As compared to traditional marketing communications such as billboards, TV, radio and newspapers, mobile advertising is a much cost-effective way of marketing. In this borderless world, the ubiquity of mobile phones is seemed to be the best way to reach the market inexpensively. What say you?
Whether you’re a global consumer packaged goods company, a pharmaceutical giant or an automobile manufacturer, you know that your best prospects for future revenue and earnings growth will come not from North America or Europe. Rather, it will be generated from India, Brazil, China, Russia, Indonesia, Colombia, Vietnam, South Africa, Mexico and Egypt.
In this time of such extraordinary economic flux, both brands and marketers need to find a new form of engagement with their next billion consumers.
The rapidly expanding purchasing power in these emerging markets, coupled with the near ubiquity of mobile phones, presents a new and powerful opportunity for global organizations to engage directly with these consumers.
When I lived in Kenya in 2006, I could visit my local vegetable market and purchase produce by transferring 20 Kenyan shillings of air time from my phone to the vendor’s phone. On the consumer end, mobile airtime is a hot commodity in emerging markets, where consumers spend upwards of 10% of their annual income on airtime, measured not in ‘minutes’ or ‘text messages’ but in local currency.
How do shifting economies and prepaid mobile airtime change the scenario for the next generation of marketers?
The world will look incredibly different over the next 40 years. Expert global economists forecast world GDP rising from $72 trillion in 2010 to $380 trillion in 2050. However, this explosive economic growth is not being driven by the U.S. or Europe. In fact, by 2050, not one European country is projected to be in the top 10 largest economies. The countries that will become the world's dominant players may be surprising to some.
India is expected to have overtaken China to claim the No. 1 position, while Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt and Mexico will all make it on the list of the10 largest world economies. Indeed, Nigeria is projected to be the fastest-growing economy in the world over the next 40 years. Further, the developing economies within Asia Pacific will double their contribution to the world's GDP to almost 50%. In short, the world of global marketers will be flipped upside down.
What are the hurdles that global marketers face now as they begin to engage their next billion customers?
Inability To Target
In high-growth markets, where only a small percentage of consumers have e-mail addresses and credit scores, targeting is impossible because there is simply no consumer data available. This limits advertising to traditional mass media channels: billboards, TV and radio.
Consumer Insights
Essential to smart marketing, market research in high-growth markets typically consists of flying a team of researchers into the country and then driving into the field to conduct face-to-face surveys interviewing women about what laundry detergent they use, or the price of rice. A very costly and inefficient solution.
Lack Of Mechanisms Or System
Many products in high-growth markets tend to be sold in extremely fragmented, small, owner-operated storefronts. This makes offering a nation-wide discount extremely challenging. Additionally, there generally is no technology at the point of sale that can enable couponing.
Mobile technology can now surmount those hurdles.
While U.S. based marketers are scrambling to reap the benefits here, the potential in growth markets where there are 4 billion phones is beckoning In Russia, Brazil and Vietnam, mobile penetration is approximately 100%; in Colombia, Egypt and Indonesia, it’s over 90%. This level of penetration creates a huge opportunity to use the mobile channel to connect emerging market consumers to Western brands, which are highly regarded and eagerly sought in many markets.
Solutions.
How can we implement programs to give marketers quick and accurate information, while also opening opportunities to drive sales?
Research.
Because air time has quickly become a currency in most emerging markets, marketers can gain insights quickly by rewarding people with free air time in exchange for answering surveys. From young men in India to moms in Vietnam, the opt-in approach yields high response rates. Providing free air time in exchange for insights and opinions increases the purchasing power of people. Air-time rewards free up money spent on air time and/or provides consumers additional currency to make purchases.
Purchase incentives
Marketers can offer mobile coupons, deals for products or services, group buying promotions, or customer loyalty programs directly to mobile phones. Best of all, since air time is a currency, discounts can be applied straight to the phone. Instead of trying to figure out a way for a customer in rural Indonesia to receive the 1000 rupiah discount for a can of soda, the 1000 rupiah credit can be sent directly to the buyer’s phone on behalf of the brand.
