Skip to main content

Global Upside Opportunities for Mobile Commerce

Mobile money services for the unbanked, popular in emerging markets, are showing both much faster adoption than m-wallets and related services addressing those with a bank account and a steeper revenue curve.

According to the latest market study by Pyramid Research, mobile payments are becoming increasingly integrated into a broader range of mobile services. Furthermore, services such as marketing, advertising, loyalty cards, coupons and discounts are also becoming part of the broader mobile wallet.

Mobile network operators in developed markets need to make a long-term commitment to the mobile payment opportunity and have access to large financial reserves to be able to reap long-term benefits.

While adoption of NFC-capable mobile devices and readers is finally showing real growth, Pyramid believes that mobile network service providers still face major challenges in mobile contactless payments.

The mobile commerce opportunity is becoming an increasingly attractive one, and operators can take a more prominent role in this ecosystem in a number of ways. One particularly attractive strategy that operators are adopting is that of merchant aggregators.

"To be successful, an online mall or marketplace has to provide a secure, trusted and easy-to-use environment for browsing through and paying for online products and services," said Stela Bokun, senior analyst at Pyramid Research.

11th Street, which belongs to SK Telecom's SK Planet subsidiary, is one of the best examples of a well-functioning, operator-managed online mall. SK Telecom claims that 11th Street is the country's second largest online marketplace -- and the largest devoted to mobile commerce.

To date, the mobile app, also called 11th Street, has been downloaded 11 million times. During 2012, 7 percent of the total gross merchandise value (GMV), which amounted to around $3.5 billion, came from mobile. In 2013, the mobile application portion is expected to take 12 percent of total GMV.

Typically it is very challenging for a single mobile network operator to make an online mall successful, and in some cases competing operators partner up in such endeavors. This approach in particular appeals to merchants who want to gain access to all mobile users from all partner networks by forming only one business relationship.

A notable example of such a partnership is Buyster, a joint venture of all French mobile network operators that was launched in 2011. Users of Buyster can pay both through apps and on the Web -- more importantly, they can use their mobile phone number to make a payment, as each mobile phone number is linked to a bank account.

The main benefit that the partnership provides to the operators -- in addition to making the service more appealing to merchants and users and thus stimulating higher adoption rates -- is the lower cost associated with provisioning the service. Buyster earns its revenue by charging commission rates and fixed fees for each transaction -- both vary depending on the merchant’s size.

Popular posts from this blog

Industrial Cloud Computing Apps Gain Momentum

In the manufacturing industry, cloud computing can help leaders improve their production efficiency by providing them with real-time data about their operations. This has gained the attention of the C-suite. Total forecast Industrial Cloud platform revenue in manufacturing will surpass $300 billion by 2033 with a CAGR of 22.57 percent, driven by solution providers enhancing platform interoperability while expanding partner ecosystems for application development. ABI Research found the cloud computing manufacturing market will grow over the next decade due to the adoption of new architectural frameworks that enhance data extraction and interoperability for manufacturers looking to maximize utility from their data. Industrial Cloud Computing Market Development "Historically, manufacturers have built out their infrastructure to include expensive data housing in the form of on-premises servers. The large initial upfront cost of purchasing, setting up, and maintaining these servers is

Demand for Quantum Computing as a Service

The enterprise demand for quantum computing is still in its early stages, growing slowly. As the technology becomes more usable, we may see demand evolve beyond scientific applications. The global quantum computing market is forecast to grow from $1.1 billion in 2022 to $7.6 billion in 2027, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). That's a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.1 percent. The forecast includes base Quantum Computing as a Service, as well as enabling and adjacent Quantum Computing as a Service. However, this updated forecast is considerably lower than IDC's previous quantum computing forecast, which was published in 2021, due to lower demand globally. Quantum Computing Market Development In the interim, customer spend for quantum computing has been negatively impacted by several factors, including: slower than expected advances in quantum hardware development, which have delayed potential return on inve

Contact Center as a Service Gains AI Benefits

Enterprise leaders with large customer care organizations are exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications to improve their online customer experience, increase operational efficiency, and reduce costs to improve profitability. Trained AI can be used to automate tasks, such as answering routine questions, freeing up contact center agents to focus on more complex inquiries. AI can also be applied to personalize the customer experience by recommending new offerings. Additionally, AI can be deployed to analyze vast amounts of existing customer data to identify support trends and patterns, which can be used to improve the overall customer experience. Customer Care AI Market Development Worldwide Contact Center (CC) and Conversational AI, including virtual assistant end-user spending is projected to total $18.6 billion in 2023 -- that's an increase of 16.2 percent from 2022, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "Near-term investment growth rates for CC and CC Con