Next Generation Wireless Applications: Creating Mobile Applications in a Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 World, 2nd Edition

15.9 MONETISATION

Having discussed the costs above, what about the revenue opportunities? Clearly, media companies have content that can be sold to users. There is an initial cost of mobilizing the content, but as we have hopefully explored above, the opportunities for accessing a large user base in a variety of interesting ways, including innovative new services bodes well for a potentially very lucrative revenue stream. Also, not only is there an opportunity for direct revenue from mobile services but also the indirect revenue facilitate by mobile access to bundled services, such as an online gaming community that has a mobile element.

15.9.1 Subscription Models

In terms of monetising the services, then the content provider can choose from a number of possibilities:

• Pay per item of content (‘pay per bite’)
• Pay for time-based access to a set of content that is kept (‘subscription’)
• Pay for bundled services (‘Bundling’)
• Pay for time-based access to a set of content that is borrowed (‘rental’)

To implement any of these subscription models, some server logic is required to keep track of users, their subscriptions and to request payment from the appropriate payment mechanism, no matter how this is done (e.g. via a billing platform). In a converged services environment, some of the bundling mechanisms can get complicated very quickly and may necessitate a single platform to handle subscriptions across all services. This is where service delivery platforms (SDP) can be helpful.