Last week I was at Pelorus conference (http://www.pelorus-group.com/). Several presenters presented their businesses and business models for 411 and local search.
Key takeaways from the show were
1. FREE/Advertising supported business models for 411 are gaining traction and market share
2. Its unclear if the overall DA market is growing because of Free DA services OR if the Free services are taking market share from paid-DA services.
3. Lots of companies presented how they do a better job at targeting and monetizing ads for dial in free DA services.
4. 800-FREE-411 showed their continued growth (now more than 20 million calls a month). The company's founder, Scott, shared cost per call and advertising $ made per call. Company expects to break even in the next 4-6 months. When they do, that would prove FREE DA services are real and are not going away. That also implies that carriers need to start thinking how to continue to monetize the 411 market for their customers.
5. Some of the carriers are saying: they dont care about free DA services, if those become a threat, they can essentially block the phone numbers Or application. Carriers are successfully blocking the applications BUT blocking phone numbers is not going to be easy, Some of you may be aware of the recent case involving FreeConference.com, where AT&T was blocking its numbers, they went to court and AT&T had to unblock the numbers.
We believe in a future where both paid and free services exist. Both will have different value propositions. Let’s see how this pans out.
Friday, April 27, 2007
India to give away free broadband
here something interesting for a Friday morning:
The Government of India is planning to introduce free 2 mbps broadband for all residents of the Indian subcontinent by 2009. The expected service shall be launched by the government owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL. Quoting from the article: 'The government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state-owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. While consumers would cheer, the move holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it.' The India Times has an extensive editorial on the decision. It must be mentioned that the Indian government and its autonomous regulatory bodies are very proactive in holding the consumer interests above the operators', managing to reduce the long distance and wireless tariffs by a up to factor of 20 in less than 7 years
The Government of India is planning to introduce free 2 mbps broadband for all residents of the Indian subcontinent by 2009. The expected service shall be launched by the government owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL. Quoting from the article: 'The government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state-owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. While consumers would cheer, the move holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it.' The India Times has an extensive editorial on the decision. It must be mentioned that the Indian government and its autonomous regulatory bodies are very proactive in holding the consumer interests above the operators', managing to reduce the long distance and wireless tariffs by a up to factor of 20 in less than 7 years
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Motorola's missteps
D's comment: Its Ed V/S Carl.
"As rival handset makers weigh in with results, it's clear the industry was affected by the No. 2 handset maker's decision to flood the market with its excess cheap phones. Rather than take advantage of Motorola's market-share loss, rivals instead held off on fears that their own products would get sucked into the inventory glut and suffer similar price deterioration.
The result: Mobile-phone shipments dropped below the 20% growth rate for the first time in two years. Still, experts believe the slowdown is more of a temporary blip."
More on WSJ.com.............
"As rival handset makers weigh in with results, it's clear the industry was affected by the No. 2 handset maker's decision to flood the market with its excess cheap phones. Rather than take advantage of Motorola's market-share loss, rivals instead held off on fears that their own products would get sucked into the inventory glut and suffer similar price deterioration.
The result: Mobile-phone shipments dropped below the 20% growth rate for the first time in two years. Still, experts believe the slowdown is more of a temporary blip."
More on WSJ.com.............
My first blog
I have been experimenting with blogging for a while and until yesterday was not motivated to spend the time on blogging.
what happened yesterday? [With a bit of background..]
Over the last couple of years I have come to be friends with Tom Taulli. Tom is an avid blogger and has written many books on business and investing. Here is a link to his books on Amazon:
Tom's books on Amazon.com
Tom sent me a note earlier in the week suggesting what V-Enable has been pioneering for last 6 years, is finally HOT and V-Enable should try new ways of PR to get increased awareness. I replied asking for Help. We followed up in a call joined by Craig (President/VE) and discussed various ways to do the what may be called Web2.0 awareness.
During our conversation, Tom (amongst other things) stressed on blogging and gave examples of companies that had successfully delivered on a corporate blogging strategy. I was sold and convinced VE (for V-Enable) could share its views on how the mutlimodal, voice search and 411 markets are evolving.
So: thanks Tom, here is the first blog :-)
I intend to update this blog often, focusing on wireless market, directory assistance, international directory assistance, mobile phone browsers, sometimes going deeper into challenges of the industry and will often times put experts from key articles on other news/tech sites. Feel free to email me with your suggestions.
-D (d@v-enable.com)
what happened yesterday? [With a bit of background..]
Over the last couple of years I have come to be friends with Tom Taulli. Tom is an avid blogger and has written many books on business and investing. Here is a link to his books on Amazon:
Tom's books on Amazon.com
Tom sent me a note earlier in the week suggesting what V-Enable has been pioneering for last 6 years, is finally HOT and V-Enable should try new ways of PR to get increased awareness. I replied asking for Help. We followed up in a call joined by Craig (President/VE) and discussed various ways to do the what may be called Web2.0 awareness.
During our conversation, Tom (amongst other things) stressed on blogging and gave examples of companies that had successfully delivered on a corporate blogging strategy. I was sold and convinced VE (for V-Enable) could share its views on how the mutlimodal, voice search and 411 markets are evolving.
So: thanks Tom, here is the first blog :-)
I intend to update this blog often, focusing on wireless market, directory assistance, international directory assistance, mobile phone browsers, sometimes going deeper into challenges of the industry and will often times put experts from key articles on other news/tech sites. Feel free to email me with your suggestions.
-D (d@v-enable.com)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
