said. “We just landed a quarter-million ad buy yesterday.

“It is a different way to think about location—it is ‘What is going on in this area that I can influence through advertising and drive an action?’  in a very contextual way,” he said. “We have a saying, ‘Relevance equals location plus context.’”

Mobile commerce and payments
Brands and retailers want to transact and sell products through the mobile channel.

A CTIA panel that included executives from JPMorgan Chase and Visa Inc. outlined various evolving mobile payments mechanisms that are having an impact, from SMS, the mobile Web and applications to carrier billing and near field communication.

A PayPal executive said that mobile payments are growing exponentially and provided his own company’s figures as proof during the keynote at International CTIA Wireless 2011′s Money Over Mobile pre-conference program.

PayPal’s mobile payment transaction volume has grown from $24 million in 2008 to $140 million in 2009 to $750 million last year. It is projected to top $2 billion this year and is expected to reach $7.5 billion in 2013.

Many merchants still have reservations about NFC and mobile payments that must be addressed to convince them to make the necessary upgrades to their point-of-sale systems, according to a  panel at CTIA Wireless 2011.

While the panelists all agreed that mobile payments are gaining momentum, panelists had differing views about what is necessary to take the ecosystem to the next level.

The fees must make sense for merchants to really make mobile payments a priority. In the case of contactless mobile payments, it may require retailers to upgrade their point-of-sale system with NFC/RFID technology.

As NFC continues to gain momentum, merchants and marketers should realize that it enables more than just contactless payments—it can be used to inspire consumer loyalty, according to a panel at CTIA Wireless 2011.

NFC is fundamentally changing the way we view payments, and that the various ecosystem players must find common ground from a technological standpoint, but more importantly, from a business perspective.

While there are key infrastructure pieces that still need to align, tremendous progress has been made, especially with more handset manufacturers embracing this technology, including Nokia and Samsung with the Google Nexus S.

Mobile content distribution
Another highly contentious area is mobile content distribution, where Amazon is making a big play.

“CTIA yielded little in the way of revolution,” said Josh Martin, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA. “Instead, I thought the Amazon app store launch was the most significant event, even though it was not at CTIA.

“Amazon is really looking to redefine what we have come to expect from an app store and they will become a major player,” he said. “We are forecasting they will reach at least 30 percent of Android U.S. downloads by the end of the year, skewing higher on paid and lower on free.”

Final Take
Ovum's Eden Zoller .”

Final Take
Ovum's Eden Zoller

Associate Editor Dan Butcher covers content, carrier networks, manufacturers, and software and technology. Reach him at dan@mobilemarketer.com.

50% of Shoppers Consult Mobile Phones for Purchases [STUDY]

Half of consumers are using their phones to help make shopping decisions, suggesting that old-style feature phones have a place in the market, according to a new survey.

The report, by Arc Worldwide, based on a survey of 1,800 U.S. mobile phone users and a smaller qualitative study with 30 mobile shoppers, shows 50% of consumers are using their mobile devices while shopping. Since the smartphone penetration rate in the U.S. hasn’t yet hit 50% that means that many consumers are using feature phones. In fact, such shoppers are the majority — 80% of those users are consulting their feature phones for purchases.

William Rosen, president and CEO of Arc, puts shoppers in two groups — heavy and light users. The former tend to be wedded to their phones and love experimenting with new apps. The latter view their cellphones as an inferior, on-the-go version of their computer. While many marketers are focusing on the former, Molly Garris, digital strategist at Arc, says that light users will remain the majority for some time. She suggests the best way to address the market right now is via multi-tiered campaigns aimed at users with smartphones and feature phones. Garris says Sephora is a good example of such a marketer; the brand has in-store displays directing shoppers to m.sephora.com, which can be accessed with a feature phone, but Sephora also has a barcode-reading app for those with smartphones.

Otherwise, the report also finds that what is becoming a considered purchase has been redefined. “What’s casual is now more considered,” says Rosen,”and what’s considered is more casual.” For instance, shoppers are finding that bringing their phone with them helps them research big, considered purchases like cars on the fly, but phones can also add a layer of complexity to simple purchases, like coffee. “Nothing more casual than buying a cup of coffee,” says Rosen. “But now Starbucks is using it to broadcast your location and pay for coffee.”

Exclusive: Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin Leads $6.5M Round For Jumio

Robin Wauters
Mar 17, 2011

Jumio is still gearing up for the launch of its online and mobile payments solution, due for release in 6 to 8 weeks, but the company has lined up an investor that is sure to draw even more attention to the stealth startup than the recent appointment of Google, Amazon and NASA vets to its board of directors.

Eduardo Saverin, who will forever be remembered as the co-founder of Facebook, has taken the lead in the startup’s fresh round of financing. We’ve exclusively learned that Saverin put up more than half of the round, which totals $6.5 million, alongside other private investors.

The 28-year-old Brazilian-American entrepreneur will also be joining Jumio’s board of directors.

Saverin, who currently spends most of his time in Singapore, will become actively involved in Jumio’s roll-out into the Asian market. Says Saverin: “I’m usually a critical person, but the last time I have seen such a disruptive idea was actually Facebook”. Quite the endorsement indeed.

Saverin, who is a billionaire thanks to his stake in Facebook, also led the recent investment in TC Disrupt winner Qwiki.

His investment, and even more so his active operational involvement in the young company, makes me anxious to learn what Jumio is building, exactly.

Jumio was co-founded by Daniel Mattes, who sold his latest company, Jajah, to Telefonica for $207 million. Mattes is called the “Bill Gates of the Alps” in some parts.

Worth noting: Jumio chose an unorthodox way of financing. Instead of raising a regular Series A round with an institutional VC, the company has established a so-called SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company), a collective investment scheme that allows public stock market investors to invest in PE-type transactions, particularly leveraged buyouts.

A participation in Jumio was placed privately to ‘Ultra High Net Worth Individuals’ (also called Ultra HNWIs). The use of SPAC is rare amongst startups, but has become popular lately as a result of Facebook’s funding deal with Goldman Sachs.