The world is shrinking as technology access opens and emerging markets continue to grow. Mobile technology is now not just the best way to reach your next billion customers -- it’s the only way. Four billion people await.
Source: by Nathan Eagle on 16th December 2011.
Web SMS, 1-way Messaging, 2-way Messaging, SIM Hosting, Email-to-SMS, Developer (HTTP API & SMPP), White Label Reseller Program, HRL Lookup, Long Code Service, Non-premium Short Code, Industry Based Solutions etc. To know more about our products & services, visit our official websites: www.moceansms.com | www.bulksms.com.my | www.mocean.com.my
Friday, 16 December 2011
Thursday, 15 December 2011
The Global Mobile Messaging Market Will be Worth 305.5 Billion Dollars by 2016
As the saying goes - Nothing is Impossible, we hardly foresee how 'powerful' will SMS be evolved into. But, there is one thing that we can be sure of - the usage of SMS is still increasing and the messaging market is worth more and more.
Visiongain's latest research entitled "Mobile Messaging Market Report: 2011 - 2016" offers a fine-tuned analysis of four mobile messaging platforms: SMS, MMS, instant messaging and email.
The mobile messaging market is under strong pressure to evolve and adapt alongside technical innovation and changes in consumer demands. The strong growth of mobile broadband is the result of increased mobile data usage by subscribers hungry for instant communication, multimedia sharing and social networking. Instant messaging and email applications are fast becoming default services in smart devices.
Smartphones and mobile broadband are not the only vectors for the transformation of the mobile messaging market. SMS and MMS have also evolved beyond their traditional platforms to more enhanced and personalised applications. Ubiquitous wireless connectivity and basic feature phones have become quasi-universal on a global scale. In many regions, basic mobile messaging is serving as an efficient and reliable platform for value added services in mobile banking, commerce and health.
The mobile messaging market is undergoing a structural shift and opening up to new players offering high-value functionalities. Visiongain estimates the current market to be valued at US $202 billion which represents on average 19% of total global mobile revenues. While North America and Europe will show a strong uptake and diversification in instant messaging and email services, emerging economies in Africa, the Middle East and Asia will see continued growth and expansion of traditional SMS and MMS platforms and their use in new industries.
Source: By PRNewswire on 14th December 2011
Visiongain's latest research entitled "Mobile Messaging Market Report: 2011 - 2016" offers a fine-tuned analysis of four mobile messaging platforms: SMS, MMS, instant messaging and email.
The mobile messaging market is under strong pressure to evolve and adapt alongside technical innovation and changes in consumer demands. The strong growth of mobile broadband is the result of increased mobile data usage by subscribers hungry for instant communication, multimedia sharing and social networking. Instant messaging and email applications are fast becoming default services in smart devices.
Smartphones and mobile broadband are not the only vectors for the transformation of the mobile messaging market. SMS and MMS have also evolved beyond their traditional platforms to more enhanced and personalised applications. Ubiquitous wireless connectivity and basic feature phones have become quasi-universal on a global scale. In many regions, basic mobile messaging is serving as an efficient and reliable platform for value added services in mobile banking, commerce and health.
The mobile messaging market is undergoing a structural shift and opening up to new players offering high-value functionalities. Visiongain estimates the current market to be valued at US $202 billion which represents on average 19% of total global mobile revenues. While North America and Europe will show a strong uptake and diversification in instant messaging and email services, emerging economies in Africa, the Middle East and Asia will see continued growth and expansion of traditional SMS and MMS platforms and their use in new industries.
Source: By PRNewswire on 14th December 2011
Nigeria - The Rise And Rise of Text Messaging
The rise and rise of text messaging is not only happened in one country but it is holding an important role for every country nowadays.
