Posted on Thursday, 19th January 2012 by Charlotte W
UK mobile messaging solutions provider Synchronica sees geo socialization and operator-branded messaging as two of the big opportunities for the company this year, Synchronica CTO Kim Hartlev told BNamericas.
In simple terms, geo socialization is social networking and location-based services combined. Profiles, interests and other user-submitted data will be matched with location-based services to connect and coordinate with surrounding people or events such as meet-ups and restaurants.
This is expected to open a new space for digital marketing, according to Hartlev, as businesses and individuals are driven by the need to interact, advertise and promote in real time.
The trend is also likely to force investments from the retail, entertainment and hospitality industries into upgrading IT systems, thereby bringing in fresh revenues for mobile operators and software providers. Geo socialization is also expected to help industries manage their inventory in real time.
“It’s more than just location-based chatting. It can be used for many different things…. You could get local businesses to advertise in a certain space; you could sell them premium locations, so an operator could get alternative revenue streams from local businesses that want to advertise on this virtual map that you’re creating,” Hartlev said.
OPERATOR-BRANDED MESSAGING
Operator-branded messaging is the next wave of value-added services (VAS) that operators are now looking at as a means of combating the threat of over the top (OTT) services, according to Hartlev.
Dutch telco KPM recently became the first operator to publish a profit warning because of OTT messaging services like “What’s App,” which erodes at voice and SMS revenues.
“OTT services can really become a threat. I think they [operators] will really dig deep this year to try to come up with new VAS or enhance their existing VAS to try to fight back against this type of OTT service,” Hartlev said.
According to the executive, trying to block such services is not an option – especially for KPM given the net neutrality laws in the Netherlands – as it can cause an operator’s customers to turn against them. So they have to come up with something as good or better. And this will involve collaboration with competitors.
“They need to offer their own messaging services across platform and across operators because if they don’t start opening up some of their walled gardens to the other operators, these services will never really fly,” he said.
Hartlev said he is seeing Latin American operators opening up a bit more and talking to one another.
In fact, Synchronica recently launched an operator-branded messaging service with Personal Argentina, the executive said.
RCS
Complementing operator-branded messaging is the emerging area of rich communication suites (RCS), which is an industry effort focused on using IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) for providing mobile phone communication services.
RCS would enable communication such as IM on any type of device using an open communication between devices and networks.
The main benefits include: enhanced phonebook with presence-enhanced contact information; enhanced messaging, enabling a variety of messaging options including chat; and enriched calls, with the sharing of multimedia content during a voice call.
According to Hartlev, Spain has announced it will become the first country to launch RCS services across its three major operators in 1H12.
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Tags: Geo Socialization, Messaging
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