“The advantages are obvious,” says Daniel Mattes. “There is a lot of interest from high net worth individuals to participate in start-up success stories like Facebook, Twitter, Zynga or Groupon. We offered the market such an opportunity and it was received extremely well to the extent that we were over-subscribed.”

Color App Vulnerable to “Geo-spoofers”

Actual location not a barrier for photo sharing

Josh Wolford | March 29, 2011 @ 10:38am

It has been well documented that if privacy is what you want, the Color app is not for you.  Color, of course, is the much talked about new app that allows users to share photos effortlessly with anyone and everyone in their vicinity.

Well, apparently that last part is a bit malleable.

Turns out the perception of one’s location is good enough to fool Color into letting you invade photostreams anywhere, anytime.  Within hours of its release, Veracode CTO Chris Wysopal tweeted:

@WeldPond
Chris Wysopal@threatpost with trivial geolocation spoofing the auth model of Color is broken 4 days ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

When he tested it out, he found that he could go anywhere and see anything – much easier than expected.  He used a jailbroken iPad and an app called FakeLocation.  With this app, he was allowed to bypass the iPad’s GPS and set his location to anywhere in the world.

I’m sure most of you can see where this is going.

When he opened the Color app, bingo!  He could now browse all the photos from an area hundreds of miles away.  “This only took about five minutes to download the FakeLocation app and try a few locations where I figured there would be early adopters who like trying out the latest apps,” Wysopal told Forbes’ Andy Greenberg. “No hacking involved.”

To prove his success, Wysopal (in New York City) sent Greenberg a screencap of Color CEO Bill Nguyen’s photostream (Palo Alto, California):

Once again, this “cheat” is not ruffling any feathers over at Color headquarters.  As a spokesman said to Forbes, they never promised privacy.  “It is all public, and we’ve been very clear about that from the very beginning. Within the app, there’s already functionality to look through the entire social graph. Very few people will probably do what you’re saying, but all the pictures, all the comments, all the videos are out there for the public to see.”

And how many Color users, happy to share their photos with any stranger around them, would really care that the stranger lives in another state – or country?

Implicit Social Graphs Rise From Interest Not Location

Color Launch Generates New Round of Social Graph Discussion

Rob Diana | March 25, 2011 @ 10:49am

There has been a ton of conversation about social graphs, location and photo sharing lately. Most of this conversation has arisen due to the release of the photo-sharing application Color. The photo-sharing part of the discussion is only a gateway to the larger discussion of social graphs. I have been looking at the basic location-based applications a lot as well. Facebook Places, Google Places, and Foursquare are all fighting for the location crown. Granted, location-based applications are becoming very popular, but they were quickly outpaced by the group discount services like Groupon and Living Social. There is a very good reason for this as well. Location alone does not denote interest or intent. This is also why implicit social graphs are so important, they are based on interest or intent. Group discount services have a location aspect, but they are driven by interest and intent. All of the people involved in buying a discount have interest in what they are purchasing.

This is also why Color’s launch was received with such mixed reviews. They are trying to use location as the implicit social graph, but there is no real interest. Even if there are several people at the same location, the location may denote different purposes. As an example, if I am at a restaurant I probably do not want the interruption that would come with a location based graph. However, if I am visiting a tourist attraction I may welcome the location-based interaction, mainly because there is implicit interest in the location.

Fred Wilson has a very good description of how he was introduced to implicit graphs:

My first experience with this sort of implicit social graph came almost six years ago via my musical neighbors graph at last.fm. I don’t think I actually know any of these people in real life, but they are the last.fm users who have the closest taste to mine in music, right now. That right now is important because my musical neighbors graph looked differently last year and will look differently next year.

Obviously, people’s musical tastes change over the years, so a static graph is not entirely useful. The “musical neighbors” concept and Pandora’s music genome concept allow for discovery because they are using similar interests to create the implicit graph. A person’s friends may not have the same musical tastes and thus would actually clutter the listening experience with music the listener is not interested in.

In addition to the creation of implicit graphs, sometimes there needs to be a conversion from the implicit to the explicit graph. Colin Walker talks about this in reference to sporting events and other interest-based interactions:

Repeated interactions within implicit graphs can lead to a bleed from the implicit to explicit – once you get to know them some of those from implicit graph become ‘friends’ and, after a while, can be invited over in to the explicit graph.

This bleeding complicates the structures of explicit graphs because these new “friends” are not initially the same type of friends as those people you have known for years. Then there are some people in your explicit social graphs that you lose contact with. Even though they could have been friends previously, differing interests and the effects of time can change their relationship to you. This is where the concepts behind Color become interesting. Obviously, there needs to be some flexibility or “elasticity” in your social graphs, regardless of whether the graph is explicit or implicit. Color CEO Bill Nguyen had an interesting comment about this in a ReadWriteWeb article:

In the world of Facebook, once someone is your friend, they’re your friend until you return and re-evaluate that relationship, regardless of whether or not you’ve ever spoken to them again. In reality, the relationship could have fizzled long ago, yet it’s still a bond as good as any. With Color’s “elastic” social graph, these ties can fade and disappear. Color’s ability to accurately determine location and user proximity is what makes this sort of social graph – an implied, impermanent and elastic social graph – even possible.

As I previously stated, I do not agree with the importance of location in this quote, but the general concept is important. Location and time can both be an attribute of the implicit social graph, as can be seen with the SXSW conference. Just because you are in Austin does not mean that you share the social graph with a bunch of people. However, if you happen to be near specific locations in Austin during the same time as the SXSW conference and you have previously shown interest in web and technology startups, then you would be part of the same implicit social graph. Without the interest part of the equation, you could become part of the implicit graph purely by coincidence, maybe you work or live in Austin.

Om Malik has an excellent post this morning that really hits the same points, but talks about them differently. He mentions “happiness” and “utility”:

One of the reasons Instagr.am works is because it has that “happiness” attached to it. When I see my friend’s baby boy, it brings me joy. I see Mathew Ingram at an ice hockey game; it makes me warms my heart to see him enjoying time with his family. I reward Instagr.am with my attention because it makes me happy. That is its utility.

