The future of mobile will be determined by who wins the mobile messaging market today and that battle will play out in the youth market. 1) It’s all about messaging, everything else is a sideshow 2) Move from being a creator to curator: the messaging landscape has shifted 3) Driving the upsell: The landgrab for free customer touchpoints Download PDFs like this from http://www.mobileyouth.org

1. Mobile Messaging Trends Research for
Operators
The future of mobile will be determined by who wins the mobile messaging
market today and that battle will play out in the youth market.
We previously analyzed the 15 brands that will define the mobile market in
2013. Now, we’ll look at how some of those key players will shape mobile
through their messaging agendas.
1) It’s all about messaging,everything else is a sideshow
After messaging everything else is a sideshow.
Facebook has bet its turnaround on the strength of its Home messaging
platform for android. Google is in rumored talks to acquire popular messaging
service WhatsApp for $1bn. The high prices paid today for messaging may
appear excessive but this isn’t just about another technology, this is about
control. Securing messaging tomorrow guarantees the mobile market
Find more insights on youth, messaging and the mobile industry:http://www.mobileyouth.org

2. tomorrow. Facebook, Google and Apple are all actively developing their own
messaging solutions to enable a place at the top table of the mobile industry.
A brief overview of messaging:
* The most popular mobile app
* The default mobile interaction
* The universal common denominator in mobile
* The preferred mode of communication for young people
* Revenues driven by teen mobile owners
(source Youth and Mobile Messaging Report)
2) Move from being a creator to curator: the messaging landscape has shifted
The messaging landscape is fragmented. No longer is SMS the only
messaging app. From 2011 to 2016, SMS is predicted to grow by 37%, while
IP-based messaging will grow 686% (source Smith’s Points Analytics).
Growth comes from multiple non-SMS apps with negligible startup costs for
the user. Rather than operate a single messaging app, users are apt to
download and try multiple apps.
The move by mobile operators to produce their own solutions may prove
fatal. Not only are they competing with well financed entrants like Google,
Apple and Facebook, they are also competing with the complete cognitive
surplus of the world’s creativity. Any teenager in his background can produce
a messaging app and there are as many potential producers as there are
users.
The competitive landscape of mobile value added services has shifted. Now
the focus needs to be on curation rather than creation. If providers can’t
compete with the resources of Google and Facebook they need to be
curating what’s available by providing a better platform or data tariff to enable
these messaging apps to grow.
3) Driving the upsell: The landgrab for free customer touchpoints
Find more insights on youth, messaging and the mobile industry:http://www.mobileyouth.org

3. The revenue streams of the old business model have become commodities
(i.e. voice & data) sold in bundles, at flat rates or near zero pricing. New
market entrants bring new models and new growth in the form of the service
upsell. By providing the key services free (i.e. messaging), new entrants
create a touchpoint to upsell new products (e.g. established services like
advertising, apps and payments or the ‘long tail’ of mobile apps popular with
youth) while at the same time undercutting incumbents.
New entrants like Facebook and Google have a history of monetizing free -
e.g. social media and mail, so represent the biggest possible disruption to the
existing mobile landscape.
Facebook and Google’s strength lies in the quality and quantity of their
relationships with the youth market. The key relationship has moved from
billing to touchpoint. The company that owns the mobile phone screen is the
one that has the invitation to upsell. Google has focused on building its
presence in the youth market through education and co-creation. Facebook
has built on the successes of acquisitions like Instagram (see Teens:
Instagram’s growing vocal minority).
Not only do youth drive adoption of new technologies and smartphones (see
the Role of Smartphones in the Lives of Teenagers) but they are also the
most open to the upsell (e.g. mobile advertising etc). Facebook or Google are
the default for this generation, ingrained in the social constant and
representing verbs in their daily vernacular.
Messaging in 2015 will be a fragmented landscape controlled by a few
dominant players who have a history of strength in the youth market,
monetization of free and the economies of both scale and scope to make
things happen. Operators need to evolve from being competitive creators to
supportive curators who can facilitate these new entrants on a b2b basis.
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Find more insights on youth, messaging and the mobile industry:http://www.mobileyouth.org