In the Luciola Global Consumer Trends report one of the trends covered is Virtunity. What is Virtunity? It’s how digital technologies like the internet and mobile are enabling individuals to live and interact within virtual communities and in some ways allowing us to indulge and explore our alter ego.
Now another dimension is being added to Virtunity, something touched upon in the report, and that dimension is money. Currency is taking a whole new meaning as community members use virtual money in some very interesting ways. One of the pioneers of virtual currency is Second Life with their Linden Dollars. By the end of 2009 the value of SL’s virtual economy was as high as $567 million, a 65% growth over 2008. While the world grappled with a recession there was one economy that was certainly booming! Now it seems the rest of the world is catching up.
Facebook too has become a big player in the virtual goods business. Imagine this; people are paying $1 for a virtual gift which so far contributes about $30 million to Facebook, a good 10% of their total revenue. No wonder Facebook has recently moved to trademark its Virtual Currency Platform.
Another big contributor to the virtual goods economy is gaming. In this arena World of Warcraft has led the way. To progress in the game players need (virtual) gold. To facilitate players an entire industry had been setup in China to farm for this virtual gold and sell it for real cash! Estimates for this industry stand at anywhere between $200 million to $1 billion. So much so that the Chinese government has had to intervene and put on ban on trading of virtual goods!
According to a report by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), which is an EU agency the worldwide annual trade of real money for virtual goods amount to nearly 1.5 Billion Euros. In another report by an analyst from Wedbush Morgan Securities social gaming is expected to grow to a $4 billion by 2013, which today largely comprises of sale of virtual in-game items. It seems traditional banking has one more challenger to their age old system. With 4.6 billion mobile phones to 1.6 billion bank accounts, the ‘under-banked’ are already a big potential area for mobile network operators especially after the success of models like M-PESA and SMART Money. But from what we are seeing micro-transactions for virtual goods is also turning out to be a big business as well especially for targeting the younger population between the ages of 13-24.
So far gaming companies and social media networks seem to be the prime beneficiaries of this virtual economy. Is there an opportunity for mobile network operators here as well? Apparently so! Mobile payments companies like Zong, Boku, Paymo make it all look very easy! They are integrating with wireless operators and have a reach of over 1.5 billion customers worldwide. They simply enable a customer to pay for virtual goods using their mobile phones and get charged through their prepaid balance or mobile bill! Another player Mobile First has also entered the arena combining social gaming with their service. These are indications of how ease of use and mobility are being combined to make transactions in the virtual economy fast and simple.
A much overdue innovation that is going to change the way we talk to each other over the phone. It’s been a while since we heard of something major in the voice arena. It seems all the action these days is happening only in the data space.
So what is the big news about mobile HD voice for the end user? For one you would feel like you are talking to someone in person. The experience is going to be like shifting from an AM radio to a CD player – sharp and crystal clear. Remember the time when you first upgraded your TV set from the standard CRT to a big screen LCD screen – once you have experienced the richness of High Definition voice you would want not go back to the old way of talking. Mobile HD voice is expected to open up a whole new era for voice based services. Conference calls are going to be the big winners here. No more clinging to the speaker phone trying to decipher every word being said. Other voice services like IVR and Speech-to-Text are also going to evolve to a new level.
So what is stopping mobile network operators from moving full speed ahead with the adoption of mobile HD voice? For one, this service is part of an all IP infrastructure that mobile operators are moving towards as they adopt LTE. Although a good HSPA+ network should be able to handle these wideband voice calls, the volume of calls going forward are going to demand a low latency, high bandwidth network to ensure service quality.
The other barrier is going to be interoperability. Today if two operators offer mobile HD voice they are unable to connect their users with each other. Setting up an interconnection between an HD line and a regular line also requires some transcoding. Only once barriers like these get resolved can we expect mobile HD voice to pick up in a big way as a key value-added innovation for the end user. The good news is that some big announcements are expected in Barcelona this week as the Mobile World Congress (MWC) kicks-off tomorrow!
However, taking the lead is Orange. They launched the first commercial mobile HD voice service in Moldova based on their 14.4 mbps 3G network. To support this launch Nokia had made one handset available and now Sony Ericsson too has announced “HD voice ready” phones under their GreenHeart line. Another operator, 3 UK, is also under going trials for mobile HD voice. If some concrete steps are taken at the MWC we can expect mobile HD voice to be the big buzz this year!
Uninor, a joint venture between Unitech a local real estate giant and the Norway based Telenor Group, launched their mobile network service in India. In a market cluttered with about 13 operators (including at least 7 major operators) and a half billion connections already sold, Uninor has a tough task ahead of them. With Etisalat also expected to join the ranks branding and differentiation is going to be an enormous task!
Perhaps not quite so for India with it’s strategic branding and insight-led advertising history. Over the last two decades riding on the wave of an ever-booming popular culture which is now reaching epic proportions in terms of global reach and impact, one can expect great strategic thinking and creativity from both sides of the table – client and agency teams. And that’s been the case for the launch of Uninor as well.
With the other half a billion expected to take up a mobile connection in the next 5 years, the battle is far from over. And this is what Uninor has set it’s eye on and they have done so with an inspiring message that talks to the young ambitious Indians using real and everyday language. A nation aiming to play a bigger game in the global arena, the Uninor brand positioning taps this insight well and brings it down to one individual with “Ab mera number hai” (which roughly means “My time has come!”). With this positioning they have occupied what I call the “Heroism” space as per Luciola’s Proprietary Telecom Branding Tool - TeleCompass. This space is about building on the “Winning/Success” platform. What’s interesting is the fact that they are not depicting clichéd images of success as we see so many brands doing but really sharpening it and making it real. Here are some of their latest TVCs to give you a feel of the brand idea:
Juniper Research says that 1 out of 6 mobile phone users would carry an NFC equipped handset by 2014. That is really something! I think NFC is a very cool piece of technology. Simply stated it would allow us to use our mobile phones like a key to activate object, systems, content etc. or make payments just by bringing the mobile device in close proximity to a trigger point, which is usually within 4-8 inches!
NFC which stands for Near Field Communications is a technology that has been around for a while. In fact it has been widely used in Japan. However like most cutting edge use of mobile technology the rest of the world is still playing catch-up.
Another reason to believe that the time for NFC has come! Apple is onto it! When they are onto something you know it’s going to be cool and breakthrough! I just read that Apple has patented an NFC device for use with touch screens in a mobile phone and an audio player device. So don’t be surprised if a future iPhone model is equipped with an NFC device! In fact someone has already developed a prototype model! Check it out!