His examples and Fred Wilson’s examples are excellent reasons why some social applications really work well and others don’t get traction.  Implicit social graphs are really driven by interests where time and location can be attributes of that interest but they are not the primary definition of that interest.

Color Privacy – If Privacy Is Your Thing, Color May Not Be For You

Color: Don't Want to Share Publicly? Don't Use it.

Chris Crum | March 25, 2011 @ 11:42am

Social media and privacy don’t tend to play well together, as we’ve seen in the past. Sure, there are always privacy settings, but these are usually emphasized as an afterthought. Things are a bit different with Color, however.

No, color doesn’t have a strict emphasis on privacy. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Color’s stance is basically: if you want privacy, use something else.

Color says it collects the name you give them when you set up the app, your email address, pictures, videos, comments, and actions you take through the app (the content), and location info. When a user has the app active, their device sends Color’s server their location, and Color shares content with others. “Sharing Content publicly with others from different locations is what this App is about,” the company says. ” If you find this objectionable, please consider not using our App or Site.” (emphasis added)

Here’s more on what they share and collect, directly from the Color privacy policy:

HERE’S WHAT WE (AND YOU) SHARE WITH OTHERS: We share the name you give us when you set up the App on your Device, your Content, and possibly, the location from which your Content was created. Our App also allows you to share your name and Content on some social media sites. If you choose to use this function, we neither store nor share the information you input to access those sites through our App.

HERE’S WHAT WE COLLECT WHEN YOU ACCESS OUR SITE: The usual stuff. Like most online companies, we capture your browser and operating system information, and your IP address. We also collect cookies, which are tiny data files your computer sends us. We use cookies to customize your experience on our Site. If you want to disable the cookies, follow the directions on your browser. Currently, you don’t need a login and password to visit our Site, (but we’re considering it). Stay tuned.

HERE’S WHAT WE COLLECT IF YOU LET US: If you say it’s OK, we’ll store your mobile number. That way, if you lose or replace your Device, we can re-associate your past activity and Content with your new Device. We won’t call you. We also collect information from your Device’s address book. We think you might be interested in seeing your friends’ Content. By collecting your mobile number and address book information, and linking it to your Device, our software makes the Content you see more relevant to you, and you’ll be able to use certain SMS functions we’re cooking up. It also allows you to link your Color experience to your other online social experiences. If you’re not OK with this, just say no and we won’t do it.

As is the case with most privacy sacrifices from social products, it’s essentially a trade-off of privacy for user experience.

“In many ways they are inviting the privacy tension, but it is memory about things made public that creates both a level of utility and more significant harm,” said SocialText CEO Ross Mayfield in another article we ran. “I wonder how much they have thought it through. Some like LinkedIn did, others died, other blasted through it regardless.”

One more interesting point brought up in Color’s privacy policy is that if Color is acquired or if it acquires another company, these other entities will gain the same info that Color has already collected. Pretty standard, but it does seem to suggest that Color is not launching with a not-for-sale sign.

CEO Ben Nguyen’s previous company, Lala, was acquired by Apple. I’m guessing there will be a number of potential buyers for Color if the price is right. As John Battelle said in a post about Color, “Note to Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare: If you don’t get this feature into your service, pronto, you will more likely than not be rueing the day Color launched.”

Color promises to update users as its policy changes. It was last updated earlier this week. Privacy concerns can be sent to privacy@color.com.

GroupMe Featured Groups Announced

Group texting app launches newest feature

Josh Wolford | March 28, 2011 @ 12:27pm

To those of you not familiar with GroupMe and other group messaging apps, they allow users to create groups of family, friends or co-workers that will all receive any text sent by a member of that group through the app – it works almost like a text conference call.  I could start a group called “Golf Crew” and then my text “tee-time at 10″ or my photo of the new putter I bought could easily be sent to everyone in the group.

GroupMe is one of the leading apps of this type.  Today they announced via their blog:

Today, we’re thrilled to announce another awesome feature of the GroupMe platform-Featured Groups. Starting today, we’re partnering with five amazing brands to help them connect with fans and bring some exciting, exclusive benefits to GroupMe users. They’re like private fan clubs for the things you love.

Since people often times forms groups based on events, bands and TV shows, GroupMe decided to specifically target those tendencies.  Users can create their own messaging groups or join larger groups centered around these featured topics.

The first five featured groups are: Bad Girls Club, America’s Best Dance Crew, Bon Jovi, Bonnaroo and Coachella.  There are incentives for joining a featured group instead of simply creating a normal group and talking about these featured things.  Group members will have access to insider information and promotions.  For example, America’s Best Dance Crew groups will be provided with insider blog posts, behind the scenes videos as well as the chance to chat with some of the actual crew members as they will join specific fans’ groups.  Coachella fans will be the first to know about any lineup changes and Bon Jovi group members will be automatically entered in prize giveaways.

This begs the question, GroupMe users are regularly chatting it up about Bon Jovi?  Is GroupMe trying to target the aging 80′s fanatic demographic?

Although the jury is out on the buzz that can be created by Bon Jovi, there is great potential for GroupMe users to have some fun interactions with other bands, shows, films and events in the future.  There is obviously great potential for money to be made as well.  It would be interesting to know what GroupMe will charge to put something on its featured group list.  And how much marketing will be allowed to members of the featured groups?  Brands will have to strike some sort of delicate balance between no marketing and inundating users with T-shirt discount offers.

Google Latitude App Updated

Google Places also gets additions

Josh Wolford | March 22, 2011 @ 9:28am

Over at the Mobile Blog, Google announced updates to two different iPhone apps, Google Latitude and Google Places.

Google Latitude, the app that lets you see your friend’s locations on a Google map and share where you are, has added check-ins to the iPhone. (Check-ins were previously available on the Android) Now your friends will know that you are at that Irish Pub as opposed to just somewhere on the corner of Walnut and Main.