The world’s first social media of communication, the text messaging service, has been in existence for 19 years now. Over the years, many people have come to rely on it to communicate with friends and loved ones. Since 2001 when it was adopted in Nigeria following the introduction of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) services, it has revolutionized communication, work and networking, along with fostering a different vocabulary. ADLINE ATILI writes on how 160 characters have transformed our communication pattern
Nineteen years ago today, no Nigerian owned a GSM phone, so Short Messaging Service(SMS)/text messaging was relatively unknown. That was around the period when we had to use landline phones and all its attendant problems. The subscriber base then was less than 400,000.
Text messaging has however, come a long way since the first text message was sent in December 1992, by a 22-year old test engineer for British technology company, Sema Group, Neil Papworth, on the Vodafone network in the United Kingdom.
Vodafone is the world’s largest mobile telecommunications company by revenues and the world’s second-largest by subscribers.
The text message was sent by Papworth, using a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone Network who received it on an Orbitel 901 mobile phone.
The message read: “Merry Christmas,” and other than the lack of a punctuation mark, there isn’t much for linguists to complain about.
Today, that same message can be written as, ‘omg!!! Mrry xmas!’ Or what would life be without OMG, LOL, L8r, HBD, LLNP, HNM, and IJN?
While some may finger text messages for causing the demise of verbal communication, for many, the humble text is a quick route out of an unwanted chat.
An Airtel subscriber, Mary, said, as a student, texting has played a large part in her life. To her, though she tries not to text too much, she likes to text if she does not have time or enough airtime for a phone call.
She said: “Using text saves me some cash. Instead of going by voice, I just use text. If you call, the conversation can go on for long and it costs more.
“With texting, you can just say: ‘I’ll be in the library at eight’ and you’re done. If it is to the same network, you may not have to pay if it’s free on-net.”
How text messaging boosts operators’ revenue
Since the first text message, SMS technology has come a long way to dominate the current mobile messaging scene.
In 2010, SMS texts generated $114.6 billion in revenues worldwide, but many believe it’s just the beginning.
Today, text messaging is one of the most widely used mobile services. Over 74 per cent of all mobile phone users worldwide, employ it.
Since the beginning of this year, text messaging has generated $585 billion for operators worldwide and is expected to generate more than $1 trillion over the next seven years.
Experts estimate that mobile networks will earn $726 billion from SMS text messaging over the next five years.
Last year, the estimated volume of text messages/SMS sent was 6.1 trillion or 192,000 SMSs per second.
Since 2006, SMS’ worth has been netted at around $81 billion. So while smartphone applications like the BlackBerry Messenger starts to make up larger slices of the text messaging field, SMS is not giving up its mobile messaging throne anytime soon.
Though text messaging is 19, the technology behind the SMS text is 27-years old, having first been developed in the Franco-German GSM Corporation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert.
Why is text messaging limited to 160 characters?
Friedhelm Hillebrand, a communications researcher, conducted an experiment in 1985.
He sat with his typewriter and started typing random words and questions on a sheet of paper.
He counted the number of letters, punctuation marks and spaces for each line and realised that the number of characters were in and around 160.
That became Hillebrand’s magic number, and he somehow convinced the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) co-workers that 160 characters were more than sufficient for SMS.
Text messaging as marketing campaign tool
In today’s modern marketing world, SMS has become an avenue many businesses find great use for; especially with the popularity of promos, campaigns and bulk messaging which allows businesses and individuals send text messages at reduced price.
It is now commonplace for operators to ask subscribers to participate in promos by sending some words to ‘short codes,’ which are five to six digits phone numbers used for text message marketing campaigns.
Weak points
Despite being very successful, however, SMS services still face challenges globally. Security and vulnerability have been one of the major issues of SMS.
It has been used severally as a lethal weapon of threat and intimidation by criminally-minded individuals, prompting the Nigerian telecom industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to issue a directive to all telecom subscribers and network operators to get SIM cards registered.
The 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations of Nigeria were regrettably marred by bombings at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, last year.
