Mobile Entertainment

What is available today that can enhance the mobile internet experience while driving additional data revenues? The answer is staring operators in the face: Multimedia messaging.

The changing internet landscape, in which ideas, photos, music and videos are all shared through web 2.0 services, promises to make messaging the driving force behind a truly interactive mobile experience. The inherent advantages of SMS or MMS are obvious: they’re universal and ubiquitous. As such, they can therefore become the channel of interactivity around new content-based communities. And because the commercial models around messaging are well-established, this is financially compelling for operators looking to increase data revenues.

Of course, many web 2.0 brands have already been mobilised through operator portals. However, there remain many revenue generating enhancements, designed specifically for the mobile user (such as location-based SMS alerts) that have not been fully exploited. There is also potential to integrate SMS into online auctions, blogging and RSS.

MMS throws up still more possibilities. It’s currently being under-exploited by operators, but it needn’t be. True, MMS hasn’t been widely adopted by consumers on a peer to peer basis, yet there is now clear demand for sharing multimedia video, audio and pictures in other contexts. This much is evidenced by the increasing popularity of websites such as YouTube.

This approach should also help operators to monetise content services in a period of changing pricing strategies in mature markets. Walled gardens have largely been replaced by an open mobile web and far more transparent pricing for mobile data. In this context, messaging enables operators to add value to this open mobile internet experience.

With more than three billion live mobile subscriptions, operators are missing a powerful opportunity if they view messaging as a standalone function. And it’s not just about revenue. Integrated services can also help to build a clearer picture of subscriber preferences and behaviour.

The operator’s role in developing the mobile internet should not be underestimated. Talk of operators being reduced to a dumb bit pipe is premature when they have the opportunity to remain at the heart of the mobile web.