Check-ins are of course optional, and can be made public, private or somewhere in between. However, if you set the app to continuously update your location, it will automatically check you out of places when you leave – something that Foursquare or Facebook cannot yet boast. Repeated check-ins earn you Regular, VIP, and Guru status. Austin, TX offers deals for repeated check-ins, and it wouldn’t be surprising if other cities began to follow suit.

The app requires iOS 4 and above. You can use it on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPod touch.

Google also announced that it added languages to its Places app, which brings the count to 30 available. The app is now allowing you to save places as well. Hitting the “Saved” icon takes you to a depository of all your starred places from the app, google.com/hotpot or maps.google.com.

All this check-in talk makes me wonder if a Google-Foursquare partnership could be anywhere on the horizon.

Facebook Check-Ins Come to Events

Facebook Finds More Ways to Harness User Location

Chris Crum | March 21, 2011 @ 10:23am

Facebook services are overlapping with those of major players in a lot of different industries. Even for the services Facebook doesn’t offer itself, third parties are offering them through various apps. Warner Bros, for example is starting go offer movie rentals through Facebook – a move many consider to be a potential threat to companies like Netflix.

The location-based service/check-in app space is something Facebook has been involved with for a while, though the Foursquare – the apparent leader here – hardly seems phased by the social network giant’s foray into this so far. Foursquare’s presence was felt considerably more throughout SXSW last week. That’s for sure.

Facebook isn’t done, however. You might say they’re just getting started. Both Facebook Places and Facebook Deals are relatively new, and will no doubt continue to be expanded upon. Facebook is also finding other ways to get people to “check in” however.

AllFacebook found that they’ve added a check-in option to Events pages, which are probably used a great deal more than either Places or Deals. According to AFB’s Jackie Cohen, the option to check in only appears on the day of the event, and when users are actually close by the address. It’s still unclear whether this feature has been rolled out completely, is still rolling out, or is just a test.

It does show, however, that Facebook is looking for more ways to play on location, and event-based check-ins could certainly be attractive for businesses just like any other check-in. Facebook will always have an advantage as long as its user-base is so large. People who check in on Facebook are more likely to share that info with their real friends than they are on any other service. That’s valuable. Foursquare is doing some really interesting things for businesses, but they’re still going to have to continue to contend with Facebook’s power of reach.

Facebook is also acquiring mobile app creator Snaptu. Obviously there is an increasing focus on mobile at the company. Who knows what will come from that buy.

Facebook Places Launches In More Countries

Big expansion for Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt competitor

Doug Caverly | March 18, 2011 @ 4:08pm

A service that exists to let people broadcast their physical location has, fittingly enough, begun operating in a few more spots.  There’s word today that Facebook Places now works in Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, India, Israel, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Africa.

Facebook Places only crossed the Atlantic for the first time in September, rolling out in the UK, so the latest expansion makes for a quick – and impressive – continuation.  Assuming nothing goes wrong, it’ll demonstrate that Facebook has plenty of skill dealing with different languages and unusual technical demands.

The move also shows that Facebook thinks it’s addressed all the privacy issues related to Facebook Places to the satisfaction of many different cultures.

Then here’s one more interesting thing about the new rollout: it puts additional pressure on Orkut and Facebook’s check-in rivals.  After all, Brazil and India were two of only a handful of countries around the world where Google’s social network has achieved much success, and now people there have another reason to use Facebook.

As for how this could affect a company in the check-in space, Willis Wee pointed out, “1.7% of the Foursquare users come from Malaysia.  Foursquare last reported that it has 6 million users.  So, 1.7% would be equivalent to 102,000 users. . . .  That doesn’t look too good, especially when Facebook has over 10 million users in Malaysia.  If just 10% of users were to adopt the Facebook Places, it would be practically game over for Foursquare in Malaysia.”

Anyway, credit goes to Wee, who’s based in Malaysia, and Philippines-based Arnold Zafra for reporting the development.

Foursquare Rewards Check-ins With Food…For Your Dog

Check In! Snack Out!

Josh Wolford | March 29, 2011 @ 5:20pm

In “wow, that’s actually a great idea” news, a German pet food company, GranataPet, has found an interesting way to market its product – free samples via Foursquare check-in.

Dog users in countries where GranataPet is available (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) that check-in to certain dog food billboards will have a free sample dispensed to a small bowl attached to the sign.  The way this works is servers continuously poll for check-ins and trigger the food dispenser when it notices someone new.  Dogs can then get a taste of GranataPet’s product and owners can then spend the rest of their lives trying to pull their dogs away from the streets where the billboards are located.

This has been tried before in the States, when last year nonprofit environmental firm EarthJustice placed ads in San Francisco transit stations.  The ads said that with every check-in on Foursquare, the firm would make a $10 donation to help an endangered species.  Cute.  But it’s not food.

Sure, something like this is a novelty.  People will go out of their way to try it once, but what are the chances it could actually promote brand loyalty?  The possibilities are far greater if a company were to apply this model to food for humans.  Free Snickers bar with your first check-in to a certain movie theater?  Flav-o-rich offering free Popsicles for check-ins on a hot New York street?  Sure, Foursquare already allows businesses to offer deals for 1st time check-ins and for mayorships,  but a deal is not the same at something free popping out of a billboard.  And that, my friends,

GetGlue Foursquare Integration Announced

Entertainment check-in app unveils place check-ins along with other new features

Josh Wolford | March 29, 2011 @ 1:05pm

If you aren’t familiar with GetGlue, it is a smartphone app that allows users to check-in to activities in a way similar to how users check-in to places via Foursquare.  For instance, a GetGlue user could check into entertainment such as The Arcade Fire, Big Momma’s House or Twilight: New Moon and let their friends know what they were up to, media-wise.  On a side note, I would really like to meet the person with the above check-ins.  They sound…interesting.

