Now you can make money on WAP
| Much have been said and written about WAP. Much of it has been criticism. Some of this criticism has been justified. Much of it has not. |
| Journalists world-wide have compared WAP with i-mode from DoCoMo. The point of the argument has most often been, that there is no money in WAP and the Mobile Internet. That time is now over when operators launch revenue sharing with content providers for WAP services. It was DoCoMo who started revenue sharing on the Mobile Internet. Now other operators are following. They have realised that the Mobile Internet need to develop differently from the traditional Internet. If not they will experience a new wave of dot. gones when companies run out of cash or, alternatively, make a living from moving users between different operators. Strand Consult‚s new report “Show Me The Money” describes in detail existing and future revenue models for the Mobile Internet. It all began with SMS. Then came premium priced SMS-services, where users pay as much as 1 USD to have ring tones, screen logos, jokes or similar products delivered via SMS. Soon we will see premium priced WAP-services. Here users are charged for the use of individual WAP-services, such as: News:Read the headlines. Pay if you want to read the whole article. Encyclopaedia: Search for information. Pay if you want to access the information. Games: Look for at game to play. Pay if you want to participate. Parking: Pay for your parking via WAP. Revenue from services like these will be shared based on a complex models and agreements between operators and content providers. According to this model, operators are responsible billing and payment and content providers for the development and marketing of services. This model forms the basis of the supply of high-quality services to users. European operators pioneering WAP services have, contrary to DoCoMo, not based their revenue sharing with content providers on the so-called Walled Garden‚ model. Instead they have chosen an open model which separates portal and billing system. This open model has enabled content providers better access to multiple operators and billing systems. In Norway this open model have quickly lead to more services and better access to those services. Compared to DoCoMo, an agreement with a Norwegian operator based on an open model, provides access to all mobile users. DoCoMo launched revenue sharing on the Mobile Internet. Other operators have refined and optimised the Japanese model. Who said WAP is dead!? To us the question is not if resources will be moved from the Internet to the Mobile Internet, but rather how many. And to us, one thing is obvious. There is more money to be made on the Mobile Internet, than on the traditional Internet. |
| More information on the report |
