Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 26, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Last year, mobile services developed into a billion-euro market. According to a report by specialist service Xonio, the ranking of data revenues in 2006 was clearly led by Japan with 20 billion dollars, ahead of the USA (15.8 billion) and China (9.2 billion). In Germany, data revenue rose by almost 50 percent to already 700 million euros. Experts therefore assume that between five and 14 percent of German mobile-phone users regularly access the mobile Internet. Whether Mobile TV or the Web, gaming or music offerings, mobile services are finding more and more users. With a forecast market value of 116 billion euros by 2011, the rapidly growing market for mobile content and services will increasingly shape the overall development of the mobile communications industry.
According to research results from analyst firm M:Metrics, so-called Social Communities are becoming one of the most important drivers of the mobile Internet. According to this, 12.3 million users had access to Web 2.0 offerings on the mobile Web. Both private and business interests would be addressed and networked with one another on these platforms. In Austria alone, where the 2008 European Football Championship is being anticipated with similar euphoria to that with which Germans looked forward to 2006, the market for mobile solutions will grow by 23 percent annually to more than three billion euros in the coming years, according to market analyses by IDC. For providers and service providers of mobile content, it became apparent at the Munich Mobile Content Days, among other places, that they have to face new challenges constantly. Ever-new services, changing business models and customer wishes as well as competitive pressure force rapid implementation of requirements and continuous innovations, including in the fields of customer management, service billing and payment processing.
For Christian Kühl, the Management Board member responsible for sales at Düsseldorf-based acoreus AG, “Service and billing methods should adapt quickly and flexibly to the requirements of services and customers.” Mobile media services would currently be billed primarily via the mobile-phone bill. Alternatives would also become established in the mobile market as business developed, according to the board member of the billing specialist. In some cases, services of very low value would have to be billed. “Needs-based billing should be understood as an opportunity to achieve powerful differentiation. As an integrated component of service operations, it contributes to customer loyalty and helps determine business success,” says Kühl.