Announced today, users can now attach a location to their activity check-ins with complete Foursquare integration.  GetGlue already offered to post your check-ins to Facebook and Twitter, but this adds specificity to each activity.  Now, users can let the world know they are listening to Daft Punk @ Red Rocks or watching The Social Network @ Regal Cinemas.

As you can see above, the generic user is sharing a sports-related check-in.  This is also new to GetGlue.  Before today, there was no category for sports check-ins.  Movies, Music, TV, Books, Wine and simply Thoughts, but no sports.

In the same way that GetGlue rewards users with stickers for repeated and unique check-ins in other areas, sports fans can become fans and superfans of their favorite teams.  Special stickers and rewards are being offered from sports organizations like FOX Sports, NHL, NFL Network and NASCAR.  The new sports check-ins and Foursquare integration seem to be suited for each other.  “Josh is watching the New York Knicks” doesn’t pack as much of a punch as “Josh is watching the New York Knicks @ Madison Square Garden.”

Other changes were also made to the profile screen, home screen and sticker screen.  Many of the buttons were also made larger.  No quite sure why, as they didn’t seem too small to me before.  The check-in screen was updated, giving many more details about the activity in question.  You can now quickly jump to exclusive stickers, superfan specials and related content.

If you haven’t tried GetGlue, it’s worth a shot – especially if you are one of those people who loves achievements, unlockables, badges, etc. etc.

Aberto até de Madrugada: Color - Fotos Sociais

 

2011/03/24

Color - Fotos Sociais

Os fãs do social vão adorar este Color que agora chega ao iPhone e Android.
Ao contrário de outros serviços sociais onde vos é pedido que criem um grupo de amigos, este Color faz exactamente o oposto, optando por ultrapassar esse passo e disponibilizando tudo de forma pública.
Claro que continuam a ter os vossos amigos e contactos próximos, mas ideia é rapidamente poderem ver fotos de toda a gente que use esta mesma App e que estejam perto de vocês.
Por exemplo, num restaurante, para além das fotos que vocês tiraram, poderão ver as fotos que um grupo de pessoas esteja a tirar na mesa ao lado (parece-me poder tornar-se numa excelente desculpa para "socializar".)

Este Color tem também algumas particularidades interessantes, como por exemplo, vai "fortalecendo" as ligações com os amigos com quem estão mais frequentemente; e usa também múltiplas técnicas para determinar quando várias dispositivos estão no mesmo local (para além do GPS, usa a câmara para detectar se o tipo de iluminação é semelhante, e até mesmo se o ruído ambiente é o mesmo.)
Quanto tal acontece, a App cria automaticamente um grupo com os vossos amigos.
É um género de Twitter visual... e que pode muito bem vir a tornar-se num enorme sucesso. Se têm iPhones ou Android, nada como experimentarem este Color e verem do que se trata..

Color Demo from Color Labs, Inc. on Vimeo.

Redes sociais para o celular atraem capital de risco

 

25/03/2011 - Enquanto Facebook Inc. e outras grandes empresas de redes sociais atraem a atenção do mundo financeiro em Wall Street, na meca tecnológica do Vale do Silício o que está atraindo capital de risco é uma nova geração de empresas que espera libertar as redes sociais dos computadores e transferi-las para o telefone.

Ontem foi lançada a Color Labs Inc. - uma rede social inteiramente baseada no celular que foi fundada por Bill Nguyen, um empreendedor do Vale do Silício. A nova empresa, que tem sede em Palo Alto, na Califórnia, assegurou recentemente um investimento de US$ 41 milhões e uma avaliação de mais de US$ 100 milhões de importantes firmas de capital de risco, como a Sequoia Capital, antes mesmo de seus aplicativos para iPhone e Android estarem prontos para o mercado.

A ideia por trás da Color é que os recursos dos telefones de identificar a localização podem criar a rede social dos usuários para eles, permitindo que compartilhem fotos, vídeo e mensagens com base simplesmente nas pessoas que estão fisicamente próximas.

A Color é apenas uma de um número crescente de empresas orientadas para o aspecto social que apostam nos smartphones e estão provocando uma nova corrida pelo financiamento de capital de risco. Muitas das empresas são voltadas para o compartilhamento de fotos, caso da Path Inc., fundada por Dave Morin, um ex-executivo do Facebook. A empresa recebeu US$ 8,5 milhões no mês passado da Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers e da Index Ventures e já rejeitou uma oferta de compra do Google Inc., segundo uma pessoa informada sobre as discussões. O Google se negou a comentar.

Outra empresa de compartilhamento de fotos, a Instagram, foi inundada por solicitações de quase 40 investidores antes de fechar no mês passado com a Benchmark Capital, da qual recebeu US$ 7 milhões. "As pessoas apareciam em nossos escritórios dia sim, dia não, querendo reuniões, enquanto estávamos tentando fazer o trabalho", diz Kevin Systrom, um dos fundadores da Instagram. Desde que foi lançado, em outubro, o serviço conquistou quase 3 milhões de usuários, diz.

Além disso, a Yobongo Inc., cujo aplicativo para o iPhone, lançado há três semanas, permite que os usuários batam papo com pessoas localizadas na mesma área, informou quarta-feira que captou US$ 1,35 milhão da True Ventures, Freestyle Capital e outros investidores como Mitch Kapor, fundador da Lotus Development Corp. Em janeiro, um serviço chamado GroupMe anunciou que obteve US$ 10,6 milhões.

A enxurrada de dinheiro de capital de risco nas novas empresas de redes sociais em celulares é o mais recente sinal do boom alimentado pela web no Vale do Silício. Nos últimos meses, investidores de Wall Street e outros fizeram o valor do Facebook passar de US$ 50 bilhões e o da empresa de jogos sociais Zynga Inc. ir para US$ 10 bilhões.

Por trás do surto de novos serviços sociais móveis está também a ideia de que o celular, carregado pelas pessoas o tempo todo, pode reinventar o conceito de uma rede social ao compartilhar mais informação em tempo real sobre onde as pessoas estão, o que estão vendo e mesmo com quem estão.

