UK WAP billing initiative widely welcomed by the content biz, but study suggests improvements are necessary.
The PayforIt Impact Study, commissioned by trade body AIME and conducted by Fathom Partners, says 63 per cent of respondents indicated they supported the six month old cross-operator WAP billing initiative and are looking for ways to embrace it.The study showed the number of consumer complaints to be down compared to those received as a result of premium SMS transactions, attributable to the increased transparency in the payment process.
AIME said the results also indicated that PayforIt prevents fraudulent content sales and other issues associated with revenue leakage.
On the down side, respondents said the user experience (particularly the number of clicks to purchase) needed to be improved, with a perception of a lower conversion rate for content sold using PayforIt as a billing mechanism over, say, PSMS.
The study also says respondents felt PayforIt suffers from a lack of consumer awareness, as well as increased administrative demands from some mobile operators and a lack of consistency in revenue share levels compared to PSMS.
The full executive summary of the PayforIt Impact Study can be downloaded from the AIME website: www.aimelink.org.
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Roy Ellyatt, CEO AIME, said: "Clearly there is industry agreement that the benefits, particularly those associated with delivering consumer confidence, outweigh the initial problems encountered by the stake-holders in the value-chain. That said, it is also clear that we still have some way to go."
