Optus Mobile & “3” Content Managers do AIMIA Q&A on their Australian markets.
December 15, 2005
I attended the monthly AIMIA Mobile Content Industry Development Group meeting on Tuesday and both Optus Mobile & Hutchison 3G Australia "3" were represented by their heads of content to talk about what is going on with their content strategies.
Overall it looks like the carriers are finding it pretty tough. There was definitely a sense of a "softly softly" approach by both representatives.
The outstanding piece of news is that Optus is releasing a Push content client for their 3G devices. The demo of the product was very impressive. Although the application is in it’s early stages, Australian developer Bullant & Oliver Weidlich of Ideal Interfaces should be highly commended on their work.
Hutchison 3G Australia – Scott Taylor – General Manager Content
- 2006 strategies
- Drive a “usage strategy” – get existing users to use the content & 3G services more
- More marketing rather than adding more products
- Still have “gaps” to fill for mobile content (eg: content for women)
- Will have to start retiring some content so content protal does not become over crowded. (Curertnly have a problem where some customers can’t find things due to too much content)
- 2 main content types are
- MobileTV
- Music (23 000 tracks for download)
- Current 3G technology is not conducive to delivery of MobileTV (very bandwidth intensive). At this stage technologies such as DVB-H are the way forward to deliver
- Currently DRM is a limiting factor in customer experience in delivering multimedia content to users. As DRM standards update then so will the user experience
Optus Mobile – Mark Mulder – Head of Content & Portals
- 2006 Strategies
- Need to address usage of 3rd party content – marketing and portal placement
- Doesn’t see anything innovative or new coming in the next 12 to 18 months.
- Hopes for IM, LBS & content mix products
- Currently have 1.2M mobile users
- Implementing a converged
- Recently revamped their “Zoo Portal”
- Released a new 3G push content user application
- Referred to as the “Relevance Client” by Mulder, it is called “MyZooNow”
- Demo here of it http://www1.optusnet.com.au/offers/3g/?tas=oca
- Can be personalised, presence aware, unified messaging, location services
- Developed by Australian software development house called BullAnt
- Both Symbian Series 60 & Java versions for 3G devices
- Working on a converged integrated music channel (mobile & cable broadband)
- Ability to download a music track and use it on both the mobile device and the PC.
- Using MSN IM service to mobile devices (this is incorporated in the MyZooNow client)
- LBS applications to be launched next year with external partners doing the applications
Q&A Session
Q: What are the carriers doing with advertisement in content delivery?
3: Italy & UK currently are doing this. Currently looking at this but very concerned on effect of the users
O: no plans
3: Italy & UK currently are doing this. Currently looking at this but very concerned on effect of the users
O: no plans
Q: What content do the carriers need?
3: Currently suffering from “Having too much skin” in content. Really need to look at more content for women. Have gaps in “functional content” versus entertainment content.
O: Majority of content is now from local 3rd parties. Plans in place to address its relevance to current customer base
3: Currently suffering from “Having too much skin” in content. Really need to look at more content for women. Have gaps in “functional content” versus entertainment content.
O: Majority of content is now from local 3rd parties. Plans in place to address its relevance to current customer base
Q: How much interest is there in user generated content?
3: Kink community is in this genre. In 2 months it has had 36K SMS/MMS, 450K comments & 1.3M votes. There is also an adult version of the product now
3: Kink community is in this genre. In 2 months it has had 36K SMS/MMS, 450K comments & 1.3M votes. There is also an adult version of the product now
Q: What are the carrier’s plans for Data Revenue sharing?
3: No plans
O: No plans
3: No plans
O: No plans
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