The explosions left a good number of people dead with several others severely injured. Vehicles were not spared in the blasts as a number of them were destroyed.
About nine people were said to be arrested in connection with the bombings. When their mobile phones were said to be screened, some incriminating text messages were found, which pointed the finger at some individuals behind the bombings.
Only recently, Reuters reported how SMS text messages revealed how Nigerian politicians sponsor members of radical Islamic sects responsible for dozens of shootings and bombings across the country.
The report stated that Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the SSS, revealed in a press briefing how politicians pay extremists to send threatening text messages to judges and rival politicians.
One other thing is its unreliability, especially when the service is used for emergency purposes.
Several reported cases have shown that around one per cent to five per cent of text messages are lost in the network system, never to be received by the recipient.
But despite all these, SMS/text message has always been the most preferred mode of communication especially in emerging markets. Experts say its being cheap has been the main reason for its popularity.
Critics of the technology contend that it is destroying the brain cells of our youths, and some adults too.
Adeolu Adeyinka, a telecom subscriber, detests the ‘texting’ system, especially the adopted texting language.
He told The Nation: “I can only laugh at people who sit and text non-stop. When I see teenagers texting like mad, it doesn’t bother me so much but when grown men and women do it, I just wonder.
“The worst part is when you are having intelligent conversation with someone on the Internet and they only write in ‘texting format.’ It’s annoying and much as I accept text messages from my kids, I’ve warned them I won’t respond to messages with those texting words and phrases.
“I don’t like trying to decipher what those dumb words mean. I mean, it’s gradually destroying our youths.
“The other day, a friend of mine who happens to be a WAEC official told of how candidates have been so wrapped up in the texting language that they do not know how to write a single sentence in an essay without chipping in those dumb words two to three times.
“It’s really pathetic. I think the youths should be able to draw the line between sending text messages and writing an examination that can make or mar your future.”
Source by Adline Atili on Dec 15, 2011
The world’s first social media of communication, the text messaging service, has been in existence for 19 years now. Over the years, many people have come to rely on it to communicate with friends and loved ones. Since 2001 when it was adopted in Nigeria following the introduction of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) services, it has revolutionized communication, work and networking, along with fostering a different vocabulary. ADLINE ATILI writes on how 160 characters have transformed our communication pattern
Nineteen years ago today, no Nigerian owned a GSM phone, so Short Messaging Service(SMS)/text messaging was relatively unknown. That was around the period when we had to use landline phones and all its attendant problems. The subscriber base then was less than 400,000.
Text messaging has however, come a long way since the first text message was sent in December 1992, by a 22-year old test engineer for British technology company, Sema Group, Neil Papworth, on the Vodafone network in the United Kingdom.
Vodafone is the world’s largest mobile telecommunications company by revenues and the world’s second-largest by subscribers.
The text message was sent by Papworth, using a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone Network who received it on an Orbitel 901 mobile phone.
The message read: “Merry Christmas,” and other than the lack of a punctuation mark, there isn’t much for linguists to complain about.
Today, that same message can be written as, ‘omg!!! Mrry xmas!’ Or what would life be without OMG, LOL, L8r, HBD, LLNP, HNM, and IJN?
While some may finger text messages for causing the demise of verbal communication, for many, the humble text is a quick route out of an unwanted chat.
An Airtel subscriber, Mary, said, as a student, texting has played a large part in her life. To her, though she tries not to text too much, she likes to text if she does not have time or enough airtime for a phone call.
She said: “Using text saves me some cash. Instead of going by voice, I just use text. If you call, the conversation can go on for long and it costs more.
“With texting, you can just say: ‘I’ll be in the library at eight’ and you’re done. If it is to the same network, you may not have to pay if it’s free on-net.”
How text messaging boosts operators’ revenue
Since the first text message, SMS technology has come a long way to dominate the current mobile messaging scene.
In 2010, SMS texts generated $114.6 billion in revenues worldwide, but many believe it’s just the beginning.
