LATAM Telecom

This week I attended the 2009 Latin America Mobile VAS Forum in Miami (June 8-10), with the participation of analysts, technology vendors and operators. The global economic downturn is, not suprisingly, on everyone's mind. This topic kept coming up repeatedly and the attendance to the event, about half of what we saw in previous years is also an indicator of the tough times we face. However, it was encouraging to interact with technology vendors and operators who remain optimistic about the future. In the next weeks I will add more posts about this meeting and the discussions I had both with operators and technology vendors. This week, I want to share my thoughts on a presentation by Marcelo Castelo of the Brazilian Agency F.biz. Marcelo's presentation, titled "The Mobile as a Mass Media Channel With Internet Characteristics: The Possibilities of the Mobile Marketing" focused on case studies in mobile marketing from Latin America. The case studies shared by Marcelo s...

"Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity." -H. Jackson Brown Jr.: Participants at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week got a chance to discuss new and exciting trends in mobile services like Location Based Services, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Advertising and Advanced Messaging services. However, the single topic that stole the show is the economic uncertainty that mobile operators and technology companies are facing. The keynote conference that opened the congress on Tuesday says it all: " Sustaining Growth in Challenging Times "(1). No one can argue that these are tough times but doing nothing seems to be the current modus operandi of the industry. My friend Mark Pendergast referred to me a great article by Professor John A. Quelch of Harvard " Marketing Your Way Through a Recession ". Published almost a year ago, it is even more relevant today: "In a recession, consumers become value oriented, distributors are concerned ab...

Sad In Blue (a lyric) by Peter S. Quinn Sad sad sad in blue For sad sad sad you The moon is all bluish tonight The night is all dark out side. So what does one wear to a recession? It doesn't really matter as long as you show up! This week technology vendors and operators meet at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and designers get to show their collections at Fashion Week in New York City. Both events might not seem to have much in common, but one topic is grabbing headlines at both: the economic downturn. At Fashion Week this year the events are less festive than usual; journalists and fashion bloggers are noticing: " Fashion Weak: Where has all the glamour gone? " (New York Post); " Fashionistas have turned into recessionistas " (USA Today). According to Christopher Muther of the Boston Globe , "there are fewer gift bags for fashion buyers and editors, and the steady stream of opulent parties has slowed to a trickle. Instead of pricey runway shows,...

"Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.” -Galileo Galilei The intersection of the mobile space and the Internet continues to be a challenge for mobile operators. Mobile advertising, for example, is getting a lot of attention in the mobile industry but it has yet to consolidate as a significant revenue generator (see Mobile Advertising - Learning to play by the rules ). Internet marketing and Web analytics have come a long way in the last five years, but there is still a long way to go in the mobile space. Interestingly, mobile operators are actually very good with metrics, when it comes to voice. They have precise indicators to evaluate network productivity, performance and utilization as well as detailed demographic and psychographic user data. However, when it comes to Web analytics, mobile operators have not even started exploring its potential. Even in the USA, operators lag behind other industries such as finance and retail. Other regions such as La...

Yesterday I attended a panel discussion titled "Mobile Advertising - Industry Revenue Enhancer or Distraction?" with key industry players (information below) who shared their experience and insight on the current status and potential of mobile advertising. The discussion centered around the fact that while mobile advertising is getting a lot of attention in the mobile industry it has not yet consolidated as a significant revenue generator across the value chain, for operators and advertisers. The fact that the panel was made up by vendors allowed us to get a clear picture of their perspective of the industry. Interestingly, the panel spent more time discussing a question from the audience regarding ROI and metrics than on anything else. Their input was valuable and insightful, however, it seems from the long explanations that this is an issue that is a long way from being resolved. Just like other new players before them, mobile advertising vendors talked about how the Inte...

John Delaney and Vincent Poulbere from Ovum bring to our attention how mobile advertising can help operators face their two biggest challenges: declining ARPUs and expanding their reach into media. An interesting initiative by GSMA announced at Barcelona was the creation of a Working Group to define common metrics and measurement processes for mobile advertising. Vodafone, Telefonica, T-Mobile, Orange and 3 are the five members of this group. Ovum mentions other activities at Barcelona that clearly show enthusiasm for bringing advertising into the mobile world such as round table discussions and initiatives by different vendors including Comverse Mobile Advertising Solution, Nokia's Media Network, Openwave's Contextual Advertising and Amdocs' mobile advertising solution. While we applaud their efforts, we should note that operators have still a lot of work ahead to catch up and bring the web to the mobile world. Internet advertising has come a long way but it remains unchar...