O celular "fornece uma plataforma para os programadores criarem experiências que são de natureza mais pessoal", diz Morin, da Path. O que é diferente agora é a onipresença dos smartphones e tablets, que vão vender mais que os PCs este ano nos Estados Unidos, diz. "Agora você tem uma oportunidade de criar essas experiências com escala", diz.

A corrida pelas redes sociais móveis também ocorre quando o Facebook mira os celulares. O serviço, que tem mais de 200 milhões de usuários em celulares, comprou esta semana a empresa de tecnologia móvel Snaptu. Antes, adquiriu este mês o serviço de bate-papos em grupo Beluga. Em ambos os negócios, o valor não foi revelado.

No ano passado, o Facebook também anunciou um serviço de "check-in" para seus aplicativos de celular, que permite aos usuários divulgar sua localização para os amigos e também encontrar promoções do comércio nas redondezas. A empresa está agora trabalhando em iniciativas para integrar seus recursos com os sistemas operacionais dos telefones. Um porta-voz do Facebook disse que a plataforma da empresa é usada por muitos aplicativos de celular.

Diferentemente do Facebook, a Color elimina o ato de "solicitar amizade" e selecionar configurações de privacidade. Isso porque, quando é ligado, o aplicativo da Color coleta uma quantidade imensa de dados de posicionamento global, giroscópio, sensor de luz e outros dos telefones para determinar quem mais está nas proximidades. Isso significa que os usuários vão se juntar à rede social de pessoas numa festa de aniversário, show de rock - mesmo estranhos num trem. Os telefones que rodam o aplicativo da Color automaticamente compartilham fotos, vídeos e texto com outros próximos.

(Colaborou Jessica E. Vascellaro)

Fonte: Jornal Valor Econômico

Tablets are an emerging battleground in mobile: CTIA session

By Dan Butcher
March 24, 2011

Mobile video looking up
ORLANDO, FL – Tablets are not just a fad. In fact, they will be one of the key drivers of revenue growth in the wireless industry going forward, according to an Ovum analyst at CTIA Wireless 2011.

The "Next Wave in Wireless" presentation provided an overview of the key battlegrounds within the wireless industry and the key trends that Ovum expects in the next few years. Where will growth come from in the wireless industry over the next few years?

“The global wireless market is characterized by dramatic differences between regions—some are reaching saturation, with stagnating revenues and subscriber numbers,” said Jan Dawson, New York-based chief telecoms analyst at Ovum. “Others continue to grow rapidly, primarily in emerging markets in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.


“However, all carriers are seeking new revenue opportunities and wondering where the next round of revenue growth will come from,” he said. “Global connections and revenues are both going up and to the right, which is nice to see—revenues are growing, but moderately, fairly slowly—a [compound annual growth rate] of close to 3 percent, while connections are growing at CAGR of close to 10 percent.

“Revenue growth will be substantially slower than the growth of connections because it is a lower-revenue wireless customer than we’ve seen before—in contrast, there are very high ARPUs here in the U.S. compared to almost everywhere else in the world, and very heavy data usage.”

The telecoms research firm recently launched the Ovum Pocket Analyst application for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android.

Tablet wars
Tablets are the emerging battleground in devices. The revived product category is driving revenues across various industries, from manufacturers and carriers to publishers and marketers.

Smartphone vendors and some PC vendors are entering the space, most often with smartphone-based operating systems. Google’s Android Honeycomb OS is geared specifically toward tablets.

“Competition in smartphones is well established, but tablets are the emerging battleground in devices,” Mr. Dawson said. “Apple took a category that already existed and took it to the next level—it has had fantastic success with the iPad running iOS.

“Early Android tablets used a stretched version of the smartphone OS, and newer tablets are using a tablet-oriented version, Honeycomb,” he said.

Research In Motion and Hewlett-Packard/Palm have announced but not yet launched tablets based on their respective proprietary operating systems, RIM’s QNX and HP’s WebOS.

Microsoft has yet to enter the market, partly because neither its smartphone OS nor the PC version of Windows seems appropriate.

“Microsoft seems to be a long way behind—it is still a ways away from launching anything, which means they are being left behind by competitors,” Mr. Dawson said. “There is significant growth in tablet sales in markets around the world.”

Next wireless wave
In addition to tablets and other multimedia devices, where will the next wave of connections come from? Emerging markets, where penetration is low and growth rates are high, prepaid, machine-to-machine or M2M, and converting voice customers into voice and data customers.

In markets such as the U.S., where the focus has historically been on postpaid, the need for good credit has limited the addressable market, per Ovum.

Prepaid opens up a new customer base that is rapidly growing, especially for carriers aggressively targeting this segment such as Tracfone, Leap’s Cricket, MetroPCS

Sprint Nextel Corp. has also pushed into this space with the acquisitions of Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA.

“Prepaid is no longer just the poor man’s wireless option—it holds attraction for many customers with good credit too,” Mr. Dawson said. “We will increasingly see hybrid models mixing the best of postpaid and prepaid worlds.”

M2M, like many other technologies, is a concept that has been bouncing around in the industry for many years.

However, it does seem that its time has finally come, due to a variety of factors, per Ovum, including the widespread availability of 3G broadband networks, strong interest and investment from carriers and specific use cases—often in vertical industries—with a business case.

“This is not to say that it will take off overnight, as standardization is still a major hurdle to deployment, but we will see growth in this area,” Mr. Dawson said. “Applications such as a chip in a dog collar to keep track of pets or a pill box to monitor an Alzeimer’s patient make it more attractive.”

Voice revenue is stagnant or declining, and all of the revenue growth is going to come from data, which will make up a greater and greater proportion of revenue over time, per Ovum.

Mr. Dawson said that some carriers around the world, including in the U.S., are banking on 4G as a source of data growth, but data does not have to mean 4G—3G is plenty for most people.

In addition, it will be some time before 4G, mostly in the form of LTE, becomes a significant force in the overall market, per Ovum.

