Interesting research from eMarketer suggests that there will be substantial growth in revenues from mobile content. It makes business sense with the penetration for smart phones for content owners and marketers to learn and evolve revenue models tailored for mobile content.The article goes on to suggest that based on current and projected consumer buying trends the mobile industry will see 50% of mobile phone users will have access to the Internet by supplementing the phone service with mobile data plans by 2013. That’s if the Mayan’s were wrong about 2012.
“The expected increases in mobile Internet users, mobile data revenues and smartphone sales will produce an environment in which users will be hungry for content,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst.
This provokes a few thoughts for me.
Will mobile content owners make the same mistakes as web masters of old and putting subscription pay walls in front of everything? The Internet started (and is still perceived) as a free service for anyone wanting to share and find information. Businesses struggled with this concept of free for many years as many saw it for its revenue potential. Many businesses saw a quick demise by putting up subscription and pricing models that were out of wack with consumers’ view of value. Now you see smart organizations have developed new monetization models like by display ads, Google AdWords, sponsoship, contests and ecommerce to provide what consumers want and at the same time make money.
Will I be inclined to buy mobile content when I know I can get it online for free? In the early days (maybe still going on) content owners had an ego-centric view of what they produced as content and attached a monetary value to it. Then wrap it up in a subscription package thinking consumers shared the same perception. To their disappointment and sad sales reports they discovered otherwise. A monetization model must take lead from what users perceive as value. If it doesn’t users are not likely going to pay for it. I will be interested to see how many of today’s subscription based mobile apps actually make money. For 99 cents my expectation of user value is pretty low.
Designing display ads creates new challenges for content owners and marketers. For years information architects and usability specialists were challenged with incorporating banners and sponsorships into design without impeding on user experience. With the expansion of the monitor resolution we’ve gained much needed real estate to make room for creative advertising and still allow the user to get what they came for. With mobile devices we’ve gone the other way and brought back those same challenges. How do you effectively manage banners and external links without degrading the usability of your content? In most examples I’ve seen the banners are incredibly small or hidden from view diminishing their value to the advertiser. I would love to see examples of ROI on mobile ads. I can’t imagine they are much better than online. I could see over time smart phones screen resolutions, readability and accessibility must evolve to make a good go at making real dollars.
I think as the need to make money via mobile content and applications become more relevant, real innovation in monetization and design will need to occur. But in the meantime we are quickly seduced by the potential it has as we did many years ago with the birth of Ecommerce and have applied the same old tactics.