Today, text messaging is one of the most widely used mobile services. Over 74 per cent of all mobile phone users worldwide, employ it.
Since the beginning of this year, text messaging has generated $585 billion for operators worldwide and is expected to generate more than $1 trillion over the next seven years.
Experts estimate that mobile networks will earn $726 billion from SMS text messaging over the next five years.
Last year, the estimated volume of text messages/SMS sent was 6.1 trillion or 192,000 SMSs per second.
Since 2006, SMS’ worth has been netted at around $81 billion. So while smartphone applications like the BlackBerry Messenger starts to make up larger slices of the text messaging field, SMS is not giving up its mobile messaging throne anytime soon.
Though text messaging is 19, the technology behind the SMS text is 27-years old, having first been developed in the Franco-German GSM Corporation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert.
Why is text messaging limited to 160 characters?
Friedhelm Hillebrand, a communications researcher, conducted an experiment in 1985.
He sat with his typewriter and started typing random words and questions on a sheet of paper.
He counted the number of letters, punctuation marks and spaces for each line and realised that the number of characters were in and around 160.
That became Hillebrand’s magic number, and he somehow convinced the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) co-workers that 160 characters were more than sufficient for SMS.
Text messaging as marketing campaign tool
In today’s modern marketing world, SMS has become an avenue many businesses find great use for; especially with the popularity of promos, campaigns and bulk messaging which allows businesses and individuals send text messages at reduced price.
It is now commonplace for operators to ask subscribers to participate in promos by sending some words to ‘short codes,’ which are five to six digits phone numbers used for text message marketing campaigns.
Weak points
Despite being very successful, however, SMS services still face challenges globally. Security and vulnerability have been one of the major issues of SMS.
It has been used severally as a lethal weapon of threat and intimidation by criminally-minded individuals, prompting the Nigerian telecom industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to issue a directive to all telecom subscribers and network operators to get SIM cards registered.
The 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations of Nigeria were regrettably marred by bombings at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, last year.
The explosions left a good number of people dead with several others severely injured. Vehicles were not spared in the blasts as a number of them were destroyed.
About nine people were said to be arrested in connection with the bombings. When their mobile phones were said to be screened, some incriminating text messages were found, which pointed the finger at some individuals behind the bombings.
Only recently, Reuters reported how SMS text messages revealed how Nigerian politicians sponsor members of radical Islamic sects responsible for dozens of shootings and bombings across the country.
The report stated that Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the SSS, revealed in a press briefing how politicians pay extremists to send threatening text messages to judges and rival politicians.
One other thing is its unreliability, especially when the service is used for emergency purposes.
Several reported cases have shown that around one per cent to five per cent of text messages are lost in the network system, never to be received by the recipient.
But despite all these, SMS/text message has always been the most preferred mode of communication especially in emerging markets. Experts say its being cheap has been the main reason for its popularity.
Critics of the technology contend that it is destroying the brain cells of our youths, and some adults too.
Adeolu Adeyinka, a telecom subscriber, detests the ‘texting’ system, especially the adopted texting language.
He told The Nation: “I can only laugh at people who sit and text non-stop. When I see teenagers texting like mad, it doesn’t bother me so much but when grown men and women do it, I just wonder.
“The worst part is when you are having intelligent conversation with someone on the Internet and they only write in ‘texting format.’ It’s annoying and much as I accept text messages from my kids, I’ve warned them I won’t respond to messages with those texting words and phrases.
“I don’t like trying to decipher what those dumb words mean. I mean, it’s gradually destroying our youths.
“The other day, a friend of mine who happens to be a WAEC official told of how candidates have been so wrapped up in the texting language that they do not know how to write a single sentence in an essay without chipping in those dumb words two to three times.
“It’s really pathetic. I think the youths should be able to draw the line between sending text messages and writing an examination that can make or mar your future.”
Source by Adline Atili on Dec 15, 2011
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