“4G is not fundamentally different than 3G—it is just faster,” Mr. Dawson said. “In addition, it is not yet clear that LTE will provide a boost to revenues, as many services are being sold at similar price points to 3G.”

Carriers will have to figure out how to monetize the shift to 4G, and also how to make the rollout as cost-effective as possible.

Network sharing is a major strategy being adopted elsewhere in the world to deal with these challenges.

LTE is going to be tiny on a global scale, even by 2015, per Ovum.

“Anyone banking on 4G being the savior of the wireless industry needs to think again,” Mr. Dawson said.

Next wave of content and services
As with the iPad, Apple reinvented an existing concept with applications.

Smartphone apps have now become the default way to get content of all kinds onto mobile devices—news, magazines, audio, video and even full-length movies, with Warner Bros.’s launch of “The Dark Knight” and “Inception” on iOS devices.

“The problem for carriers is that they don’t control the app stores,” Mr. Dawson said.

There are 350,000 applications in Apple’s App Store, 150,000 in Android Marketer, with Nokia’s Ovi, RIM’s BlackBerry App World and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 all lagging behind.

However, those major platforms are not the only players—it is a very crowded market, and will become even more so with Amazon getting into the game.

“Carriers have a big challenge ahead of them,” Mr. Dawson said. “They will be forced to innovative more quickly.

“Because others are taking leadership positions in content and service delivery to the mobile devices, carriers must innovate quickly,” he said.

Final Take
Mr. Dawson

Associate Editor Dan Butcher covers content, carrier networks, manufacturers, and software and technology. Reach him at dan@mobilemarketer.com.

Introduction to Location Based Services (LBS)

The talk about the huge potential of location based services (LBS) has been around for a long time now and had almost died down a couple of years back. However, with the increasing focus on mobile applications and penetration of GPS based mobile phones, the focus is back on LBS. I feel that the earlier hype on LBS was premature but now the market is ripe for such services. With dwindling mobile services revenues of the mobile operators, location based services are seen as new growth area. The CDMA operators in Japan and US are already ahead of GSM in terms of GPS adoption but the GSM is now catching up.

What are Location Based Services?

Services which use the location co-ordinates of the end-user to improve the relevance, context, and value of the application are defined as location based services (LBS). As per the Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary, LBS are services offered by cellular radio providers that are sensitive the physical location of the terminal device. Such services include descriptions of and directions to restaurants and other retail establishments in proximity. However, now the services may not only be offered by carriers alone.

The location based services can be classified into four types  as depicted in the figure below (Click on picture to view the enlarged picture):

Maps and Navigation are the basic services and I firmly believe that these services are the basic hygiene and increasingly it may not be possible to monetize them. However, there is huge potential from the tracking, information & application services and context advertising would be a way to monetize these services with maps serving as the basic framework. The revenues from the applications utilizing location would help fund the navigation services. Free services and applications would help increase the initial adoption.

Technology behind the location co-ordinates

A key requirement for location based services is to get the co-ordinates of a location with as much accuracy as possible. Cell-ID was one of the first methods of collecting location data but different methods have evolved over the years due to efforts to increase accuracy of data, reduce cost of acquiring data and carrier’s reluctance to part with the location data. The key methods are listed below:

1. Cell-ID: This method estimates the position of a handset based on the knowledge of its serving base station. The accuracy of this method is around 100-500 meters.

2. Global Positioning System (GPS): A GPS receiver calculates its position by measuring the distance to at least three GPS satellites. The accuracy here is around 100 meters.

3. Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (U-TDOA): Handsets are positioned by measuring the time difference of arrival of the same signal from the handset at different base stations in the network. U-TDOA can deliver positions accurate to about 50 meters.

3. Hybrid (A-GPS): Assisted GPS (A-GPS) technologies improve performance of GPS by aiding the receiver by providing data such as time, satellite ephemeris or initial location estimate. Network-based hybrid positioning technologies, for instance Cell-ID in GSM/UMTS networks and AFTL in CDMA networks, are primarily used as fallback methods when GPS location fails, or as course position determining methods for A-GPS.

Apart from the above, there are alternate methods that have emerged like Skyhook and Google. Each of the cell towers and Wi-Fi points have a unique ID number which form a part of the databases of Skyhook and Google. The unique IDs are then mapped against the GPS co-ordinates and hence anytime a user is attached to a particular cell-site, the location co-ordinates of the cell site are pulled out of the database to determine the location of the user. Google is able to provide its local search services using this method of determining the user location.

Value Chain of Location Based Services

The value chain has evolved over the last ten years and has emerged from an entirely carrier centric chain to a multiple inter-dependant, independent entity value chain. The value chain for Location Based Services is shown in the figure below (Click on picture to view the enlarged picture):

Another key entity that is not mentioned in the above figure (Value Chain) is the Handset Vendors. Handset vendors have played a key role by introducing GPS handsets. The number of models that had GPS functionality tripled in 2008 over 2007.

What have been the barriers to Location Based Services Adoption?

Traditionally, the mobile operators have been at the forefront of offering any new service to its subscribers as they have had control over the network as well as the consumer. They have had direct access to the subscriber due to their billing capability. No wonder, they considered offering location based services as their core right and hence refused to share the location data with other entities. At the same time, they did not have the resources to focus on this services and the mindset required to be successful in this business was also missing. Over a period of time, the other entities developed ways of by-passing the operators (e.g. Google, Skyhook, etc.) and started to offer services without the operator role. Increasing penetration of GPS devices is also taking away the role of operators and hence we are now seeing some traction rebuilding in this space.

High data cost has been another reason for low penetration of LBS. Mobile internet use is core to serve the location based services and due to high costs, the adoption of mobile internet has been low. Apart from Japan and Korea, even today the mobile internet penetration is less than 10%. With the introduction of flat rate data tariffs, I hope, the mobile internet penetration would grow faster.

The other issue is that of a proper business model and the monetization of LBS. These services are still in search of ways of monetization. It is very difficult to sustain the high costs involved in getting the location data without charging a high fee for the services. However, the consumers are not likely to pay much for these services and hence it is important to look at context advertising as an alternative source of revenue.

