The MMA code of conduct for mobile marketing provides a robust framework for the industry to follow. This means that all off-deck services sold in the US need to be MMA compliant. The code of conduct has recently been extended to mobile web services and WAP billing systems such as Bango’s mobile billing platform.
Here’s [...]
In our experience, not necessarily! When we compare the top 10 countries for mobile web traffic with the top 10 countries for mobile payments, then only 3 countries featured in both lists - the UK, USA and South Africa (November 2008).
What’s happening here is that mobile internet growth rates are way higher in countries where [...]
The best way of understanding the recent changes in mobile billing is to think of the mobile content industry as an oil tanker. Previously, it has been moving in a northerly direction in the Premium SMS sea. But the captain (think of mobile operators here) has given the order and now our oil [...]
Gartner research reveals that in Q2 2008, 10.5% of all phones sold worldwide was a Smartphone. While it’s great to see functionality rich browsers on mobile devices along with big screens and fast connections, the problem with emulating PC browsing is that it dumbs down the potential for mobile commerce.
On the mobile web today [...]
Vive La France! Well as long as you are happy with the French “Gallery”.
France has a unique structure for mobile content with the Walled Gardens of their operator portals surrounded by a Fortified Field called “Gallery”. This is not true off-portal as there is a strict approval procedure which is run by the mobile operators. [...]
A basic rule of economics is that if you want to grow the size of the market then you need to make it attractive for people to invest and do business - and by attractive, we are talking about rewarding businesses financially. In the mobile content business, the most effective lever you can apply is [...]
The plague of Premium SMS, apart from the current spate of law suits in America, is the high refund levels experienced by content providers. This has been a necessary evil when there wasn’t another way to buy digital content on the mobile phone but now there is an alternative!
This alternative is WAP billing where consumers [...]
One of the reasons why the UK mobile content industry is as prosperous and vibrant as it is, is because the mobile operators in this country have increased payout rates over and above other European countries. This encourages content providers to run promotions on these networks as they receive a better return on their [...]
The news today from Bango that it has seen a four-fold increase in WAP billing transactions in the US over the last 3 months confirms that the US is finally realizing the benefits of WAP billing over Premium SMS.
So why is WAP billing proving so popular? WAP billing delivers a more transparent payment experience where [...]
Premium SMS has been gradually replaced by a WAP billing experience for mobile content purchases says Bango, which processed its 4 millionth Payforit transaction in August 2008. With many of the UK’s largest mobile content providers - including The Sun, Gameloft and Sony BMG - using Bango to provide Payforit mobile billing, this migration was [...]