Potential of Location Based Services

There have been a lot of barriers in the past on the adoption of LBS. However, now the industry seems to be getting its act together in terms of value chain and is likely to test various monetizing methods to hit at the right business model.

ABI Research predicts that location-based services will be a $13 billion business by 2013 vs. $515 million in 2008 (Link). Currently, personal navigation is the most popular service but in future, friend-finder, local information searches, family tracker applications, and enterprise applications (including workforce tracking and fleet management), will gain traction. Friend-finding and taffic information are anticipated to be the next services to be launched for mass consumption.

The increasing popularity of location based services is clear from the increasing number of applications using context/location on Apple application store (Refer Figure below).

5 best-practice tips to create an SMS campaign - Mobile Marketer - Columns

While smartphones are all the rage when it comes to mobility, according to a recent study by Gartner, only a fifth of the 1.6 billion mobile devices sold in 2010 were smartphones, meaning most of the mobile devices sold last year were simple text-enabled mobile phones.

Marketers are recognizing this trend and turning frequently to text messaging as an efficient channel for communicating with customers and prospects.

There are a number of things to consider when creating an SMS marketing campaign.

All too often businesses are hastily adding text messaging to the marketing mix without taking appropriate consideration of all the factors that can make or break the effort.

Because text is still widely considered a personal form of communication, and the risk of being perceived as an unwelcome spammer is high, it is important to incorporate some basic principles into your initiative to ensure you garner optimal results.

Below are five best practices that we encourage businesses to adhere to when designing an SMS campaign:

It is still about the relationships
Above all, it is most important to consider what relationship you or your company have with recipient.

You would not walk up to someone you do not know and say, “I bought this shirt, it was 50 percent off.” Generally, you would tell someone you know and you would start with “Hello!” The same applies to SMS marketing.

To avoid having an adverse reaction, you should have an established relationship with the recipient.

That relationship may be that the customer has bought from you before and given you permission to send her texts or is a new potential customer who indicated interest in your products or services.

Personal communication, personal message
Just like email or snail mail, if the letter is addressed to someone personally she is more likely to read it than a message addressed to “home owner” or “customer.”

Text messages are short, simple and personal. If what you want to say is none of those things you should find another medium to say it. 

A great example is: “Hi Sam, thank you for purchasing with us. We look forward to seeing you again soon. Show this msg to receive 20% off your next purchase at [STORE NAME & PHONE NUMBER].”

Value and timing are everything
Part of understanding your audience is knowing what they will find valuable and when.

Do not leave your recipients wondering what to do with your message. Text messages should not be used for billboard type advertising. Include a call to action with a special deal or request for response.

Regular consumers of a product or service love specials. A beauty salon offering 20 percent off all waxing and tanning for bookings made that week is a great example.

A return customer will want to know about these specials, which should yield positive results for the SMS campaign.

Also consider the timing of your message and be sensitive to the activity of daily life.

A message received during times of the day when people are generally preoccupied will not likely garner the attention you are seeking.

Understand your market, choose an appropriate time to send the messages out and make it meaningful.

Protect your business and brand
Common short codes are numbers that are shorter than phone numbers and leveraged by companies to send and receive messages.

For example, Twitter users can send text messages to short code 40404 to update their status or send a “tweet.”

Something that is little known is that there are both dedicated and shared short codes you can buy from your SMS gateway provider.

While they may be somewhat cheaper, a shared short code means you are likely sharing that code with multiple other businesses.

This means your service may be disrupted if another company sharing your code abuses the service, you may not get to use the keywords you desire for your campaign and you do not own the information gathered through the interaction with your customers.

Find an SMS service provider that offers dedicated codes so you can protect your brand and leverage useful customer data collected.

Give them an option
Nothing is more frustrating to individuals than to continuously receive promotional messages when they just are not interested.

Consumers are often concerned that they are being charged a premium to receive promotional text messages, so if you tell people up front how it works, then they are more likely to allow you to continue sending messages.

“Reply ‘STOP’ to unsubscribe” is all you need to include in the text message to make it easy for recipients to opt-out.

While it may be easy to set up an account, draft a message and send it to a list of individuals, just like any other successful marketing campaign, understanding your audience and how they prefer to receive information is key to accomplishing your campaign goals.

Make the effort to tailor your campaign through careful consideration of factors that can affect its effectiveness and you will be on your way to experiencing the outstanding benefits of a well-executed text campaign.

Above all, use common sense. If you would find it annoying, somebody else will, too.

Does Social Media Marketing Make Sense for the Smallest Businesses?

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

Small businesses unsure about reaching audience on social sites

eMarketer estimates that 127 million people in the US, or 57.5% of internet users, will use social networks at least monthly this year. Facebook alone has over half a billion active users worldwide. Still, many of the smallest businesses don’t believe their customers can be marketed to on such sites, according to an August 2010 survey from customer review platform RatePoint.

Respondents, the majority of whom were business owners with just one to five employees, were split on whether social media was a quick way to connect with current or future customers, but sentiment was largely negative. When asked if they thought customers wanted to hear from them on social sites, only a quarter of businesses thought they did.

In addition, 20% of small businesses did not think their customers spent time on social networking sites; another 27% were undecided. And nearly a quarter did not believe their customers did research online before doing business with their company.

With a majority of US internet users on social networks, chances are the customers of even small local businesses are there. According to BIA/Kelsey and ConStat, 97% of US internet users used online media to look for local products and services in Q1 2010, and 90% used search engines. Research from comScore and TMP Directional Marketing shows that, looking for local businesses, searchers are much more likely to use a search engine than a social networking site as their primary resource, but both are used, especially among young people.

“Social media use is no longer limited to one demographic; everyone is adopting,” said Neal Creighton, CEO and co-founder of RatePoint, in a statement. “While many small-business owners are uncertain, big brands are investing heavily in social media. Social media can be a great equalizer for small businesses to compete alongside larger brands and SMBs are missing out if they are not involved.”